"Ten Gallons of Infected Saliva, or, The Cuckold, Avenged" by Scott Phillips

From: Uncage Me ed. Jen Jordan. Bleak House Books, 2009.

Leading off an anthology on the many forms of transgression, this story follows Amos, a college kid willing to work at a porno theater to accumulate the hours he needs to join the projectionist's union. Amos's wry narration reminded me of Lawrence Block's Chip Harrison, his voice so engaging as to almost make smut palatable.

One of Amos's friends, Tad, works at a funeral parlor and carries on an affair with his boss's wife, Beth. One night, Tad takes Beth to the theater, followed shortly by a man with a gun. Flustered, Amos lets the armed man into the theater, and he proceeds to shoot himself. Though the man's name is never mentioned, it's implied he is Beth's husband, Tad's boss. That this shooting is the only act I considered a crime in this story testifies to the persuasive power of Phillips's writing.

You can also hear Phillips read this story at Seth Harwood's CrimeWAV.

"As Dark as Christmas Gets" by Lawrence Block

Available in Enough Rope by Lawrence Block, William Morrow, 2002.

On Christmas Day, New York PIs Chip Harrison and Leo Haig are hired by the owner of a mystery bookshop on West 56th Street to find an unfinished Cornell Woolrich manuscript missing from the owner's personal collection since a party the night before. Nero Wolfe fanatic Haig has Harrison bring seven suspects to the shop, and he proceeds to interview them as a group.

Longtime mystery fans will recognize the shop owner as Otto Penzler. In the voices of his characters, Block pokes fun at Penzler, himself (Block completed Woolrich's Into the Night), and literary pretense in general.