Raymond Reynolds
An unwitting and unlikely noir hero
Raymond Reynolds — an alcoholic country-singing rambler, and later, a hometown pothead reporter — is Michel Lee Garrett’s recurring protagonist and unwilling noir hero.
“Raymond Reynolds sat in his battered old Bronco in the lot behind the Detweiler County courthouse, burning down a joint….”
Ray’s earliest appearance.
The story “Born a Ramblin’ Man” (published in Trouble No More, Down & Out Books) shows us our first glimpse of Ray, a young rambler, on his way out of Nashville with a guitar he claims to have stolen from the Nashville Mafia (a whole story of its own, for another time). When he stows away aboard a southbound tractor-trailer, he discovers two victims of human trafficking. Still young, dumb, and selfish, he doesn’t want to get involved, but circumstance leaves him no other option.
“Luckily, they have a rescuer on board. Unluckily, the hero is Ray, and Ray, well... The fun part of the story is the conversation between Ray and the two prisoners. And the fireworks, both literal and figurative.”
—Named Best Mystery Story of the Week by Little Big Crimes
“Were my choices worth it, if they brought me here?”
In the story “My Heroes Have Always Been Cowboys,” Ray has somehow wound up working as a country singer on a dude ranch, where he stumbles headlong into trouble, just like he always does — culminating in a dangerous confrontation and an unexpected encounter. Published in the "Red Head Writing” anthology from Cowboy Jamboree Press, a literary homage to Willie Nelson.
Riding the rails
Our next glimpse of Ray comes in the flash fiction piece “Transcendent Ramblin’ Railroad Blues,” in which Ray solves a murder aboard a speeding train when he finds a fellow rambler stabbed in the gut. This death, and years of hard living, weigh heavy on his young shoulders.
Eventually, Ray returns home.
Back in his small Central Pennsylvania hometown, Ray transitions
from his hard-drinking rambling days to the next major phase of his life:
a hard-toking pothead reporter for the local newspaper, the Haroldston Herald.
How Ray makes this transition is, again, a story of its own for another time…
Small-town stoner noir
We get our first published glimpse of Ray back in his hometown as a local newspaper reporter in the story “Once I Was Stoned” published by Cowboy Jamboree Press, in which Ray chain smokes joints while going toe-to-toe with a corrupt judge. Featuring Biblical overtones, meditations on power, and a side helping of stoner comedy, Ray struggles against forces more powerful than he is…
“Follow the money, Reynolds…”
The next time we see Ray, in the story “Twenty Column Inches,” published in an anthology of cozy crime from Flame Tree Press, he’s smoking a joint outside the county government building, where he’s approached by a femme fatale alleging corruption among the county commissioners. Ray follows the paper trail, but it leads him to confronting something from his past he’s spent years not dealing with…
Ray and Johnny
During his stoner reporter days, Ray quickly becomes best friends with Johnny, the local weed dealer. Together, they get into all sorts of misadventures — like the story “Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing,” in which Johnny drags Ray to a furry convention, where they end up unravelling an attempted murder (while chain smoking joints, of course). Published in Nightside: Tales of Outre Noir. Out of print and limited copies remain!
The (mis)adventure continues…
I’m always writing; Keep an eye out for more stories about Ray throughout his life!