Today we have an excerpt from Things Get Ugly, a collection of The Best Crime Stories by Joe R. Lansdale. Published this week by Tachyon Publications, this excerpt is from the story “The Projectionist”.
First, though, here’s the synopsis for the collection as a whole:
In the 1950s, a young small-town projectionist mixes it up with a violent gang. When Mr. Bear is not alerting us to the dangers of forest fires, he lives a life of debauchery and murder. A brother and sister travel to Oklahoma to recover the dead body of their uncle. Edgar Award winner and bestselling author Joe R. Lansdale (the Hap and Leonard series) returns to the piney, dangerous woods of East Texas to reveal the best of his award-winning crime fiction.
In this collection of nineteen unforgettable crime tales, Joe R. Lansdale brings his legendary mojo and witty grit to harrowing heists, revenge, homicide, and mayhem. No matter how they begin, things are bound to get ugly—and fast.
Now, read on for the excerpt…!
Civilian Reader 