Near To The Knuckle presents Rogue: The second anthology

I bought this anthology on the recommendation of one of the authors. Graham Wynd knows my tastes and was pretty sure I would enjoy this. Wynd was not wrong.

This book contained stories set on both sides of the big pond and one that spanned it. I found it fascinating that although the locations and language changed throughout the book the essential grime and nastiness was pervasive throughout this tome. There was a fascinating quality of mutually assured destruction that I found quite intoxicating.

These stories were short and sharp pokes at the underbelly of society. Each poke releasing a festering boil of what passes for humanity on this rock. My tone may well be reflecting the way these stories influenced my mood. This was not a happy read. The chuckles I got were wry ones.Such as Graham Wynd’s diner scene or my personal favourite line from Alan Griffiths “A smile as genuine as a politician’s expenses claim…”

For me there was a good standard of story through this anthology but the final two stories by Alan Griffiths and Keith Nixon finished things with such aplomb that I almost forgot about the half a dozen or so niggling misses by the proof reader that could have spoiled things a little for me. That is about the only negative I’ll say about this book. I found this to be a punchy and well paced dive to the bottom of our societies. It was well worth a read and I’ll be looking out for more by the publisher (I haven’t read their first anthology yet so I might grab that for a start).