Crimes in Southern Indiana: Stories [Paperback]

Frank Bill (Author)

Book Description

Release date: August 30, 2011

A ferocious debut that puts Frank Bill’s southern Indiana on the literary map next to Cormac McCarthy’s eastern Tennessee and Daniel Woodrell’s Missouri Ozarks

Crimes in Southern Indiana is the most blistering, vivid, flat-out fearless debut to plow into American literature in recent years. Frank Bill delivers what is both a wake-up call and a gut punch. Welcome to heartland America circa right about now, when the union jobs and family farms that kept the white on the picket fences have given way to meth labs, backwoods gunrunners, and bare-knuckle brawling.

Bill’s people are pressed to the brink—and beyond. There is Scoot McCutchen, whose beloved wife falls terminally ill, leaving him with nothing to live for—which doesn’t quite explain why he brutally murders her and her doctor and flees, or why, after years of running, he decides to turn himself in. In the title story, a man who has devolved from breeding hounds for hunting to training them for dog-fighting crosses paths with a Salvadoran gangbanger tasked with taking over the rural drug trade, but who mostly wants to grow old in peace. As Crimes in Sourthern Indiana unfolds, we witness the unspeakable, yet are compelled to find sympathy for the depraved.

Bill’s southern Indiana is haunted with the deep, authentic sense of place that recalls the best of Southern fiction, but the interconnected stories bristle with the urban energy of a Chuck Palahniuk or a latter-day Nelson Algren and rush with the slam-bang plotting of pulp-noir crime writing à la Jim Thompson. Bill’s prose is gritty yet literary, shocking, and impossible to put down. A dark evocation of the survivalist spirit of the working class, this is a brilliant debut by an important new voice.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Bill's ever violent and never dull stories [are] a blend of Midwest Gothic and country pulp . . . [They’re] over the top, but in a good way, in the way that Quentin Tarantino's first film, Reservoir Dogs, was over the top. Bill never cheats on the smells and sounds of carnage. He doesn't spare the kids and the dogs. But he mixes in a dash of dark humor ("The Accident" being the best example), an occasional nod to love and sentiment ("The Penance of Scoot McCutchen"), and he's adept at holding back, offering reward with a fine twist at story's end . . . [T]his book delivers.” —The Seattle Times

“The hard- scrabble realism of these 17 stories will bring to mind the Ozark writer Daniel Woodrell and shades of Cormac McCarthy and Dorothy Allison—offering a view of American lives and mores that may as well be from a different planet . . . Rural idyll this is not—but it is as riveting as anything you may read in the near term.” —The Daily Beast (Best Debuts of the Fall list)

“Flowing like awful mud and written in pulpy style, these stories paint a grisly portrait of the author’s homeland. You might want to have your brass knuckles handy when reading.”  —Publishers Weekly

“This gritty, violent debut collection begins rather like pulp genre fiction then deepens into something much more significant and powerful. Set in a dilapidated, seedy, nightmare version of southern Indiana, complete with meth labs, dog-fighting rings, and all manner of substance abuse, the stories are connected by recurring characters. The collection opens with vignettes focused mainly on carnage. But as readers go deeper, the stories lengthen, with Bill turning his attention to psychology and character development and bringing the community to life in fascinating ways … Bill’s characters live in a fractured world where there are no good jobs, not much respect for life, and not much hope. It’s a bleak, hard-boiled vision of America.” —Library Journal

“Good Lord, where in the hell did this guy come from? Blasts off like a frigging rocket ship and hits as hard as an ax handle to the side of the head after you’ve eaten a live rattlesnake for breakfast. One of the wildest damn rides you’re ever going to take inside a book.” —Donald Ray Pollock, author of Knockemstiff

“Frank Bill’s characters all seem to be hurtling at ninety miles an hour down dead end streets, and his recounting of their passage is vivid and unforgettable. Like Barry Hannah on amphetamines, but the voice is undeniably Bill’s own.”—William Gay, author of Provinces of Night

