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A review by storyman
Always the Dead by Stephen J. Golds
5.0
Stephen J. Golds' Always the Dead has a touch of Lehane in its prose and James Ellroy in its setting. Set in post WW2, the book follows Scott Kelly's mental swings from obsession with a woman he can't quite grasp, to recollections of the Pacific War's knee-deep bloodiness which formed his character.
Golds has a way of painting a picture to suck you right into his world, a world you'll want to escape, but can't quite pull yourself from because the writing is so good.
This is dark stuff. The men and women are all flawed, lost, brutal, and you would side-eye them in a bar and sidle away in hope they wouldn't talk to you. But in this novel, you'll watch them through a pin-hole, googly-eyed at the rocks they crash themselves on.
Great stuff.
Golds has a way of painting a picture to suck you right into his world, a world you'll want to escape, but can't quite pull yourself from because the writing is so good.
This is dark stuff. The men and women are all flawed, lost, brutal, and you would side-eye them in a bar and sidle away in hope they wouldn't talk to you. But in this novel, you'll watch them through a pin-hole, googly-eyed at the rocks they crash themselves on.
Great stuff.