Review: Four Powerful Crime Short Stories
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 26, 2013
Holy Hell - Crime Short Stories by L. J. Martin contains the powerful nuclei of four forthcoming novels. Each employs religion as a point of departure and each stands powerfully on its own as a short story.In the first tale, a bail bondsman, secreting his palm-size .22 magnum revolver in a bible,  costumes himself as a Catholic priest to infiltrate a heavily guarded Mafioso mansion to claim his bail jumper.The second story revolves around Chief Justice Arlan Brownwell, the country's leading proponent of the right to privacy. Since he is the deciding vote in a forthcoming Supreme Court decision, a contingency of mentally skewed Rights to Life radicals execute his demise in the name of God, leaving a cosmetically altered "judge" in his stead to vote in their favor.The third story sees a Shylock stranded with a flat tire in the desert. While he is awaiting the tow truck from one of his 20K "customers," he is filled with the wonder of God's creation and contemplates his own life which may be close to the finish.The fourth sketch is less of a completed story, but more of an introduction to a fascinating novel that revolves around the ambitious power- and money-hungry leader of tightly held religious cult and the remains of a young woman cult member who has been torn to shreds by a grizzly bear.Way up to Martin's standards, both the book of short stories and the promise of four intense novels have this reader awaiting more. Highly recommended.