All Souls Are Final by Will Viharo

 

(pb; 2022: novella, one half of a two-novella collection, Dixon Gets Lost / All Souls are Final: A P.I. Tales Double Feature, the first novella─Dixon─penned by William Dylan Powell)

From the back cover

“. . . A long-buried memory resurfaces in retired private eye Vic Valentine’s tormented psyche, forcing him to reckon with a pivotal event in his past while recovering from a psychotic break in his present. Most of the Action revolves around his erotic, erratic experiences with a secret satanic pornography cult in turn-of-the-twentieth-century Los Angeles, as he is seduced into a decadent den of delirious danger by a sexy client whose mysterious boyfriend Vic accidentally killed. Or did he? Discover the shocking truth in a sordid truth in a sordid series of twists and turns down this rocky road to raunchy ruin.”

 

Review

The latest adventure in Vic Valentine’s well-storied life has Valentine recounting a previously unmentioned life-chapter to his years-later wife, Val, while they enjoy life in Seattle, Washington.

You can read the back-cover description to get a feel for the story. This time out, Vic’s confession-tinged tale telling is more real world straight-forward, less psychotronic and “dream-or-reality?” in nature, taking place in San Francisco and Los Angeles in the mid-1990s. Raquel Fleming─her real name?─is the latest (possible) femme fatale in Valentine’s sexy line-up, and their meeting impels the horny, often messed-up P.I. into (somewhat) familiar, over-the-top pulptastic, and fast-moving territory. Returning Viharo/Valentine readers will likely recognize themes and characters from previous Valentine outings, new twists on older tales, and new readers might find a fresh good-hearted anti-hero to root for and further read about─as I hope they do.

Viharo’s distinctive mix of clever sleaze, hope, neo-pulp, retro-pop and decades-old cinema still thrills (living up to part of Viharo’s website name, Thrillville). This quick, ninety-five-page for mature audiences only read is worth owning.

As noted above, Souls is part of a two-author collection, the other novella William Dylan Powell’s Dixon Guidry Gets Lost, a work I did not read.