“What can I say about this book? This: planning a summer trip north from Mississippi, these stories caused me to reroute to avoid Southern Indiana. Mr. Bill knows his people well, and writes like they live—on the edge of the edge. Just plain unforgettable fiction.”
—Tom Franklin, author of Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter

“When you’re composing your hardbitten pantheon—Raymond Chandler, James M. Cain, Patricia Highsmith, Big Jim Thompson, Elmore Leonard—save room for Frank Bill, whose Crimes in Southern Indiana reminded me how thrilling and darkly vital crime fiction used to be and is again.”
—Kyle Minor, author of In the Devil’s Territory

“These stories form the ideal nexus between literary art and pulp fiction: beautifully crafted, compulsively readable, and as addictive as crystal meth.”
—Pinckney Benedict, author of Dogs of God and The Wrecking Yard

“Take the bark of a .45, the growl of a rusted-out muffler, and the banshee howl of a methhead on a three-day bender, and you approximate the voice of Frank Bill, a startlingly talented writer whose stories rise from the same dark lyrical well as those of Daniel Woodrell and Dorothy Allison.”
—Benjamin Percy, author of The Wilding and Refresh, Refresh

“How can I not love a writer whose work reminds me in a huge way of some of my favorite writers: Lansdale, Woodrell, Willeford, Thompson, and Faulkner? Crimes in Southern Indiana is a brutal, hilarious, honest, unforgettable book, and Frank Bill is the freshest new voice to emerge on the crime fiction scene in recent years.” —Jason Starr, author of The Pack

 

"Say you’re driving down a country road, midnight, a beer in your lap, and you corner into a two-car head-on collision that’s one of the most horrible things you’ve ever seen, so horrible that you’ve just gotta stop, and then, say, when you’ve gotten out and you’re poking around the body parts trying to figure out what’s what, you turn your head just right and catch the way the moonlight lays glittering over the twisted metal and bloodslick asphalt, and you’re struck breathless by the eerie beauty of it all.  That’s what Frank Bill’s writing is like. It’s that stark, that brutal, and just that beautiful."

—Benjamin Whitmer, author of Pike

“Frank Bill does to crime fiction what a rabid pit bull does to his favorite chew toy. You’ll need a neck brace after whipping through these wild, wonderful, whacked-out stories.” —Derek Nikitas, author of Pyres

"Crimes in Southern Indiana brings to light a major American writer of fiction, the prose equivalent of a performance by Warren Oates or a song by Merle Haggard or a photograph by Walker Evans. Tempting though it is to compare him to other writers, the fact is that five years hence every good new fiction writer to come into view will be compared to Frank Bill." —Scott Phillips, author of The Ice Harvest

“The first time I read a story by Frank Bill it was like watching a redneck opera in another language.  No idea what was going on, but I was dying to find out. I wanted more, more, more until I finally learned how to speak 'Frank Bill.' He is a completely original voice in the literary arena, and will take on any challengers with his bare hands. I'm continually in awe of the stories he tells and the insane way he tells them.” —Anthony Neil Smith, author of Yellow Medicine and Hogdoggin’

About the Author

Frank Bill lives and writes in southern Indiana. Crimes in Southern Indiana is his first book.

Product Details

• Paperback: 272 pages
• Publisher: FSG Originals; Original edition (August 30, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0374532885
• ISBN-13: 978-0374532888
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (64 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #399,409 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not impressed December 12, 2012

By Banok

Format:Paperback

Writing comes across as quite sophomoric. His use of violence reminds me of why I stopped watching the news. Just seems to be forced for attention.
I could see a high school kid enjoying this read, but if you are an adult and have read authors like Raymond Carver or Cormac McCarthy you will most likely be unimpressed.
Want good writing in this particular genre, read Donald Ray Pollock.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Ok, not great March 17, 2013

By jonathan young

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

Interesting stories, however I found the book very disjointed and convoluted. The characters reoccur at random places and that becomes frustrating trying to recall specifics from previous stories.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what I was hoping for May 29, 2013

