"Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Goodis Night" (An annual holiday tradition)

“Turn over, baby. You’re burning up," she cooed. “Let me do your front.”

 The fat red man purred. Then he opened his mouth and screamed. He awoke from the dream jammed down the chimney, flames licking at his back. From above, a shaft of weak, sooty light and murmured voices.

 “But, Rudy, what about—”

“Leave the fat guy. I’m out of here. Who’s with me?”

“I’m in,” a voice said.

“Dasher?”

“Yeah.”

"You on, Dancer? Prancer? Vixen? Comet? Good. Let’s go.”

 Back down in hell, the fat red man shut his eyes and heard them exclaim as they drove out of sight …

— Peter Rozovsky 

© Peter Rozovsky 2014

"Merry Christmas to All, and to All a Goodis Night"

By Peter Rozovsky

"Turn over, baby. You’re burning up," she cooed. "Let me do your front.”

The fat red man purred contentedly. Then he opened his mouth and screamed. He awoke from the dream jammed down the chimney, flames licking at his back. From above, a shaft of weak, sooty light and murmured voices.

“But, Rudy, what about—“

“Leave the fat guy. I’m out of here. Who’s with me?”

“I’m in,” a voice said.

“Dasher?”

“Yeah.”

"You on, Dancer? Prancer? Vixen? Comet? Good. Let’s go.”

Back down in hell, the fat red man shut his eyes and heard them exclaim as they drove out of sight …


© Peter Rozovsky 2014

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Your crime-fiction virtual Chinese restaurant

If your favorite bookshop or library is closed tomorrow, run out and buy Murder is No Mitzvah: Short Mysteries About Jewish Occasions today. The collection of stories originally published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine includes work by Max Allan Collins, Larry Beinart, Arthur Conan Doyle and others.

Happy holidays.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Merry Christmas!

(South 13th Street, Philadelphia, by your humble blogkeeper)

"`A fellow who'd worked for him accused him of stealing some kind of idea or invention from him. Rosewater was his name. He tried to shake Wynant down by threatening to shoot him, bomb his house, kidnap his children, cut his wife's throat — I don't know what all — if he didn't come across. We never caught him — must've scared him off. Anyway, the threats stopped and nothing happened.'

"Nora stopped drinking to ask: `Did Wynant really steal it?'

"`Tch, tch, tch,' I said. `This is Christmas Eve: try to think good of your fellow man.'"

— Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man

***

Put some noir in your Christmas at Do Some Damage.

© Peter Rozovsky 2010

Free crime for Christmas

If you're wracked by the recession or strapped by Christmas giving, here are four links that could keep you reading for a while and all for the right price: free.

They are Project Gutenberg's Crime Fiction, Mystery Fiction, Detective Fiction and Crime Nonfiction Bookshelves, and they offer free versions of classics to read or download by people like E.W. Hornung, creator of Raffles; Maurice Leblanc (Arsene Lupin), Poe, Dickens, John Buchan, E.C. Bentley, Ida B. Wells-Barnett, Mary Roberts Rinehart, G.K. Chesterton, Baroness Orczy (The Old Man In the Corner, The Scarlet Pimpernel), Joseph Conrad, Wilkie Collins, and many more, including some guy named Dostoyesvsky.

Season's greetings to all, and thanks to the good people at Project Gutenberg.

Now, it's your turn: What good no-cost gifts can you think of for the crime-fiction fan on your list?

© Peter Rozovsky 2009