Bristol-Noir

13/01/2025

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/side-walk-when-she-walks-by-justin-lee/

(721 words)

13/01/2025

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/holding-space-by-todd-matson/

As you litter the streets with white powder, dirty needles, shattered lives, dead bodies, grieving families and calling cards; as the bloodhounds smell co***ne, m**h, he**in, fentanyl and gun powder in your tracks; as the cops connect dots with........

13/01/2025

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/fishy-business-by-james-a-higgins/

A woman I had picked up down the street at Pier 39 looked at me across my plate of halibut and said, “I love you Steve,” I’m not a suspicious guy, but my name is Hugh, so I was puzzled. Her gray eyes clouded over only for a moment, then she said, “Oh, of course, Steve had the squid, but that...

07/01/2025

Remember Me by William R. Stoddart

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/remember-me-by-william-r-stoddart/

I was a peasant worker in the year 1990. I packaged waste and cleaned up accidents. So I stole ampoules of production samples and radioactive garbage from a research reactor. So I threw money around Vinca like a Party boss. Hid the dough from my wife, Yana. Hid it under a loose floorboard next to th...

06/01/2025

Poetry by Scott T. Hutchison

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/poetry-by-scott-t-hutchison/

Bulldog I’m the kind that bites, holds on, earning the name: bull-dog. Like a ton of hump, complete with h***y boss and red-eyes, you choose to muscle-charge towards me for the kill. But-- you were mistaken, ol’ sire, entering this pit. Can’t kill me. Hanging on. In the fleshy underneath. Toot...

03/01/2025

The Stowaway by Alex Dal Piaz

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/the-stowaway-by-alex-dal-piaz/

The urinals down at Ibiza airport had recently been replaced with composting ones. They smelled like p**s, worse than the old ones. Cedric held his breath while finishing. He heard honking from outside and returned to his taxi. “What f**k you doing?” came at him in broken English. His car was in...

03/01/2025

Middle Man by John Timm

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/middle-man-by-john-timm/

The way I do business is pretty much cut and dried. Somebody approaches me through another somebody, and we either make a deal or we don’t. It doesn’t matter all that much to me. If som**hing doesn’t happen, som**hing else will. There’s always a demand for my services. Since none of us wants...

03/01/2025

The Afternoon, Before Night by Mike Lee

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/the-afternoon-before-night-by-mike-lee/

In first period, Mitchell wrote: Sitting here at seventeen thinking of writing my last will and testament—a testament of what, one may ask. Does it matter? I’m living in an age where failure meets life, and I marry and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, life gets laid by failure and becomes...

03/01/2025

Three Mostly Unrelated Poems by Garrett Speller

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/poetry-by-garrett-speller/

Buggered Sometimes, I think about the mosquitos I have killed, Smeared across skin and clothes, splattered, bellies full Of young, turning over pales of standing water to disperse Eggs in some diluvian dream, spilling out, slaughtered; Sometimes, I pray for all the spiders I have saved. Pray that th...

03/01/2025

The Rogue Christmas Tree by Shannon Frost Greenstein

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/the-rogue-christmas-tree-by-shannon-frost-greenstein/

The flimsy bracelet on her wrist read “Jane Doe,” and Jane had no reason to question it. She trundled through the field, snow beginning to accumulate on the branches of the slumbering trees, their bare limbs adorned with claws of twigs that appeared to reach for the sky; appeared to screech in a...

20/12/2024

Death of a Boy Band by Tom Stuckey

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/death-of-a-boy-band-by-tom-stuckey/

PART I

20/12/2024

[Frozen Witness] by Clare Flanagan

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/frozen-witness-by-clare-flanagan/

It could be that this slightly astonished co**se face up in the freezer is someone’s idea of a joke not f**king funny you say (though not to the stiff who’s well past sell-by) only out to find some brussels (pâté on sourdough like you’re born that way) this is Kafkaesque I mean who opens the...

15/12/2024

Cold, Dirty, Necessary Work by JD Clapp

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/cold-dirty-necessary-work-by-jd-clapp/

15/12/2024

Raging Mongo by Patrick Whitehurst

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/raging-mongo-by-patrick-whitehurst/

06/12/2024

The Concession Stand by Alice Boghain

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/the-concession-stand-by-alice-boghain/

Steve's gaze ascends to the menu board, scanning the images of fried chicken, gooey tacos, and the Megastore’s famous $1.50 pure Alberta beef hotdog. The picture of the oversized slice of pizza, a giant, greasy triangle, and the tacos dripping with cheese entice him, but then he decides he really ...

05/12/2024

Love Slaves for Venus by Mike Lee

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/love-slaves-for-venus-by-mike-lee/

Larry and Cait were too old to be young, and their obnoxiously effervescent behavior in Lower East Side bars, like sloppily making out in back booths, saddled them with a reputation as a semi-unwanted event and were often told to move on to a hotel or to the ruins of a squat. Practically f**king pub...

04/12/2024

Like Adam and Eve by Danila Botha

https://www.bristolnoir.co.uk/like-adam-and-eve-by-danila-botha/

I was in for som**hing pretty serious. If you make me tell you, I’ll admit it, even though the facts are more complicated than they let on. I killed someone. I’ll never understand why the system protects men who abuse women, and when the woman finally gets it together and protects herself, she.....