No, the title probably doesn’t refer to what you think it does.
Andrew Hiller’s Hornytown Chutzpah is an urban fantasy noir with a Yiddish twist, and the title refers to a demon-populated neighborhood that suddenly popped up beside Washington D.C., years prior, as sort of a colony of Hell. Think Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, but with horned-demons of Hornytown rather than the famous animated characters populating Toontown.
That Zemeckis film, or Gary K. Wolf’s Who Censored Roger Rabbit? that inspired it, serves as a good reference for the tone of Hornytown Chutzpah: plenty of noir that leans into the tropes of the genre with humor. Urban fantasy noir and comedy are elements often mashed up as a subgenre, but two things make Hornytown Chutzpah stand out. First is the aforementioned Yiddish twist. Before the story begins, Hiller gives readers “The Ten Commandments according to Sol the Wise Guy” that already got me chuckling. And after the story’s end is a glossary of (some) Yiddish and Jewish terms that one finds in the book, with cleverly and humorously crafted definitions in Sol’s voice.
Sol Weiss (Sol the Wise Guy) is the PI protagonist of the novella (or short novel), a Dick who is more of a mensch than a dick, but who still has built up some sin in his life and has some history with the police and Hornytown that makes him leery about getting involved in certain kinds of cases. But then in walks the femme fatale, a succubus demon who calls herself Ms. Urrie (read that one aloud to yourself) who says she’s been framed for murder. Worse, the murdered individual turns out to be the shady, power-hungry human Mayor of Hornytown.
Unable to say no to a gal in need — even a succubus — Sol finds himself caught between factions of humans and demons as well as past sins that he’s trying to atone for and an uncertain future. But as the blurb for the novella says, he might be the only one who has “the Manischewitz to do something about it.”
And that gets me to the second thing that makes Hornytown Chutzpah worth your time even if you’ve read plenty of this subgenre. Hiller crafts this exceptionally well, in all its pieces. The plot is engaging, there are twists, yet everything holds up to make a logical sense. Very often these kinds of stories end with things somewhat falling apart. The revelations and developments Hiller makes all land well, with a thoroughly satisfying conclusion that really makes me look forward to future volumes of what I hope is a series.
I’ve also been bothered by humorous takes on religions where the plot doesn’t have an internal consistency with the various types of faith that might be present within the world building. Here Hiller writes something where this world-building concept of demons and Hell works with a variety of faith traditions. And this is hugely important with a Jewish character whose traditions and theology don’t necessarily fit the popular image of Hell and eternal outcomes that Christianity has brought to the world.
And there’s actually a third aspect to Hornytown Chutzpah that makes it work so well. For all its humor and moments of irreverence, the characters have a lot of emotional depth (human and demon alike) and there are moments of profound understanding and serious reverence. A scene later in the novella where Sol visits a bully from his past whom he in turn has also wronged stands out in this regard, a major point for the development of the more weighty and practical themes to Hornytown Chutzpah that underlie the fun and entertainment of it all.
The ebook for Andrew Hiller’s Hornytown Chutzpah is scheduled for publication on March 17, 2026. There is also a Kickstarter campaign running for about another two weeks to fund print and audio versions of the book: Hornytown Chutzpah by Atthis Arts — Kickstarter