By Alan Jordan

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase

After reading Donald Ray Pollocks "The Devil All The Time" this book was suggested by Amazon as being of similar interest. Wrong!! I found this book poorly written containing stories and scenes for "shock value" only. I put it down around the halfway point and haven't even included it on my shelves as a book I have read. Sorely disappointed in this purchase.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars repetive plot March 24, 2013

By Michael T Curry

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

it was okay in the beginng but got repetive as the stories progressed toward the end no clear finish. not evewry one from low income and rural fall into this demographic

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars tough read but good April 16, 2012

By Mike Dubya

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Frank Bill's short story collection is a very tough read. Like eating a plate of broken teeth. But hard to put down. Its pretty damn depressing, but each character feels complete and realistic. Bill's descriptions of violence and setting drip with nicotine stains and really put you into each story. There are few redeeming characters in the book, and the one's that barely pass as human have deep flaws of their own. Dont go into this thinking it will be a pleasant read, because its gritty, violent, and very very bleak.

7 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The twigs you hear cracking out in the woods are the sounds of vengeance come home to roost. September 22, 2011

By Richard Thomas

Format:Paperback

[This review was originally published at The Nervous Breakdown.]

When you think of places where crime lurks, locations where you should keep the car rolling through stop signs, where you never stop to ask for directions, a few names may pop into your head. Maybe you think of Detroit or East St. Louis, Baltimore or Miami. It's time to add Corydon, Indiana, to that list, as well as the entire southern part of the state.

In Frank Bill's violent, gut-wrenching, and heartfelt collection of short stories, Crimes in Southern Indiana, there is nowhere safe to hide--the criminals are happy to walk right in the front door pointing a shotgun in your face, spitting tobacco on the floor. A granddaughter is sold as a sex slave. A war veteran tries to forget the killings he committed out in the field as well as the abuse he inflicted on his family at home. Dogfights turn into moments of self-preservation and sudden morality. Family turns on itself while the police provide inadequate protection. All of this unfolds with a raw, unflinching portrayal of meth heads, delinquents, and lost souls searching for a way out. The stories are interlinked and overlapping, as it has to be in any small town, the hero in one story meeting his demise in another, the lawmaker in one tale becoming the criminal in the next.

Early on we get a strong sense of what life what must be like in Corydon and the surrounding communities. In "All the Awful" we witness the sale of Audry by her grandfather, ironically named Able, into slavery, her young flesh an easy commodity to move on the black market:

"One of the man's hands gripped Audry's wrists above her head. Forced them to the ground. She bucked her pelvis up. Wanted him off of her.... The other hand groped the rounded shapes beneath her soiled wifebeater. Her eyes clasped. Held tears. The man's tobacco-stained lips and bourbon breath dragged against her neck."

Suffice it to say that Audry has a bit of spite and spirit left, unwilling to succumb to the fate that has been dealt to her. It's a quick lesson on family and the men that inhabit the town she lives in, something she'll surely never forget.

The fact that meth is a part of the lifestyle in Crimes in Southern Indiana is no shock--rural communities fall victim to the widespread drug, cheap to sell but dangerous to manufacture, explosions riddling the countryside and across the southlands. Eager to show both sides of the coin in his depiction of drug use and prosecution, Frank Bill takes on the mindset of the addict in "The Need," painting a vivid picture of an addled mind:

"Speeding into the gravel curve, Wayne lost control of the Ford Courier, stomped the gas instead of the brake. Gunned the engine and met the wilderness of elms head-on. His head split the windshield, creating warm beads down his forehead, while flashbacks of an edge separating flesh and a screaming female amped through his memory.

Blood flaked off as Wayne balled his hands into fists, remembering the need he could no longer contain."

We might be able to muster some sympathy for a man such as Wayne, if his barbaric acts earlier in the book, and still to come in this story, weren't so heinous. In fact, one of the moral dilemmas that Frank Bill presents to us is this very duality of human nature. How can someone wish death upon another while at the same time seething at the violent acts that have just been committed? It's hypocritical to condemn the same killings and brutality that eventually worm their way into your flesh and blood, your jaw clenched, temples throbbing for revenge, and justice. The plight of the vigilante is understood across these stories, even if we are constantly uncertain who is the darkest soul on the page.

