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    The Circus
    The Circus
    The Circus
    Ebook121 pages2 hours

    The Circus

    By J.D. Strange

    ()

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    About this ebook

    "THE CIRCUS is a strange, hidden nest of vices and perversions embedded in the head of one creative mind taken hostage by the demons of alcohol and drugs."
    Christopher G. Moore, award-winning author.

    "WITNESS THE flowering of increasingly evil acts… a darkly riveting tale of twisted brotherhood set against the backdrop of the Big Top."
    Alasdair McLeod. Author and Poet.

    "STRANGE is still capable of throwing flames."
    People, Things, and Literature

    James M. Cain meets Albert Camus in this bizarre tale of excess and recovery.

    Sometimes we have no choice but to run AWAY from The Circus...

     

    A boy goes missing at the circus and Joey the Clown points the finger at his tight-rope walking brother...
    Captain Popov, the human canon-ball father, suggests a visit to secure mental rehabilitation The Farm.
    But outside the carnival the real world is mean, and before long the trauma of our carnival youth rears it's ugly clown-like face. And the circus folk wonder if life nothing more than a savage nightmare carousel?

    J.D. Strange has been described as "terrifically gifted, enormously energetic," by Edgar nominee Timothy Hallinan, and a writer who "strips away the bull****" by Shamus winner Christopher G. Moore.

    Based on real events this bizarre psychological thriller is gripping from start to finish.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherEDITIONS Strange
    Release dateSep 9, 2020
    ISBN9781393414438
    The Circus

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      Book preview

      The Circus - J.D. Strange

      THE CIRCUS

      J.D. STRANGE

      ––––––––

      "A STORY ABOUT demons, abuse, addiction and recovery, but mostly it is a story about the mind. A very good story about the mind... Strange is still capable of throwing flames..."

      People, Things, Literature. Kevin Cummings.

      "THE CIRCUS is a strange, hidden nest of vices and perversions embedded in the head of one creative mind taken hostage by demons."

      Christopher G. Moore, author of the Vincent Calvino series.

      "WITNESS THE flowering of increasingly evil acts... a darkly riveting tale of twisted brotherhood set against the backdrop of the Big Top."

      Alasdair McLeod. Author and Poet.

      J.D. Strange (James Dennison Strange) was discovered, three weeks old, outside a charity shop next to the Chatterton Arms public house, Kent, England. Strange escaped a series of foster families before joining The Circus aged thirteen. Here he came under the influence of the infamous Russian Cannonball, Captain Popov, who showed Strange the ropes and in no time the Strange teenager became a circus utility man juggling flaming batons, taming the big cats, and throwing knives at spinning beauties, one of whom, Olga, Strange married briefly. Divorced from the Hungarian heiress and financially secure, Strange set out to study comparative linguistics at the University of Zurich. Graduating with a first degree, Strange rejoined The Circus, eventually winding his way to Nepal and then India. Following a run in with the Nicobar Police in 2001, Strange boarded a vessel docked at Port Blair fatefully bound for Bangkok. Immediately finding his feet in the tropical metropolis, Strange worked as a private detective instructed by corporate clients and jealous housewives. It is here he created the JOE DYLAN fictional character and other pulp fiction franchises including Johnny Coca Cola’s LIZARD CITY, a pirate series PORT of THIEVES, and his own tragic quirky memoir THE CIRCUS.

      Strange continues to live and work in Bangkok, Thailand.

      2020 1st Edition. 2nd Printing.

      Editions STRANGE. 

      ASIN: B087C97T4F

      ISBN: 9798639276224

      Copyright – J.D. Strange

      1 3 4 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

      This electronic edition published by Editions STRANGE. 

      Quotes may be used for the purpose of reviews.

      This is a work of fiction. No characters in this book are intended to have any resemblance to any person living or dead, or in delicate transition between the two.

      Numbered signed print trade copies  / 100

      Introduction.

      By Christopher G. Moore.

      J.D. Strange’s The Circus walks the tightrope between a novella and novel. The ends of that tight rope are anchored between a world of illusions and a world of hardscrabble reality. You watch as the characters flip, dance and murder their way between one world to the other.

