A Beast Without a Name: Crime Fiction Inspired by the Music of Steely Dan

A Beast Without a Name is a collection of twelve short crime fiction stories all based on the music of Steely Dan. Eleven take their cues from song titles and one from an album title. Steely Dan was allegedly named for a steam-powered dildo in William Burroughs’ beat classic Naked Lunch.Despite a handful of hits in the Seventies such as Reelin’ in the Years, My Old School, and Rikki Don’t Loose That Number, Steely Dan is a bit of an obscure band and the vast majority of their soft rock jazz fusion catalog is not well known by most folks these days. Therefore, as a reader you are probably not that familiar with most of the songs used as story titles in this book. Despite a few call-outs to the band and hidden references, most of the stories are simply take offs on the song titles rather than the lyrical visions of the songs.The stories are as follows: (1) Pixie Dare Returns Peter Spiegelman; (2)Monkey in Your Soul Matthew Quinn Martin; (3) Here at the Western World Naomi Hirahara; (4) Black Friday Steve Brewer; (5) Hey Nineteen W.H. Cameron; (6) No Static at All Jim Winter; (7) West of Hollywood Libby Cudmore; (8) Don’t Take Me Alive Aaron Erickson; (9) Rikki Don’t Lost That Number Richie Narvaez; (10) Kid Charlemagne Kat Richardson; (11) The Girl Could Be So Cruel Jim Thomsen; and (12) Halfway Crucified Reed Farrel Coleman.While all the stories in this collection were entertaining, for my money, Here at the Western World by Naomi Hirahara is the most original. This is a song that was left over from their album work and then, although never been on the air before, was stuck on their greatest hits album by the record company. Here’s the chorus: “Knock twice, rap with your caneFeels nice, you’re out of the rain. We got your skinny girl. Here at the Western World.”Hirahara takes this odd little song and turns it into a Kurt Vonnegut like exposition on a secret company that hires out artificially enhanced lookalikes to play the part of the deceased for the grieving spouse right up to including re-enacting the meet up or the wedding night. A brilliant turn of a song title into something new.Black Friday by Steve Brewer is also a favorite. The song title apparently refers to an 1800’s Gold speculator in Australia who ran off with all the proceeds. The connection to Brewer’s story is obvious as it relates a story of a casino robber who ran off to hide in the Australian Outback until the day one of his ex partners who also had a million in proceeds swam-dived off the 22nd floor.And not to be forgotten is Katy Lied which is an album title, not a song, but takes in a lyric from the song Dr. Wu: “Katy lies, you could see it in her eyes.”

Anthologies can be hit or miss, especially when themes are involved, but this one pierces the bullseye. There’s a nice variety of writing styles and themes in these stories to keep each tale fresh and interesting while most of the characters show good depth and great dimension. Two stories that stood out were Ricky Don’t Lose That Number by Richie Narvaez and The Girl Could Be So Cruel by Jim Thomsen because of the characters, narratives, twists, and surprise endings. Like all good crime fiction, A Beast Without A Name explores concepts that force the reader to question societal values along with their own. One thing that was very different about this work was the fresh perspective some of the stories showed regarding the impact of feminine persuasion on the male psyche. I don’t know that I’ve read anything which so vulnerably explores a male character’s fragility and need to be wanted. Refreshing and engrossing, these stories keep the pages turning and reader satisfied. A great read!