This need to condemn while also striving to understand is evident in the story "The Old Mechanic." We are told of his back story, his abuse of a wife, violent and unflinching, and yet later, we see this man as a victim of the wars he fought, forever traumatized, unable to deal with his fears and emotions, lashing out at those around him. The following two examples illustrate this nauseating problem:

"Here was a time when the shell shock of war was ignored. What the repercussions of warfare did to a man's brain. The seeing, hearing, and participating. And like the war, the abusing of a woman was overlooked. People pretended it never happened. This was a time when till-death-do-us-part was an enforced rule of matrimony. When wives didn't leave their husbands. They obeyed them."

Paired with this later passage, the Old Mechanic tries to bond with his grandson, Frank, who fears and hates him, clutching his knife, ready to defend so much as a stray hand placed on his head:

"Frank is torn between not knowing the Old Mechanic and wanting to know him. He places the stories he's grown up with in the back of his mind, the cinnamon candy and Tom and Jerry, the dead dog, and remembers what his mother told him: the Old Mechanic deserves a chance.

Frank stands up and faces the Old Mechanic, places a hand on his shoulder, knowing the Old Mechanic could just be tricking him. He's not letting go of this bayonet. But he also wants to know. `Really, you really served in a real war, in World War Two? You really killed people?'"

Another lesson that we are taught is to stand up for your own and take care of whatever family business needs to be settled, over any span of time, in whatever way you deem appropriate. The death of her father, the slaughter that took place on her property, it fills Abby (and policeman Billy Hines as well) with echoes that never stop reverberating, pulling her forward on a leash that cannot be severed:

"The girl thumbed the hammer of the .45-caliber Colt. Then the safety. He thought he'd gotten away with what he'd done ten years ago. He'd been questioned. Had an alibi. Then he was forgotten when her grandfather wouldn't talk.

But when the girl swung the tin door open none of that would matter. Because she was carrying on his wisdom. And watching from the four-by-four, Billy Hines could forgive himself and her grandfather could rest in peace after his granddaughter pulled the trigger, just as he had that night ten years ago, until the clip was empty."

With Crimes in Southern Indiana, we bear witness to a series of tragedies that snowball across the crossroads of America, one minute struggling to digest the atrocities that have been revealed, the next minute applauding the vicious retribution that is dealt out with no remorse. By forcing us to be a part of these events, and this community, Bill pulls us into a web of complicated family dynamics, laws that hold no value, and an entrepreneurial attitude that can only be called survival. Revealing vivid details, visceral language and an honesty that cannot be denied, Frank Bill has left a stained and dog-eared diary behind for those that are brave enough to open it. Read more ›

12 of 18 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Too much violence October 7, 2011

By J Martin Jellinek

Format:Paperback

This past summer I drove through the backroads of southern Indiana. This was a new part of the country for me. I was sttruck by both the beauty and the poverty of the region. When I saw Bill's book, I hoped that it might give me a better insight into this unusual part of the country. In that, I was well pleased. Unfortunately, the insight was one of total violence and depravity in poor, rural America. It was a world of dog fighting, meth labs, infidelity, and Old Testament (eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth) revenge.

Unfortunately, Crimes in Southern Indiana did not moved far from this picture. Although the book has numerous short stories, they all eventually melded into one story. And it is a story that demeans the people of this region and makes them into almost cartoon characters of violence.

The writing is good and engaging. It captured my emotions and held my interest. But it was ultimately unsatisfying.

10 of 15 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Grit Lit August 30, 2011

By Ron Phillips

Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase

Long after you finish the last pages of CRIMES IN SOUTHERN INDIANA, you will feel the recoil of Frank Bill's explosive debut as each bone rattling story fires true. Following in the steps of Larry Brown, William Gay, Daniel Woodrell and Donald Ray Pollock, Frank Bill delivers an unforgiving and unapologetic landscape of lost, broken people doing what needs to be done to survive.