MICHEL LEE GARRET'S BORN A RAMBLING MAN AND OTHER STORIES

Michel Lee Garrett has been chopping her way through the short fiction jungle with her two-fixted tales. She has appeared in many anthologies, usually acknowledged on the cover as "& Others". With this week's release of Born A Ramblin' Man and Other Stories, we get to focus solely on her work with many of those published stories s well as a a few new ones.

She starts with the title story, featuring the classic drifter who finds means of travel with an open big rig trailers he sneaks on to. Things get more complicated when the truck gets moving and he discovers a kidnapped woman is with him. Tight an suspenseful with humorous touches that bounces of the tension, it feels like a condensed version of John Dahle movie. The last line captures the protagonist at his core.

Two stories feature Vegas pickpocket Cera Dieben. "Never Take the First Offer" puts her call girl roomate and her in jeopardy when she lifts something bigger than a few bills. Lee finds another great last line, as she often does, to put a button on the story. "The Internship" begins with Cera zip tied to a chair in a casino basement. The author skillfully moves between past and present as we learn how she got into this situation and her attempt to get out.

Many of her leads are like Cera, career criminals whose life of crime drops him into the underworld. "Down To The Knuckle" tightens the screws to a snitch caught between the cop and thug who control him. "Real Magic" gives off post war programmer vibes, following a magician/con artist couple who take the wrong mark. The dialogue moves between MGM sparkle to RKO hardboiled. She does a wonderful job in these tales of keeping us guessing if their outlaw instincts with get them out of hot water or cause them to drown in it.

Garrett finds interesting places for whodunnits In "Railroad Blues" she builds tension in a boxer as a rail rider tries to find out which fellow traveller killed another without getting killed himself. "Wolf In Wolf's Clothing" serves up a murder at a furry convention. Expect puns.

The last story, which I'm assuming is her latest, "Inquire at Johnny's Diner", shows how her writing has grown. It introduces us to Ray Reynolds,a downsized reporter working as a private detective, when not slinging hash. His latest case quickly goes out of control with bikers, hidden mone, and, of course, a dame.Lee applies her humor and hard boiled style in a story that wraps up with heart. You can feel Garrett's voice bloom while reading it.

Michel Lee Garret hits a. lot of noir notes in Born a Ramblin' Man and Other Stories. "My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys" plays on Willie's song about a lovable loser who stumbles onto something that could get him out of his dead end life or just end it. There's a touch of Jim Thompson in "... And Satan Came with Them" with a serial killer man of the cloth. "Passing" is a poignant tale of a trans teen dumped on the street. While funny, harrowing, or just plain entertaining, she has a knack for for capturing her characters at their characters at the most dramatic moments and conveying it all with noir pleasure. If there's any justice this won't be the only time we'll see her full name on the front cover.