200 pages, Paperback
Expected publication: October 27, 2026 by Coffee House Press
Two Brian Evenson books in a row. Last Days was my introduction to Brian Evenson, who is one of the most reviewed/interviewed authors across my various blogs, columns, and podcasts. That first experience 17 years ago began when I attended a reading event in Portland at Powell’s, although I had never heard of Brian before that day. I went home with a copy of The Last Days. At the time, we lived near a high school stadium and track; I used to walk laps of the track reading. I have a distinct memory of reading some of the most disturbing moments of Last Days on those summer walks on the track. One of my strongest sense memories with a novel.
What did I say back then? “The story is of a former undercover cop, Kline, who in his last mission had his hand cut off by a “man with a cleaver.” He lives on, but he is lonely and depressed. All that changes when he gets a phone call asking him to go undercover again. The job: investigate the murder of a cult leader; the cult is made up of Christians who take Matthew so literally that they cut off their hands to get closer to God.
Once inside the cult, we learn that they have taken multiple amputations and have set a hierarchy based on who has the most body parts sacrificed. The world in the Brotherhood of Mutilation is both disgusting and darkly comedic. By the second half, when we meet their rival breakaway group, it gets even more amusing. That is not to say that the book is slapstick; it's a brutal horror bizarro detective story. Evenson's dialogue in this book is perfectly choppy noir with lots of short, snappy comical exchanges. The suspense is handled with a minimalist flair, and the moments of gruesome reveals are plentiful. This is a strange and wonderful piece of horror literature that should not be missed.”
What I didn’t know at the time was that type of dialogue was specific to this noir novel. I assumed that the first time that Brian Evenson, like Elmore Leonard, was always writing this kind of dialogue. As I read the sequel, however, I had almost two decades of reading Evenson to understand better what he was doing. Last Days and Phantom Limb are very noir, but that is not a natural style for Evenson. Chandler and Hammett wrote in that voice naturally; it was their voice. Evenson is a writer of many styles and voices; he does great at it, but this is a very intentional vibe. “Last time I saw you, you were carrying one head too many. Then you decided maybe you’d leave your spare head under my hospital bed.”
He leaned closer. “You know what it’s like knowing there’s a severed head under your bed?”
“Probably unpleasant,” said Kline.
“That’s it?” said Frank. “No, sorry about the head, Frank?”
“I already apologized for the arm,” said Kline.
“Last conversation we had,” said Frank, “you, me, and the head, you said you wanted to turn yourself in.”
“Change of heart,” said Kline.
That tells me that these two novels, described as literary horror by most, are the blackest of the black comedies, and I am not sure if Evenson considers them to be noir parody, but I do. Don’t get me wrong, they are horror novels for sure. I mean, these books make you cringe and laugh at the same time, and I think satire can be overlooked because it gets so gruesome at moments.
The Phantom Limb is a direct sequel, starting shortly after the first book's events. Kline is in prison, although the full extent of what he did is not known. He killed many in the Brotherhood and burned down their property. He doesn’t regret his actions but prison is not fun. This is depicted in a scene I just thought was excellently written. “Six months later, he was serving a five-year term. With good behavior, apparently he might be out in three. When he was processed, he was braced to have someone mess with him over his missing arm, but they left him alone. Apparently he was too beat-up, too scarred, to smell of anything but trouble.
The cell they assigned him had a lock that squealed when you turned the key in it and slid it open. He felt it every single time, gouging its way deeper and deeper into his brain.”
He is doing his time when a man shows up who knows who he is.
“You tell them,” said Kline. “Tell them that there’s no Kline here. Only Werner.”
“They already know who you really are,” Orst said.
“Werner,” Kline repeated. “And even if I were this Kline, judging by the looks of you I’d never come back to their goddamn fold.”
“You really want me to tell them that?”
Someone comes for Kline and regrets it. I love this description of solitary confinement. “Orst didn’t rat him out, but he still got two days in solitary. He was, after all, covered in blood. On the second day, in the darkness, just as he was getting used to the people he had killed circling around him, was almost ready to start having meaningful conversations with them, a guard released him, took him back to his cell.”
Kline is of course, dragged back into it. He is hired by the very people he tried to destroy who get him released and he is suddenly back in the strangest of all holy wars between the Brotherhood of Mutilation and the Pauls. That is when the gruesome deaths start up again.
This leads to a great line of noir dialogue.
“The thing I can’t figure out is why every time it’s either them or you it always ends up being them.”
“Just lucky, I guess.”
The religious cult that believes you are closer to god by cutting off body parts seems crazy to us, but Kline has gotten stronger and survived so much after losing part of his arm. Is he tempted?
“The question is not whose hand was it, but whose hand can it be?”
“Whose hand can it be?”
Grida smiled with half her face, spread what remained of her arms. “Whoever desires it,” she said. “Perhaps, great doubter, even you.”
I won’t say why, but Phantom Limb and Glitch Evenson’s fantastic novella from Pink Beam has couple of things in common, including a stunning last page. This novel is fantastic. An amazing sequel to the first insane horror-noir body-horror detective classic. Since that was a fix-up of two novellas, can we call this the Brotherhood of Mutilation trilogy? Must-reads.
