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….”
“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.
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…
The (mis)adventure continues…
I’m always writing. Keep an eye out for more stories about Ray throughout his life!