Dead Girl Blues

This unnerving narrative from MWA Grand Master Block (The Girl with the Deep Blue Eyes) opens in 1968 at a honky-tonk bar in Bakersfield, Calif., where Roger Edward Borden, a gas station attendant in his mid-20s, charms a drunken woman into accompanying him home. He later murders the woman, defiles the corpse, and dumps the body. Borden then flees the state, assumes a new identity, and settles in Lima, Ohio. Haunted by his past, and in perpetual fear of arrest, the sociopath works determinedly to establish himself as a successful businessman, family man, and pillar of society, all the while fighting to suppress his dark impulses and atone for his sins. The thin plot, which takes the form of journal entries, includes tepid familial scenes in which Borden’s wife and son appear untroubled by his revelations. This distasteful tale necessarily has limited appeal, but fans of dark noir will appreciate Block’s hard-hitting prose and his character’s despicable, emotively perverse meditations. (Self-published)