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Paradigms
of Suffering: Bloody Seconds
By
Greg Dixon
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There
are many different kinds of horror
story and every reader has his or her own preference in reading matter.
On the whole, I have to say that Bloody
Seconds is not to my taste. I
liked a couple of the stories, but, in
the main, I found the plots weak and the stories filled with pointless
acts of violence and sexual depravity that I consider more disgusting
than frightening. I believe, however, that there is niche readership
that will love Greg Dixon's stories for the very same reasons that I do
not.
There are five stories in the book. The first on is called Eye
for an Eye and it begins with
the words of a prison officer: “Rise and shine, shit
stain!” The 'shit stain' in question is a convict named
Carlos and Officer Andrews is busy ‘fiercely’
booting him in the ribs. Please note the use of the adverb
'fiercely'. A few sentences later he 'furiously' picks up Carlos and
shoves him against the wall. A little further down the page poor Carlos
is 'completely' defenceless and then, just fifty words later, Carlos
has to suffer an 'extremely' bright fluorescent shining in his eyes.
Carlos' life may be torture, but the use of so many adverbs is torture
for the reader. Carlos' troubles will be over in nineteen pages, but
the reader will have to endure an assault of adverbs all through the
book.
The repeated overuse of adverbs is only one problem with Greg Dixon's
writing, but I am not an English teacher and, in general, try to
concern myself more with the story than how it is written. As you may
have gathered Eye for an Eye
is a violent tale. Carlos is on death row and although he may have
started his day as a 'shit stain' on somebody's boot he won't be for
much longer. The guards have come to take him to the execution chamber,
but it is hard to feel sorry for Carlos because he murdered and raped a
young girl (yes in that order). The reader learns all about the crime
in a detailed flashback sequence. Her name was Maria and she died a
nasty death. So does Carlos. Eye for
an Eye
is as pointless as it is violent, I did not enjoy reading it and,
dreading more of the same, I was tempted to discard the book.
The second story is called The
Butcher of Midfield and it
is, perhaps, a little reminiscent of Psycho.
In this case the psycho's name is Edwin, not Norman, and Edwin's
behaviour makes his counterpart look benign by comparison. Like Norman,
Edwin is a serial killer whose domineering mother is now dead. She
cannot be said to be departed though because her corpse is suspended
from a chain attached to the cellar ceiling. It is not normal
behaviour—you know it and I know it—but at least
Edwin tries to take care of his mother and sets aside one day each year
to bleach her bones and iron her dress. And this is only the tip of the
iceberg. One of Edwin's favourite pastimes consists of cutting open his
victims, pushing his head in among their internal organs, and drowning
his face in the blood and guts. Edwin loves to gnaw on intestines, yank
out hearts and caress lungs and livers. He is also partial to a spot of
necrophilia. If you are thinking he is a sick puppy you are right, and
after I had finished reading this story I was no longer tempted to
discard the book. I wanted to burn it and bury the unholy remains in
salt. Ever the optimist, I gritted my teeth, read on, and got a
pleasant surprise.
The next story is called Send
Them to God: Cross and the Axe
and to my mind it is the first real story in the book. Its two
predecessors concentrate on trying to shock the reader, but in Cross and the Axe
Dixon loses the shock tactics and concentrates more on the story, which
is as it should be because that is what is important. The central
character is a woman named Elizabeth and when the reader is first
introduced to her she is sitting in a church and listening to a sermon.
The priest giving the sermon is called Father O'Malley and right from
the get-go there appears to be something sinister about him.
Elizabeth has a guilty secret and as she listens to O’Malley
she becomes convinced that the Father knows all about it.
“You shall not commit adultery,” he tells the
congregation and as the words leave his lips his eyes lock on
Elizabeth. Needless do say O’Malley does know more than he
should. He also has some unusual ways of dealing with sinners, as
Elizabeth finds out after her confession.
Story number four is called Manual
Labour and a lot of the story
is set on a construction site. The central character is a building
contractor named Bill Dixon and it has to be said that poor old Bill
has one of the laziest godamn work crews ever to set butt on a brick
wall. These guys don't have tea breaks they have work breaks. When they
are not on one Bill has to do everything himself and he has developed a
lousy attitude. His crew, however, have no idea just how bad Big Bill
feels. They don’t discover the truth until it is too late and
by then the blood is flying and Bill has found some new and nasty uses
for his tools. This story has a few good points and is not by any means
the worst in the book, but the plot is a little weak and, once again,
it appears that blood and violence take precedence over storyline.
The final story is called If
Shadows Could Speak and
although there are a few problems with its construction, in this case,
Dixon has saved the best for last. There are a few nasty
scenes, but they add to the story rather than overpowering it. This is,
of course, as it should be and I would have liked to have seen more
stories like this one. If Shadows
Could Speak
is set in an unnamed city where the problem is not congestion, but just
the opposite. People are vanishing and the police have no idea how or
why this is happening.
The
real story starts at three o'clock in
the morning, outside a tavern called Zook's, where four friends are
debating whether or not to walk over to Hyde and catch a taxi.
“We'll get one here,” Scott insists. Mike is not so
sure about that and neither are Rick and George. Scott was right
though, because before the gang have time to walk to Hyde a taxi does
appear. Except it does not look like a taxi, it looks more like a
minivan. Taxi or not the guy behind the wheel will take them to The
Holiday Inn for just $20. Over at Hyde a taxi will cost them $50. Mike
has a bad feeling about getting in the van, but Rick calms his fears by
reminding him that they outnumber the driver by four to one. It's good
odds. It doesn't make a difference, they should have walked; it would
have been healthier.
Bloody
Seconds is 131 pages long and
will probably appeal to any reader who has a greed for the gruesome and
is willing to overlook the problems with Dixon's writing. Bloody Seconds
is a self published book though, and it seems unlikely that it had the
advantage of an experienced editor's input. But, having said that, most
editors, like most publishers, have little regard for stories about
characters that have sex with dead bodies. Necrophilia is a taboo
subject and I cannot say that I enjoy reading about it, but that's me,
you may be different. If you are buy the book, do it now, and don't
waste another bloody second about it.
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