Victor Gischler on Scott Phillips

I remember being sent a review copy of The Ice Harvest by Scott Phillips. I was actually sent a small box of books to review, but The Ice Harvest was a nifty looking and short hardcover, so I picked it up first, thinking I could read it quickly. And I did. I zoomed through it.

But not because it was short (although that helped) but because, simply put, it was one of the best things I’d read in a long time. This little chunk of midwestern noir had everything I hadn’t realized I’d wanted. No. That’s not true. I knew what I wanted pretty keenly, I guess, because I’d written a novel called Gun Monkeys, and I’d filled it with all the things I’d wanted – violence, biting humor, frank and direct sex, and a protagonist that challenged the reader. We are faced with a seemingly endless mob of formulaic “likable” protagonists doing tedious predictable things to save the day. What The Ice Harvest showed me was that there was at least one other person (and really there are plenty) like me who wanted something different.

Gun Monkeys would come out a few months later on a great small press called UglyTown. I felt better knowing the way had been paved by novels like The Ice Harvest. Scott’s new one That Left Turn at Albuquerque comes out very soon. I suggest you grab a copy at your favorite local bookstore through Indie Bound or from

Subterranean Books (they'll have signed editions)

Barnes & Noble

Amazon

Victor Gischler is a novelist, comic book writer, and screenwriter from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. His work has been nominated for the Edgar, Anthony and Bram Stoker Awards and has been translated into numerous languages. He earned a PhD in English from the University of Southern Mississippi. He is a beer swiller and chicken wing gobbler. Visit his website and follow him on Twitter @VictorGischler.