Pseudopod 067: Memories of the Knacker’s Yard

[Russell Nash]

Pseudopod 067: Memories of the Knacker’s Yard

By Ian Creasey
Read by Ben Phillips

“How long have we had this one?” I asked, shivering in the morgue’s chill.


“Two days,” the white-coat guy said. I didn’t know his name. I try to remember the lab people and support staff, but turnover’s too high. This line of work burns people out faster than a crematorium on overtime.

“What did you leave it that long for?” I said, annoyed. “Waiting for the killer to turn himself in?”

“We were waiting for the ghost to show up,” he said.

I shook my head in disgust. “Look, when someone’s been murdered, they want us on the case. If their ghost doesn’t turn up in twenty-four hours, that’s because it can’t.”

That was the problem. If a ghost complains that it’s just been murdered, it can help us by describing the killer, or at least telling us about its enemies. Investigating a murder without a ghost is much harder. The slashing was the third this month, all without ghosts, and the eighth this year. Or was it the ninth?

Hell, when you lose count of the corpses, you know you’re losing.


Listen to this week's Pseudopod.

[note from Bdoomed] sorry i didnt get this one up, i havent been home for a while! :O

[Jim]

What an interesting meta-genre, ghost story noir detective yarn!

[sirana]

wow, now that's what I call noir. loved it.

[bolddeceiver]

Well, that takes the CSI/24/etc. "Ends Justify The Means In Law Enforcement" trope to the extreme.

[darusha]

That was very good.  I really liked the hints of some kind of virus or technological reason behind why people were ghosts. Very disturbing.  Hooray!

[eytanz]

I really enjoyed this one. I'm pretty unsure whether I would want more stories that would explain the backstory, or whether it's best left alone.

[DDog]

I really loved this story.

It also makes a perfect parallel to the recent Escape Pod story "Me and My Shadow."

[gelee]

"The silence was so pregnant it had quintuplets."
I'm still listening.  I'm loving this.

[DDog]

"The silence was so pregnant it had quintuplets."
I'm still listening.  I'm loving this.

Oh yes. I loved those little tidbits. I can't remember any of them now, but I squeed when I heard them. This was one of the best Pseudopod stories for me.

[gelee]

This is the best PP I've heard yet.  Great story, well written (and well read, too.  Nice work, Ben).
Creasey has done a great job taking the noir mystery to a place that I haven't heard it go often, and never this well.

"The silence was so pregnant it had quintuplets."
I'm still listening.  I'm loving this.

Oh yes. I loved those little tidbits. I can't remember any of them now, but I squeed when I heard them. This was one of the best Pseudopod stories for me.

Another of my favorites:
"I glared at him.  He glared at me.  He had a better glare because he had three eyes."  I don't chuckle out loud very often when listening to audio fiction.
I'd love to hear more from this author, especially in this setting.

[Bdoomed]

*glee* i loved this story too. ben's reading suited the narrator and the story perfectly.
"They say a woman's work is never done, but try being a policeman."

[gelee]

I really liked the idea of trafficking in memories and experiences.  I thought the implications were worked out nicely.  A really neat premise on the whole.  It left me with a slew of questions, but it a good way: How did people start becoming ghosts?  Why do the ghosts fade?  Etc...

[sirana]

It left me with a slew of questions, but it a good way: How did people start becoming ghosts?  Why do the ghosts fade?  Etc...

Maybe it wasn't that people started becoming ghosts, maybe just the technology to detect them (ghost glasses) and to decant your memories in little bottles was invented. at least that was the way I read it at the time I was listening...

[gelee]

It left me with a slew of questions, but it a good way: How did people start becoming ghosts?  Why do the ghosts fade?  Etc...

Maybe it wasn't that people started becoming ghosts, maybe just the technology to detect them (ghost glasses) and to decant your memories in little bottles was invented. at least that was the way I read it at the time I was listening...

That may be the case.  My memory is sketchy on a good day.

[Kaa]

I must also come in on the side of this being perhaps the best PseudoPod yet.  I was listening with about half my mind while driving, as I usually do, and then I heard this:

"What did you leave it that long for?" I said, annoyed.  "Waiting for the killer to turn himself in?"

"We were waiting for the ghost to show up," he said.

That got my attention, and I rewound the iPod back to the beginning of the story and listened more closely.  I've heard this one, now, three times.  And I loved it all three times.

I can only say: More of Mr. Creasey, please.

[Listener]

I really liked this story.  The descriptions were slightly TOO florid in places, but I forgave it because the world the author created was amazing, and the story, while slightly predictable, was interesting enough to keep me going.  I'd say this deserves to at least be on the medium list for the year's best horror.

