"Carlos McDaniel was skimming duckweed when the two men came and shot him full of holes..."
Thus begins the cold headlong plunge into the darker side of an otherwise sunny and sizzling Texas backdrop in "Duckweed", the short noir/crime fiction of up-and-coming Austin, Texas author George Wier (The Last Call and Capitol Offense of the Bill Travis Mystery series). Ensues the headlong plunge of ex-con Charles Lyman into the unanswered question of who came gunning for Carlos, and why. Add in a Sheriff's deputy trying to do his duty despite local politics, and mix in two Brooklyn hoodlums and girl who can't keep her hands to herself, and you've got a recipe for trouble brewing.
REVIEWS FOR LONE STAR NOIR (which contains "Duckweed")
"Sure to be of regional interest and to appeal to fans of noir or 'dark' fiction, this spicy black brew of sinister thrills is not for the squeamish or the easily offended."
--Library Journal
"Unsettling and shivery."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Crime, like politics, is local. The folks at Akashic Books understand this. [... ] "Lone Star Noir" is a solid collection. Heck, it better be -- the state's red clay looks like dried blood. Noir grows out of the ground here."
--Austin American-Statesman
"What makes Texas noir different from any other noir? Is it just that the gumshoes wear cowboy boots? [...] Akashic Books finally turns its attention to the biggest state in the Lower 48, but all that land just means more places to bury the bodies. As father-son editing partnership Bobby and Johnny Byrd observe in their introduction, this isn't J.R. Ewing's Lone Star State. This is the Texas of chicken shit bingo, Enron scamsters, and a feeling that what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico. [... ] So what defines Texas noir? Who knows, but you better pray that blood doesn't stain your belt buckle."
--Austin Chronicle
Genre: Mystery
Thus begins the cold headlong plunge into the darker side of an otherwise sunny and sizzling Texas backdrop in "Duckweed", the short noir/crime fiction of up-and-coming Austin, Texas author George Wier (The Last Call and Capitol Offense of the Bill Travis Mystery series). Ensues the headlong plunge of ex-con Charles Lyman into the unanswered question of who came gunning for Carlos, and why. Add in a Sheriff's deputy trying to do his duty despite local politics, and mix in two Brooklyn hoodlums and girl who can't keep her hands to herself, and you've got a recipe for trouble brewing.
REVIEWS FOR LONE STAR NOIR (which contains "Duckweed")
"Sure to be of regional interest and to appeal to fans of noir or 'dark' fiction, this spicy black brew of sinister thrills is not for the squeamish or the easily offended."
--Library Journal
"Unsettling and shivery."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Crime, like politics, is local. The folks at Akashic Books understand this. [... ] "Lone Star Noir" is a solid collection. Heck, it better be -- the state's red clay looks like dried blood. Noir grows out of the ground here."
--Austin American-Statesman
"What makes Texas noir different from any other noir? Is it just that the gumshoes wear cowboy boots? [...] Akashic Books finally turns its attention to the biggest state in the Lower 48, but all that land just means more places to bury the bodies. As father-son editing partnership Bobby and Johnny Byrd observe in their introduction, this isn't J.R. Ewing's Lone Star State. This is the Texas of chicken shit bingo, Enron scamsters, and a feeling that what happens in Mexico stays in Mexico. [... ] So what defines Texas noir? Who knows, but you better pray that blood doesn't stain your belt buckle."
--Austin Chronicle
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for George Wier's Duckweed