8 Tales of Noir audiobook by J. David Core
Release date: March 27, 2020
Subgenre: Noir, Short fiction collection
About 8 Tales of Noir:
8 Tales of Noir is just what the title would lead you to expect, eight
stories about the darker side of the human condition. Six short
stories lead in to two novella length tales.
•Two desperate men at a standoff on a residential inner-city street...
•A high school prank with unexpected - and deadly - results...
•When you grab the wife of a small-time construction company owner for ransom, make sure he's not from the family...or smarter than you...
•A man intent on collecting a debt…
•A heist gone wrong…
•A prodigal son whose sins follow him home...
•A moment of reckless anger puts a sad-sack on the wrong side of the law and leads to an unexpected comradeship with the forlorn bounty hunter sent to bring him in.
•Finally, a high school dean, a construction worker, and an off-duty cop head out for a night on the prowl. When each agrees to seek out and introduce another of the trio to his ideal woman, only the annoying fly that keeps buzzing the table is privy to all the behind-the-scenes goings on in this quirky black comedy.
A portion of the proceeds will benefit Team Mojo, offering free music lessons to underprivileged kids.
Excerpt:
Audio Sample
If you asked a thousand men to tell you how they thought they’d
react to a phone call demanding ransom for their wives, you’d get a
variety of wild guesses which – if you then kidnapped their wives
and called demanding ransom – would be nothing like the reaction
you’d actually see. Three days ago, if you asked me how I’d react
if some thick tongued weasel called my cell to tell me he wanted
$100,000 or I’d never see my wife again, I’d have probably said I’d
follow his instructions to the letter and hope for the best. Or I
might have said I’d call his bluff and promise to kill him if any
harm came to my Natalie. To be honest, I’m not sure which I’d have
said. Maybe I’d have said either on every other day depending on my
mood. I’m almost positive I wouldn’t have answered with what I
actually did.
I was in my truck on my way to the high-rise my construction
company was building when a blocked number began blowing up my
cell. I reached forward and pressed the answer button on my dash
mounted phone. “Hello?” I said. “Tobias Construction.”
“Call your wife’s cell phone,” a strange male voice said in a
working class accent tripping on the blending S at the end of
wife’s and the C which began cell.
“Who is this?” I demanded, but the call ended with a chirp.
I took the phone off the holder and punched through the menu ’til I
found Natalie’s entry. The phone rang once and then I heard it
answer on the other end, but nobody spoke. “Natalie?” I finally
said after a moment passed with no greeting.
“Hello, Mr. Tobias,” said the same voice I’d just heard.
“Who is this?”
“This is the man you’re going to pay $100,000 to if you ever hope
to see your wife alive again.” I don’t know how much time passed
before he spoke again. I pulled the car to the side of the road …
tried to make sense of what was happening. “Do we understand one
another?”
“Don’t hurt her,” I said.
“Turn around and drive home,” he said. “Don’t call the police or
for that matter anybody else. We need for you to understand the
gravity of the situation. Do you understand? We need for you to
know that we’re serious and that if you make one mistake your wife
will not make it out of this alive. Go home and wait for our next
call.” The connection broke again, and I sat there with an
uncompleted word that began an uncompleted thought still on my
lips. A second later I came to my senses, and I cranked my wheel to
the left and crossed traffic, jumped a berm, and headed back the
way I’d come.AudioFreebies Giveaway
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About J. David Core:
With a profound interest in religion, liberal politics and humor,
Dave began writing in High School and has not given up on it since. His
first professional writing jobs came while attending the Art Institute
of Pittsburgh when he was hired to create political cartoons for the
Pitt News & to write humor pieces for Smile Magazine.
Dave has worked in the newspaper industry as a photographer, in the online publishing industry as a weekly contributor to Streetmail.com, and was a contributing writer to the Buzz On series of informational books and to the Western online anthology, Elbow Creek. Dave’s science fiction novel, Synthetic Blood and Mixed Emotions, is available from writewordsinc.com. Dave currently resides in his childhood home in Toronto, OH with his beautiful girlfriend and his teenage daughter.
He enjoys participating in local community events & visiting with his two adult children and his grandkids.
Dave has worked in the newspaper industry as a photographer, in the online publishing industry as a weekly contributor to Streetmail.com, and was a contributing writer to the Buzz On series of informational books and to the Western online anthology, Elbow Creek. Dave’s science fiction novel, Synthetic Blood and Mixed Emotions, is available from writewordsinc.com. Dave currently resides in his childhood home in Toronto, OH with his beautiful girlfriend and his teenage daughter.
He enjoys participating in local community events & visiting with his two adult children and his grandkids.
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