By Rob D. Smith /
Reading A Violent Masterpiece is like stepping into the ring with a hybrid middle-weight pugilist. Jordan Harper isn’t throwing one-punch haymakers. He sets you up with quick left jabs, disrupting your rhythm. Using unrelentless pressure, he backs you up against the ropes. A couple of well-placed power shots to the body, slipping through your guard, and bang, you’re trapped in the corner of the ring.
Jordan isn’t a dirty fighter. He’s just adept at keeping you off balance by switching his stance to a Southpaw and back. Off-speed feints to the draw down your defenses, then when you’re breathing heavy, gloves shelling up protecting your head, he torques a hard punch into your exposed liver, making you spit out your mouthpiece. Your legs die. A body that can’t be yours lies on the mat.
The fighters in A Violent Masterpiece are Jake Deal, a live-streamer chasing the lurid crime beat of L.A., Doug Gibson, a Quixotic bus stop lawyer, and Kara Delgado, a private concierge to the elite movers and shakers of Los Angeles. Their opponent is the Beast, a multi-headed being of opulent power that encapsulates all that is unspeakable about the people really running the city under the shadow of the Hollywood sign. Specifically, the L.A. Ripper, disgraced Tween TV producer Eric Algar, the Kids in the Candy Store, a bent Sheriff’s department, plus the eponymous They.
All three characters think they have witnessed the worst depravity Los Angeles has to offer. Jaded and working alongside the Beast like a Remora hitches a ride on a Great White shark, they all find some way to make a living off the atrocities and secrets left in its wake. They all soon find out there is a deeper layer that even they can’t handle knowing about. That they can’t stand back and just bear witness anymore. They each defy the violent nature of the Beast in their own way. It’s not enough.
A Violent Masterpiece pulls in tales that seem far-fetched from real-life Hollywood but, in fact, are only slightly twisted narratives of the neon-tinged Los Angeles power players. A Jeffrey Epstein-type pedo ringleader. A drug-fueled plastic surgeon. We even have a cannibalistic serial killer prowling the streets. What chance does a thrill-seeking live-streamer, a mid-level lawyer, and an upscale procurer really have against these daunting odds?
Not much of one. They don’t have any power. All they are armed with is the truth and their own secrets. They loop the cotton wraps around their thumb and knuckles. Tight against the wrist and fingers to protect them. The padded gloves get laced up, and they all enter the ring, trying not to trip on the ropes. Trying not to exude fear and weakness.
Jordan Harper isn’t a dirty fighter, but his characters are. They have to be when the rules are tossed out, and the judges are paid off. Jake, Doug, and Kara hear the ding of the Hollywood bell. Look across the ring at the coked-up celebrities, the wealthy sadists and unholy brutes. The booming voice of the in-ring announcer says, “Let those who are without sin throw the first punch!” The dark slugfest begins.
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Rob D. Smith is a common man attempting to write uncommon fiction from Louisville, KY. His Anthony Award-nominated pulp thriller Good-Looking Ugly is available from Shotgun Honey. An editor at Rock and a Hard Place Press, his work has appeared in Best American Mystery and Suspense, Vautrin, Thriller Magazine, Dark Yonder, Tough, and several other crime, horror, and speculative magazines, anthologies, and online publications. Find his work at https://robdsmith.carrd.co/
