From the Bookshelf of Do Some Damage…

Kiss Me, Judas

Will Christopher Baer

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Why we're reading this: This is an edgy, dark rush through the underworld and with all the gritty stuff I love.
[close] This is an edgy, dark rush through the underworld and with all the gritty stuff I love.

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Book Club

Summer 2012 Book Pick
By deleted member · 13 posts · 49 views

last updated Nov 19, 2012 03:13PM

Summer 2012 Pick - THE LAST KIND WORDS
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last updated Jun 19, 2012 08:53AM

What Members Thought

Apr 15, 2013 ipsit rated it it was amazing

Shelves: noirs-and-fiction

I've been doing a lot of reading lately. One of the books which left a haunting image on my mind is Will Christopher Baer's "Kiss Me, Judas". This is the first in a trilogy about the misadventures of Phineas Poe, erstwhile cop, recently released from a psychiatric hospital. On his first night out Poe meets Jude, a prostitute, who unaccountably agrees to spend the night with him - only to wake up to find himself in a bathtub filled with ice and staples on his skin where his kidney was removed. A I've been doing a lot of reading lately. One of the books which left a haunting image on my mind is Will Christopher Baer's "Kiss Me, Judas". This is the first in a trilogy about the misadventures of Phineas Poe, erstwhile cop, recently released from a psychiatric hospital. On his first night out Poe meets Jude, a prostitute, who unaccountably agrees to spend the night with him - only to wake up to find himself in a bathtub filled with ice and staples on his skin where his kidney was removed. A little note says "If you want to live, call 911."

The book is exactly the way it sounds - dark, atmospheric, surreal. Add to this the fact that Poe cannot remember clearly the details of his wife's death - she was found dead on a boat. Either it was a boating accident, or it may be suicide, or Poe might have killed her. It doesn't help that another lady shows up whom Poe mistakes to be his wife back from the dead. Somethings awfully screwy about Poe and the stuff he is going through.

Poe decides he wants his kidney back. But he cant shake off a dark fascination for Jude, and starts pursuing her. It doesn't help that he needs to keep taking morphine to ease the pain. There are too many painful gaps in his memory and Poe may be hurting more people than he knows, people he does not want to hurt.

Baer is fantastic at building the suspense, and his writing evokes Poe's dreamy, incoherent state very well. He builds the story up to a conclusion which asks as many questions as it answers. On the flip side, the reader will probably want to take a break from the bleakness and go back to the next part of the trilogy only a couple of months after completing the first part. You don't want too much of Phineas!

One shouldn't have to wait so long to read books as good as this. Baer's prose is as excruiatingly clean as the snow falling over Denver, falling onto cars, falling past the streetlights -- dark, sweet shimmering sentences, like candy that could kill you. When is this guy's next book coming out? Who is this guy? Great!.Definitely recommended for folks who like to delve into the dark side once in a while. ...more

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Jul 10, 2009 Johnny rated it really liked it · review of another edition

An original voice in genre writing can often be hard to come by. Someone that embraces the genre, while at the same time brings something fresh and something relevant to the table. Baer does just that.

While the second half couldn't keep pace with the amazing beginning, it still delivers such a trippy and moody world that it kept me fully engaged and wanting to turn the page.

I will definitely read the next book in the series and keep my eye out for anything else by this author. ...more

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Jun 14, 2012 Benoit Lelièvre rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Beautiful, poetic, idiosyncratic and thoroughly noir. This novel exploded on my face after a few paragraphs. Will Christopher Baer has a great, unique voice and I understand now why this is considered a cornerstone novel to modern noir. About halfway in, it start repeating the same pattern and it loses a bit of its interest, but this is nonetheless great.

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