[Here's one from the archives. This review originally appeared in the Summer 2007 issue of Spinetingler. We're blowing the dust off because Hansen has made this cult classic available as an ebook, for $4.99. Even if you've already got one of the old copies or have already read it you'll want to pick it up, it is an expanded edition and is at least one third longer then the original release.]
Speedy has been released from prison and is heading home. But when he gets back, he finds his little brother a homeless crack addict and his best friend working an underground punk club. But when a couple of childhood friends are chained and tossed in the river, Speedy and his friends know they need to deliver some payback. But soon things go from bad to worse and Speedy know he needs use everything he knows to set things right.
Pearce Hansen’s bio let’s you know this isn’t just any work of fiction. The characters, descriptions of life on the street aren’t just from his imagination but bore from real life experience. Hansen’s difficult past gives his prose an authentic raw and unfiltered feel. This isn’t the San Francisco area from the post cards but a nasty dark place that doesn’t forgive or forget easily.
But don’t confuse fact and fiction. This is not autobiographical nor is it a memoir. Instead it is a look into a world that most people look away from. His style is raw and yet refined at the same time.
I suggest that anyone who wants to read a story that might change the way they look at crime fiction to pick up a copy of Street Raised.
