Package II by Cleve Sylcox is the second installment of the series following Dave Winters, the hard-boiled two-fisted detective receiving death threats after wrapping up The Package I. ‘Die Scum’ is the opening line of the anonymous note, and it’s pure Sylcox to the final chapter. The author parodizes, patronizes and plasters the genre throughout the short story, and without getting inside the author’s mind you’ll never know what happened. We’re back at his cluttered desk at his shabby office, closing it down and heading out to Moe’s where Angel’s waiting with the usual. Al and Louie are still stumbling around outside looking for something good to pick up off the sidewalk. Only someone’s lurking in the shadows to take Dave’s head off, and it’s never a question of why (we’ll get there eventually), but who’s at the head of the line this time. This is Mike Hammer in Hell, a genetic splicing of Mickey Spillane and Quentin Tarantino. It’s not about Dave catching the bad guy and living happily ever after – not happening. This is Dave leaving Moe’s every night with someone waiting to knock his head off, forever and ever and ever.

For literary students, this is Poe, Baudelaire and Sartre finding their way to Moe’s after Mickey Spillane took off. Package II by Cleve Sylcox is detective noir you can’t fantasize without.