If you enjoy tales of retribution and bad people having bad things happen to them, then you may want to give Canadian crime writer Beau Johnson a red-hot go. Johnson is a master of tales that are short and (not-so) sweet. In fact, he downright swims in the darkness, penning crime short stories and flash fiction laced with humour and horror.

All of Them to Burn is a fascinating collection of tales – many of them linked by the figure of Bishop Rider, a maimed ex-Army medic with friends on both sides of the law who’s spurred by family tragedy to visit Old Testament-style justice on human traffickers. Bishop’s stories are violent vignettes, yet Johnson deftly balances depictions so they aren’t too gratuitous; instead, he uses our whirring imaginations against us.

It’s an interesting storytelling technique to tell Bishop’s overall story in snapshots, interspersed with some memorable stand-alone stories that provide very tasty entremets, from ‘Reshoots’ where a school photographer uncovers a hidden evil, to the grin-inducing horror of ‘Hands’, and the meta-conversation between character and author in ‘Building Character’. While the violence in some tales may be too much for some readers, there’s no doubt Johnson is a heck of a storytelling talent, who brings visceral events, emotional oomph, and a savage honesty to the page. Well worth a look.

Reviewed by Craig Sisterson