Culprits

Your average heist movie ends in one of two ways; a cliffhanger or the job complete. You rarely get to see what happens to the criminals as they make it off with their ill-gotten gains, or when they are thrown into the slammer. Unless you are Oceans 11, then you just get a couple more heists a few years later. Editors Richard Brewer and Gary Phillips decided to create the book Culprits which starts with a heist and then focusses on a different member of the gang in each chapter and what happened to them; some good and some very, very bad. 

O’Conner has it made. He has a loving relationship and has managed to legitmise most of the money that he stole over the years, but a life of mundane business cannot scratch that itch a big illegal score can. When he is contacted by his longtime associate The Financier to partake in one last job, O’Conner cannot say no. Although in hindsight he should have. The secret safe found on a vast ranch is not just full of cash made from cattle trading. O’Conner and his crew got in deeper than they imagined when they start to be hunted down. 

The core idea of Culprits feels different, not only is it about the aftermath of a crime, but it focusses on a different character each chapter. It has that Pulp Fiction feel to it, not only in its pulp crime style, but characters who are the main protagonist in one chapter make cameos in another. One other feature of the book is that Brewer and Phillips invited other writers to create chapters, therefore making it a cross between a non-linear tale and a short story collection. 

Phillips and Brewer take on more chapters than most and use this to establish the original heist and the concluding chapters. This is clever storytelling as they create the world in which others can play. They introduce an ensemble of criminals, but also the archenemy of the Ranch owner. By writing the first two chapters and final three, the editors/writers assure that the story is established and concluded in a satisfactory manner, but it also allows the writers in the middle section to have more abstract stories. 

O’Conner is the centre of the story and holds the book together, but there are some great short stories that focus elsewhere. The stories play with a myriad of ways in which a post heist could go right or wrong. In The Financier by David Corbett, the man with the money goes into hiding, only to allow paranoia to get the best of him. I Got You by Brett Battles focusses on a gang member who cannot escape his past. It is a great character piece but also moves the story forwards as we start to truly understand where the money really came from. 

The editors have done an impressive job of giving the guest authors free reign but also keep them on point. I imagine a ‘bible’ was written of events that the editors passed on to ensure that the overarching story was respected. I enjoyed all the chapters/stories within Culprits but feel that those written by the editors were the best. There was a little more cohesion and higher stakes to these stories, especially the final trilogy of Showdown, Hector, and All Debts Paid. In a couple of the earlier tales, it took a while for me to remember which character the story was following as so many were introduced originally. The finale focusses mostly on O’Conner and his closet allies as they seek an out. 

Culprits is a delicious mix of pulp crime novels with classic heist movies of the 90s and early 00s. It has that sense of the last days of when criminals could still be so bad that they are good. You even get to appreciate the Ranch owner, who is evil, but well rounded. As a collection this will delight any fan of pulp crime fiction, not only for the stories themselves, but the interesting way that the story is designed and delivered.