      The Circus is a strange, hidden nest of vices and perversions embedded in the head of one creative mind taken hostage by the demons of alcohol and drugs. The spectacle like all good circuses pulls your attention from the main show to the sideshows going on at the same time. Clowns, tightrope walkers, animal trainers, human cannon balls—all rich ores to fashion metaphors in a cloistered world of ‘others.’ Think of Schrödinger's cat which is both alive and dead.

      There is a potted history of the circus that runs in short paragraphs throughout the book as an anchor point to reality. Shakespeare, Borges, Baudelaire to Tolstoy make brief appearances. The book shares a heritage with Ken Kesey’s 1962 unforgettable One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. We find a character not unlike the Chief in Kesey’s novel. The other book that comes to mind is Chuck Palahniuk’s 2001 Choke about a sex addict. Like Choke, the main character is fighting addiction in a multi-front war that includes drugs, booze and sex.

      The Circus follows the tradition of Kesey and Palahniuk patrolling the border between sanity and madness. What sets it apart is the unrelenting drive to solve an inner mystery that creeps around on soft paws like a stalking cat and grabs you as you are the songbird singing your heart out. Like a character in the story who is fated to spend his life being shot out of a circus cannon, the reader finds himself willing to be loaded into the barrel for one thrill after another, as the adventure becomes an addiction.

      From cannon fodder to tight rope walker, much of what happens to us remains outside our control. Booze, drugs and sex are a way to escape this harsh reality of our personal circus. It is why addicts and crazies converge under the big tent of life and perform unable to sever the puppet master’s strings.

      I

      ––––––––

      Master jugglers,

      transform places and persons,

      revealing magnetic stagecraft.

      Eyes flame, blood sings, bones thicken.

      Tears and trickles of rouge stream,

      their clowning and their terror

      lasts a moment, or entire months.

      -  I alone hold the key to this savage parade.

      Arthur Rimbaud

      Dedicated to all those who are currently bound to The Circus. With thanks to Iain Donnelly and Tom Vater for helping to form the final statuette. Also, thanks to Marcin Drzewiecki for his strange dark artwork that features on the cover of this and other J.D. Strange books.

      ONE

      GUESS IT took Joey the Clown, and the dead child, to finally drag me away from The Circus.

      It wasn’t easy.

      Tearing yourself from the carnival is the most difficult thing you will ever do, Ladies and Gentlemen - The Circus is cunning, baffling, and powerful...

      ... The Greatest Show on Earth...

      Joey the Clown was like a brother, but he had buried a dead child in a ditch behind the Strongman’s caravan, and, as you all know, the worst thing about having brothers is that you never know what they’re up to.

      And yes, clowns and brothers are generally repulsive creatures, and Joey was no exception. He’d apply mehron makeup while taking long purposeful drags on a mentholated cigarette, telling us, with uncanny wit and detail, what a cruel and unhappy place the world had become.

      Behold the blood-red smear smile of the clown, the black and white striped shirt, those thick, bushy, arched, evil eyebrows, the white makeup, behold the evil inside. Behind that evil smile was a man who had killed a kid, dug a ditch, and dipped him in there. Then he’d shoveled enough earth on top to help us all forget what he’d done. There was bound be trouble from that day onwards, Ladies and Gentlemen, each and every time The Circus came to town. 

      ***

      ‘So, what’s it all about then, eh?’

      None of us knew what it was about.

      At least I didn’t.

      What was it all about?

      Was it about the way he’d grasped the rose-colored skin of the child’s neck and twisted until it snapped?

      Or the speed with which he’d dug the ditch behind the Strongman’s caravan?

      The way he’d dumped the body and lit a cigarette with the casual displacement of a meat trader?

      The pack of cards he’d used to lure the boy in?

      Or was it all about the screech of the owl that flew above The Circus that night?

      Life is cheap under the Big Top, but Joey never seemed the type of clown you’d see luring puppies into the heart of the forest. As a child he was neither evil, sociopathic, nor superficially charming. Not at first, at least. Joey’s toxicity was slow and deadly, building up like mercury or lead. His

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