Angel of Manslaughter by Cindy Rosmus. Fossil Publications (98 pgs.) $7.50?

I'm always a little stressed when I receive a review copy from an author I regularly publish. Will it look like nepotism if I write a glowing review? Will the author hate me if I trash the book? So, it was with some trepidation that I agreed to review Angel of Manslaughter. Cindy Rosmus has made regular appearances in 13thWR and Devil Blossoms in the last year or so. Selfishly, I didn't want to have to spoil that.

Fortunately, for both of us, I don't have to trash this book -- appearances of nepotism be damned. This collection happens to be one of the most satisfying story collections I've read in a long while. From the title story in which a disturbed and fervently religious young woman murders her cheating boyfriend to "save" him to the final entry, a tension-filled tale, in which a teenage boy who slept with the wrong kind of girl waits to find out if he has AIDS. And there are other gems as well. "Cut Buddies," a bloody, raging violent story of betrayed friendship:

"Nothin' ever happens to him." Tammy's voice was bitter. "Just me. And those poor kids." She held the blade low, aimed for Carla's stomach. "Now you."

Or, "Mikey's Dad," in which a young woman marries the son of the older man she loves and has to deal with the fallout:

"He'll kill you," Lisa said.
"He'll kill you," Mikey's Dad said, "If he has too much to drink. And he's pushed far enough. Then he'll explode."
Lisa could feel the little she'd eaten start to come back up. "I love him," she said weakly.
The song was ending. "Then don't tell him."

Rosmus writes like a woman possessed by dark spirits -- like someone who is a cunt-hair away from boiling a lover's pet rabbit fatal-attraction style. If you like to read a solid collection of Devil Blossoms-style material, you will love this collection.Her stories are the literary equivalent of my sainted old mom's Cajun meat loaf recipe -- blackened, spicy and the meat sure enough sticks to the gut.

-- reviewed by JCE