Review: "Brothers" by Ed Gorman & Richard Chizmar

“Brothers” By Ed Gorman & Richard Chizmar Short, Scary Tales, 2015   “Brothers”—which is a novelette-length expansion of Ed Gorman’s 2006 short story—is a dark tale about brotherhood and loss. Brothers Chet and Michael’s mother died when they were teenagers and their father, a cop and a drunk, was emotionally absent from their lives. Chet, the oldest of the two, essentially raised Michael and as an adult, Chet can’t let go of his perceived responsibility: he has always been there to rescue Michael from his darker self. Chet was there to help Michael escape gambling and alcohol addictions. He facilitated Michael’s hiring as a Chicago cop, and even found him a wholesome wife. So when Michael starts backsliding into his old ways, Chet steps in once again to save his younger brother. “Brothers” is an example of what Ed Gorman did so well: dark, melancholy tales inhabited by characters as real as our own neighbors, friends, siblings, and spouses with a subtle pre-destination that—no matter how hard the characters struggle and plan—will lead them to ruin. But Ed never wrote pure noir and “Brothers” is no exception. He counterbalanced the bleak themes with low-key humor and made his flawed regular-man characters worthwhile by endowing them with a realistic complexity and contradiction. As I noted above, “Brothers” is an expansion of an earlier story, which was published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine. I’ve read both the original and the expanded versions   and Richard Chizmar, who I believe was responsible for the expansion, added a significant amount of narrative, including an interesting childhood event that gives the reader a better understanding of Michael. While the original short story is excellent and worth reading, this collaboration is even better. If you can find “Brothers” anywhere, do yourself a favor and read it.

Go here for the out-of-print paperback edition of “Brothers” at Amazon.