Killing Mum -- Allan Guthrie

Carlos Morales isn't a killer. He's just a broker. Send him the dough and the instructions, and he'll pass along the job to someone who'll get it done. That's the way it's always worked, that is, until now, when Carlos gets an envelope with $10K in cash and a note saying that the person to be killed is his mother. Another little problem is that the note uses the name Charlie, which only his mother and his wife call him. Charlie decides to play along, with (you guessed it) disastrous results. Trust me: You wouldn't want to be one of Guthrie's protagonists.

This little book is published by Crime Express, and it's 96 pages long. It's got suspense aplenty, and a few surprises, too, though if you've read Slammer, you might not be as surprised as someone who hasn't. I'll say no more about that.

Anthony Boucher used to say that the novella was better for crime fiction than the novel, unless I'm mis-remembering, always a good possibility. At any rate, the length is perfect for this nasty little tale. And though it's nasty, it's not devoid of humor. Bleak, black humor, but humor nonetheless. Slip this one in your pocket to read the next time you're in line at the post office or the DMV. It'll make your wait shorter, and you'll feel lucky to be where you are instead of in Carlos' shoes.

Update from Ross Bradshaw: Moved up from the comments. Hi guys. On the basis that many of you reading this will be from the US of A, the cheapest way to get this book is to order it from www.bookdepository.co.uk. For reasons I assume are legal and sound business that company does not charge postage to send books to the USA. And they're an alternative to the Amazon machine.