The Slanted Gutter

S. Craig Zahler is the terrific independent screenwriter/director behind the brutal western, Bone Tomahawk (2015). He is also an accomplished genre novelist whose latest book is a violent crime novel titled The Slanted Gutter (2021).

Our protagonist is Darren Tasking, aka: Task. He’s a pimp in Great Crown, Florida - a fictional city Zahler created to be an amalgam of Miami, Tampa and Jacksonville. For a pimp, Task treats his prostitutes (“the butterflies”) surprising well, ensuring their security, childcare and a fair wage. He employs significant deception to lure them onto his staff, but after that, he’s a pretty good boss.

Zahler spends a lot of time world-building and getting the reader acclimated to the organized crime hierarchy and customs of Great Crown. The city is run by Russian mob consortiums to whom independent hoodlums like Task pay for the right to operate in the city. The consortiums compete for indie talent and provide some level of protection and support.

Task’s prostitution ring is pretty fascinating as well - operating out of small whorehouse and gambling lounges in converted apartments with architectural security designed to protect the workers and customers from corrupt police raids.

The underworld vernacular everyone uses is a great element of the novel. I won’t spoil it all here, but Zahler’s use of slang and language makes the novel poetic and a pleasure to read.

The plot takes awhile to get off the ground but centers around a new prostitute in Task’s stable named Erin. Her recruitment by Task is diabolically clever and Task’s infatuation with the girl is riddled with complications. Beyond that, the twists and turns were amazing and shouldn’t be ruined in a book review.

You should be aware that this is a graphically-violent novel. Please take this warning seriously because you’re going to read scenes in this paperback that will stick with you forever. It’s a great, great crime novel in the spirit of a classic Fawcett Gold Medal paperback filtered through a blood-soaked gauzy filter of depravity. This is the crime fiction equivalent of an extreme horror novel.

But even with the shocking violence (or maybe because of it), The Slanted Gutter is one of the best modern crime novels I can recall reading. I audibly gasped several times while reading it, and the plot twists and literary fake-outs were so satisfying. Highest recommendation (for the right reader). Get it HERE.

A Congregation of Jackals

S. Craig Zahler is a novelist, filmmaker, and voracious consumer of old pulp fiction. While watching his movies Bone Tomahawk, Brawl in Cell Block 99, and Dragged Across Concrete, his literary influences are crystal clear: Zahler is a Paperback Warrior kind of guy. As such, it’s only fitting that I divert from vintage fiction for a day to review his 2010 gritty western, A Congregation of Jackals.

The year is 1888, and Virginia brothers Oswell and Godfrey both receive telegrams inviting them to the wedding of James Lingham in Montana. The invitation causes the bothers much consternation because they haven’t heard from Lingham in decades. Moreover, the invitation ominously references that “all old acquaintances” will be there.

The author slow-deals the revelations and reasons why the invitation sparks worries in the invitees, but the gist is that they were once part of a group of outlaws years ago that included the groom. Things went nightmarishly wrong for the gang, and vengeance was sworn by a terrifying adversary. Everyone went their separate ways hoping to put their pasts behind them, and then the vexing invitation to a wedding arrives. The fear is that failing to travel to Montana for a reckoning might bring trouble to the no-shows and harm to their respective families.

One of the other invitees - also an alumnus of the long-disbanded outlaw gang - is a Manhattan playboy named Dicky. He’s smart, charming and funny - by far the most charismatic and relatable character in the paperback. Dicky joins the brothers on their journey westward via train and stagecoach to a wedding they’re all pretty certain will be a total bloodbath. Of course, the reader is counting on that being true, and the Montana scenes definitely don’t disappoint.

A Congregation of Jackals is a well-written and engaging paperback and the pages turn quickly thanks to the cinematic quality of the set-pieces the author creates. Mahler’s novel is also periodically violent and shocking with scenes of brutality rivaling the darkest moments of the Edge series by George Gilman with the sheen of a literature written with time and care. Admittedly, there’s a lot of build-up to the final confrontation, and some readers may find it slow at times. However, stick with it because the extended climax is really something special.

Nothing about this strong recommendation should come as no surprise to fans of Zahler’s films, and if you liked Bone Tomahawk - or the westerns of Quentin Tarantino - you’re going to enjoy the heck out of A Congregation of Jackals. 

Buy a copy of this book HERE

Paperback Warrior - Episode 56

You don’t want to miss Episode 56 of the Paperback Warrior Podcast. We tackle the career and work of Charles Williams. Also discussed: Vechel Howard, Howard Rigsby, Gil Brewer's Sin for Me, and a discussion of the films and fiction of S. Craig Zahler. Listen on your favorite podcast app, at paperbackwarrior.com or download directly HERE. Listen to "Episode 56: Charles Williams" on Spreaker.