The reader seemed a little disinterested in the beginning -- like, he didn't want to be reading it, not like the cop was jaded.  It resolved itself though.

[eytanz]

I really liked this story.  The descriptions were slightly TOO florid in places, but I forgave it because the world the author created was amazing, and the story, while slightly predictable, was interesting enough to keep me going.  I'd say this deserves to at least be on the medium list for the year's best horror.

I actually found this to be one of the least predictable stories ever on Pseudopod - I really wasn't sure if this story will end with an arrest or whether the cop will take over as a murderer. That was one of my favorite aspects of the story - it's rare to get a story where the outcome is entirely based on what came before (so no secrets or twists), but is still not obviously pre-determined.

[Kaa]

I actually found this to be one of the least predictable stories ever on Pseudopod - I really wasn't sure if this story will end with an arrest or whether the cop will take over as a murderer. That was one of my favorite aspects of the story - it's rare to get a story where the outcome is entirely based on what came before (so no secrets or twists), but is still not obviously pre-determined.

That's a good point. I had much the same thoughts, except a third alternative was whether the cop was already/actually the murderer.  I thought there were a lot of clues that this was where it was headed, so it rather surprised me when it wasn't him.

[Chodon]

I really liked this one.  The description of the ghost town gave me a real creepy-crawly feel.  I have a hard time the living would give up the real-estate of a city to a bunch of poltergeist, but I suppose there may not have been much the living could do about it.  I'm not usually a mystery fan, but this one clicked with me because of the setting and extraordinary circumstances (ghosts and thought stealing).  Excellent story and reading!

[Listener]

I really liked this story.  The descriptions were slightly TOO florid in places, but I forgave it because the world the author created was amazing, and the story, while slightly predictable, was interesting enough to keep me going.  I'd say this deserves to at least be on the medium list for the year's best horror.

I actually found this to be one of the least predictable stories ever on Pseudopod - I really wasn't sure if this story will end with an arrest or whether the cop will take over as a murderer. That was one of my favorite aspects of the story - it's rare to get a story where the outcome is entirely based on what came before (so no secrets or twists), but is still not obviously pre-determined.

That's a good point. I had much the same thoughts, except a third alternative was whether the cop was already/actually the murderer.  I thought there were a lot of clues that this was where it was headed, so it rather surprised me when it wasn't him.

Well, yes, I wasn't 100% sure, but I had a pretty good feeling it would end the way it did.  Had it ended the way Kaa or Eytanz said, that would've been a surprise.  Those endings were possible, but the way it actually ended was, in my mind, the most likely.

[Russell Nash]

I've seen the cop/ghost thing before, but this was the first time I've seen it taken seriously.  Normally they just decide it's a gimic and go for the giggles.  The Philip Marlowe was a little too heavy at times.  The dreary worn down cop trope is done to death.  But ghosts claiming they were different types of people in real life and the chance to be able to get 5 years of instrument practice in an afternoon was great.

This one is a keeper.

[DKT]

Absolutely one of the best Pseudopods I've ever heard.  I could listen to this one 10 more times, I think and still get more out of it.  I loved that Creasey just embraced the noir thing, going for it all out.  And the ghost thing -- holy shit.  The bit with Charlie coinhabiting a spirit with 4 other ghosts, tasting the ghosts' memories, the knacker himself -- great stuff. 

Parts of this, tasting the ghost memories, reminded me of a really underrated SF noir movie called Strange Days.  There was a drug in that movie people took that was basically their's (or other people's) memories.  The way it was presented and used here with the bottles of spirits, was fantastic. 

I might have to go back and relisten to the other Creasey story now.

[DKT]

I meant to say this before, but this is the kind of story that Ben Philips was born to narrate.

[coyote247]

Reminded me of Goon Job, which is a very good thing.

[Loz]

I really loved this story, certainly one of my favourite Pseudopod stories of all time, though I have to wonder, is that because it didn't really seem like a horror story? Sure, it had ghosts, and a serial killer, the danger of losing one's identity and ectoplasmic-testical interaction, but it could have quite justifiably been published by Escape Pod as the dark urban noir that it was. It's the more definitely horrific stories that tend to leave me varying degrees of cold.

In it's richness of texture it reminded me of the first time I read any of China Mieville's Bas Lag books, the little detail that is never explained but gives colour to the overall picture (like the Hamster Factor in 12 Monkeys). I'd definitely like a sequel, and this is one of the few times I've been so enthused by a story that I'm going to go visit their website to see what else they have.