Every Shallow Cut
Tom Piccirilli

ChiZine Publications
March 29, 2011 / ISBN 978-1-926851-10-5
Psychological Suspense / Crime Drama / Noir
Amazon

Reviewed by Dennis Collins

A once promising writer has seen his career evaporate for no apparent reason and without explanation. His life seems to have followed the same path to destruction. His wife has left him and he’s lost his home. All he has left is his car and Churchill, his faithful bulldog. After he fights off a group of street punks, who attack him in Colorado, he heads to a pawnshop where he sells the last of his deceased parents belongings, buys a gun and sets out to his estranged brother’s home in New York.

Along the way he has plenty of time to look back on his life as well as the state of the world he’s passing through. He sees thousands of mistakes in his past but no satisfactory answers and not many lessons learned. The closer he gets to New York, the darker things look to him. His depression deepens as the miles click by. Only Churchill, the dog seems content. Things couldn’t seem darker and then he lands in New York. That’s when things really begin to go downhill.

Author Tom Piccirilli paints an extremely dark picture and he does it in only a hundred and fifty pages. This book is intense and its message is exceptionally compelling. The only character in this entire book with a name is Churchill and he’s a dog. The people don’t need names. Their faces are vivid enough without them. Don't expect a happy ending. It’s a great story of human despair but I would warn you not to read it if you suffer from depression.