As Meatloaf sang in one of his songs "two out of three ain't bad". First of all let me say that Daniel Woodrell is currently one of my favorite writers. His characters are rough and tough and have no qualms about beating someone up or simply killing them. The three stories revolve around detective Rene Shade. The first two are the best, being tough crime dramas. The third is mainly about his long estranged father coming back home and the chaos that causes. It was not as interesting as the first two but was still good. It is the writing that is the outstanding feature of this book! If you like murder, sex, drugs and lots of drinking this book may be just for you.