Phineas Poe: Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell's Half Acre [Paperback]

Will Christopher Baer (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 9, 2005

There's a girl in the hotel lobby. Long legs in a red dress. Scar at the edge of her mouth, body like a knife. I buy her a drink and wake up with staples in my side. "Don’t worry," she says. "You only need one."

Disgraced junkie cop turned apocalyptic antihero Phineas Poe emerges from a psych ward on Christmas Eve and tumbles for beautiful predatory Jude, streetwise assassin turned organ thief. After one night together, she cuts him open, leaves him to fate. Reborn in a bath of ice, Phineas tracks Jude from the back alleys of Denver across the Texas desert for a violent showdown that leaves them on the run to Mexico and the debauched playgrounds of California’s elite. Descend into a nightmare realm where every act of perversion finds willing disciples. Enter a world of brutal blood sport, murderous role play, existential snuff films. Lines between victim and accomplice blur past recognition only to be redrawn according to violent whim. The myth of Orpheus is deconstructed on a razorblade as Phineas and Jude chase each other through a hell of their own making.

PHINEAS POE is equal parts noir romance, revenge fantasy, suicide pact, urban myth exploded, and nihilistic tragedy.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Will Baer has located the black heart of noir, rescued it from the dry-hump clutch of homage, and dragged it back to the drunk tank where it belongs." -George Pelecanos, author of Hell To Pay and Soul Circus

"Violent deconstruction of urban myth and dark unraveling of mystery within mystery- this is a fine and dangerous work." -Poppy Z. Brite, author of Drawing Blood and Exquisite Corpse

"The writing is perfect, synergistic, and beautifully interwoven with the story- the reader is put through an extraordinary experience." -Hubert Selby, Jr., author of Requiem For A Dream and Last Exit to Brooklyn

Product Details

• Paperback: 857 pages
• Publisher: Macadam Cage Pub (October 9, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 159692151X
• ISBN-13: 978-1596921511
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,153,018 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Born 1966 in Mississippi. Lived in Montreal and Italy as a child. Graduated high school in Memphis, TN. Received MFA (1995) at Naropa U, Boulder, CO. Worked as taxi driver, journalist, and migrant college professor. Recently co-authored screenplay for Kiss Me, Judas, now in development with Mythic Films. Short stories have appeared in BOMB, nerve.com, the Cult, and elsewhere. Recent shorts include "Deception of the Thrush," SF Noir (Akashic), and "Fugitive Tendencies," postscript to the UK edition of The Contortionist's Handbook, (Harper-Collins UK). Status of much anticipated and long overdue fourth novel, the horror noir Godspeed, is unknown. WCB is married, two children. He currently teaches fiction and screenwriting at the Memphis College of Art.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully Twisted, October 20, 2005

By 

J. Harlan (soCal) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phineas Poe: Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell's Half Acre (Paperback)

The Phineas Poe omnibus collects all three Baer novels to date in one large and lovely tome.

Kiss Me Judas affirmed my love of psychotic women.

Penny Dreadful left me wanting for real life urban games and a potion for something harder than alcohol. (And affirmed my love of distubred goth girls.)

Hell's Half Acre wrapped things up in chaos and left me on a desolate highway wishing it wasn't a dead end. (And made me rethink my love of psychotic women...)

All in all, the collected tales of Phineas Poe offered here is a steal at the price, be it on sale or not. You'll want to revisit this madman time and time again. Buy it. Love it.

Welcome to the Velvet.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Devastating Beauty, July 14, 2007

By 

Autumn Star Kindelspire "The Autumn Star" (Westchester, NY) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Phineas Poe: Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell's Half Acre (Paperback)

There are some authors who, when you read them, can crush your confidence in your own writing. They are so perfectly in control of their craft, their prose so utterly devastating in its perfect beauty, that you put down the book and say, "Well, crap. I'll never be THAT good." Will Christopher Baer is one such author.

That his prose is not only beautiful, but can also be dark, witty, and down right violent, only heightens the pleasure for me.

There are sentences in this collection that will make a fellow writer stop to catch their breath. It's the equivalent of going to MoMA and standing in front of a masterpiece.

I await Godspeed with the utmost of anticipation.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The First Book, May 8, 2006

By 

Kenneth Stenger (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Phineas Poe: Kiss Me Judas, Penny Dreadful, Hell's Half Acre (Paperback)

Phineas Poe keeps losing things. His kidney. His wife. His way. But, not his hope. In a downward spiral of language and plotting that combines the senses and rhythym of Thomas Cook, James Crumley, and Jack Kerouac, Poe confirms that love is the bottom line in a final sentence that several years after I first read it still has the power to force open a bottle of scotch and drive me to this entry.

I haven't read the rest. The rest will follow. Like Phineas, I know better than to count on more than what is in front of me. What is here is enough to comprehend.