By the Balls: The Complete Collection

Readers who enjoy their hard-boiled detective fiction seasoned with self-referential humor will welcome this collection, which includes two new short stories by Pascoe and Fassbender, cofounders of the publisher UglyTown. In the effective opener, “Fireproof,” tragedy leads firefighter Ben Drake to become a PI. Subsequent stories flesh out the tawdry world of Testacy City, Nev., near Las Vegas, describing Drake’s further cases as a member of the Always Reddy Detective Agency. The title work, a novel first published in 1998, is the highpoint, as a murder in a bowling alley claims the life of Gentleman Joe Biggs, the city’s leading bowler. Along the way to a crafty solution, the authors wink at the readers (“It was Suzi who made a passing joke about this being a detective story, and as it goes in all good detective stories, it was now time to stake out the widow’s house to see what might develop”)—a light touch that leavens a grim fictional universe. (Apr.)