Tina and the Big Bad Wolf and Other Stories (Journeys Down a Long Dark Road, Book 2) by Jason Ryan Dale

Release date: October 20, 2018

Subgenre: Crime fiction collection

About Tina and the Big Bad Wolf and Other Stories:

 

Just past the Philadelphia city limits there are a cluster of neighborhoods no one on the outside pays much attention to. It's a nice place to live, with ballfields and takeout joints around every corner. The people who've raised their families for generations in the rowhomes and brick houses teach their kids to work hard and keep out of trouble.

But some people aren't interested in staying out of trouble. There are fortunes to be made in the backstreets and shady barrooms, if you can stay alive long enough to get your hands on it. Here are four stories about the restless souls who have struck out from the safe path and traveled down a long, dark road.

The Devil's Run

 Gaetan was one of the kids that neighborhood parents warned their children to stay away from. He and his friends hung out in the woods by the little creek that cut through town, the one they called the Devil's Run. Away from prying eyes, they had the fun that only bad boys can know.

But Gaetan isn't a kid anymore. He's a veteran of a hundred shady deals, a gangster with skills you only learn from years on the streets. He should be off somewhere enjoying his easy money, but instead he's back in the old neighborhood. Of all the dark secrets in Gaetan's past, the one that may destroy him is the one that began when four friends went into the woods for some fun.

The Dead Pond

 Sunshine Sam's was the hottest joint on the Jersey Shore. The rich and powerful partied side by side with bus drivers and soda jerks, all of them moving to the outlaw music called “rock and roll.” To Marty, a poor kid from a farm town, Sunshine Sam's was more than just a playground. It was the only school he would ever need.

Then one day, Sunshine Sam's closed it's doors. Nobody knew why.

Fifty years later, Marty has returned to the Jersey Shore. Now an old man, he is the only one left who knows the secrets of Sunshine Sam's. The spilled blood and broken dreams follow him around like ghosts. Gorgeous women. Jealous boyfriends. Mafia bosses. The skinny kid survived them all, and today is the day Marty tells the story. (This story was originally published as a standalone.)

Tina and the Big Bad Wolf

 Tina is a good stripper, but she has plans. Taking sports bets off her regulars seemed like the perfect way to make some real money. Of course, a petite young woman in a g-string just isn't intimidating enough to make the troublesome customers cough up the cash, so Tina gets her ex-boyfriend, Joshua, to help her out. In one night, the two of them will try to collect on Tina's debts without driving one another crazy. (This story was originally published as a standalone.)

The Tarleton Way

 Alexander has noticed strange things occurring in the park near his house. Odd people are going in and out of the woods at all hours, driving big trucks and acting in ways Alexander doesn't understand. That park is the scene of his favorite memories, when his young family had their happiest days. It is also, Alexander hopes, a gift to the future of Tarleton, his struggling hometown.

Things get stranger when Alexander gets a knock on the door from Bobby, a kid from the neighborhood who has returned from an absence of almost thirty years. Now a grown man, Bobby assures Alexander that everything is fine. It's all being done “the Tarleton way,” under the code of conduct which Alexander and the old folks taught the kids when they were young.

But Alexander is right to worry. In fact, the old man is about to learn that the park, and the past, contain more than he could ever guess. (This story was originally published on the author's website.)

 

Excerpt:

 

            “It’s a dead body, isn’t it?”

            Gobs of mud sloshed off Gaetan’s shovel as he turned to the young man. “You know better than to ask those questions!” The warning might have had some edge to it if not for the slurry of cold muck that fell on Gaetan’s shoes as he spoke. “Fuck!”

            The big man scrambled for the edge of the hole, fumbling with the laces of his boot. The mud was already soaking down to his socks. They had only dug waist-deep, or else Gaetan’s meaty frame would have been trapped. “Help me, Chuck!”

            The young man pulled him up and steadied him by the shoulder while he lifted his leg and removed the boot.

            “Just give me a ‘yes’ or ‘no,’” Chuck said. “I actually prefer a dead body. There’s some other things I could name that get you put away just for possessing them. I can come up with a story for the cops if it’s a corpse.”

            “Oh yeah?” Gaetan huffed. “‘Officer, I was just out practicing my digging when five feet down, I found some guy.’”

            “So you admit it’s a body.”

            “You disappoint me, kid.” Gaetan shook his shaven head sadly. As big as he was, his skull was larger than his proportions, so as it moved, it resembled a bowling ball careening towards a lopsided spare. Any movement Gaetan made with his head counted as a grand gesture. “You been in this life for a while now. You should know how this works.”

            “You want to play Godfather with me, Gate’n?” Chuck said with a twinkle in his eye. “How about this? You’re not a made guy. You’re not part of a crew. I’ve got friends who are bigger than you. That means I don’t owe you anything.”

            “Maybe so,” Gaetan swatted the last of the mud from his boot, “but I got friends too. My friends are bigger than your friends, and I’ve been making them money for thirty years now. I’m doing you a favor by bringing you out on this job.”

            “How about I pass on your favor?” said Chuck. “How about I leave you here alone with the hole half-dug. Oh! And you’d have to fill it in again. I doubt you want to leave it for the next guy walking his dog to see.”

            Gaetan pulled off his sock and wrung out as much water as he could, taking in his surroundings. All around, the ground sloped upwards in a tangle of bushes and tree branches. The canopy prevented most of the lights from the houses at the top of the hill from reaching them. They were in the center of a scar in the Earth, cut by a patient little stream of water that sung triumphantly a few feet away. People called it the Park, but even that was a grandiose name. It was forgotten ground.

            Chuck was not wrong. In the morning, just a few hours off, runners, kids on the way to school, and dog walkers would be all over the twisting path by the creek.

 

Amazon

 

About Jason Ryan Dale:

 

Jason Ryan Dale is a writer of character-driven crime stories living on the East Coast of the United States.

Dale on why crime fiction;

“There is a paradox in every crime, and therefore in every crime story. Stealing, murdering, and running a con job are all acts of betrayal. Yet, to do them well requires a small group of people who are loyal to each other. It is a beguiling contradiction that can play out in an infinite number of ways.”

Dale describes his influences, who are an eclectic mix;

“John le Carre is my favorite author.  His plots are always exciting, yet his character development is always strong.  Elmore Leonard I admire for his humor and his sense for life's absurdity.  His characters are always trying to bring their lives in order and only succeed in increasing the chaos, which I love.  Robert E Howard uses the English language in ways nobody else does.  Larry McMurtry is the best at capturing people's psychology.  I feel like I know his characters so well I could carry on a conversation with any of them. Joseph Conrad is the writer I most revere, though I admit he gives me a headache sometimes.”

 

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