The Sound of Blunder By: J. A. Konrath, F. Paul Wilson Star Rating:

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Synopsis

Mick the Mick and Willie are two gangsters who've been given a brick of cocaine by their boss and tasked with its safekeeping. Unfortunately Willie's grandmother mistakes it for flour and bakes it into a cake, leaving Mick and Willie at loose ends over how to pay back their boss for losing it. They come up with a crazy scheme to rob a museum, where they find a book that takes them back in time to a prehistoric jungle... or did it?

Review

In "The Sound of Blunder," Mick and Willie, a pair of gangster underling friends, are babysitting a brick of cocaine for their boss that Willie's grandmother mistakes for flour. She uses it to bake a pound cake, leaving Mick and Willie scrambling for a way to quickly raise the money to pay back their boss so that he doesn't start amputating their body parts. Their efforts turn into a madcap adventure that may involve either time travel or something a little more basic.

This is one of the most bizarre stories I've ever read, and even after finishing it, I'm still not entirely sure what was going on. The closer I got to the end, the more things started to make sense... kind of. But then there's a little twist at the end that makes the reader second-guess everything. Mick and Willie are not likable characters, neither are they sharpest knives in the drawer, especially Willie. Their relationship has a Three Stooges vibe with Mick constantly abusing Willie who has every ailment known to man. I've never been a fan of this type of humor, so what might be funny to other readers was totally lost on me. The remaining bits of what passed for comedy consisted mainly of gross-out and potty humor, which again isn't something I typically enjoy. It's far too juvenile for me and plays to the lowest common denominator. For such a short story, it also dragged on a little too long. I felt like it could have been edited down, because a lot of the humor was in your face stuff that bored me. In the end, I couldn't help wondering if the authors were high while writing it, because it's just such a strange tale. Ultimately it didn't do much for me. However, it might tickle someone else's funny bone more. "The Sound of Blunder" can be found in the anthology Blood Lite.

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J. A. Konrath

F. Paul Wilson