Col Bury's Crime Fiction Choice #10
CHARLES IN CHARGE - by Sean Patrick Reardon
Sean chose the rarely used 2nd POV for this Halloween short over at TKnC, and expertly pulled it off.
When a family man fighting his demons takes a trip to the fairground with his teenage daughter, things go horribly wrong, culminating in an unexpected denouement.
Col Bury's Crime Fiction Choice #11PILLOW TALK - by Jodi MacArthur
Found this beaut over at Beat to a Pulp. From the title, I initially thought it was gonna be a cosy number, but how wrong could I be?
The central character, Henrietta, has to be one of the most disturbing female protags I've read in any short around. Fierce, yet unembellished, in its delivery, this creepy tale will keep you shuddering long after the final word.
Col Bury's Crime Fiction Choice #12SLASH AND BURN - by Matt Hilton
In the third of the Joe Hunter crime thriller series, Matt Hilton provides the compulsory action, bullets, explosions and body count. However this time, not only is it sprinkled with dark humour, but also a pleasantly surprising touch of romance for tough guy Hunter, which adds further story depth.
In this adventure, Hunter is up against a murderous businessman (Huffman) who has kidnapped Hunter's dead, Special Forces friend's sister in a bid to save the former's corrupt empire from crumbling. If this isn't enough, the formidable Bolan twins on Hunter's tail remind me of Heavyweight Champs, the Klitschko brothers.
When reading a novel it's preferable to learn something new, and here I could certainly tell from the face-to-face combat that it was penned by a martial arts expert. The author is the first to concede it won't be everyone's cuppa, but if you like escaping via entertaining, dynamic prose and the thrill of the chase - in this case, from Florida through to Little Fork, Kentucky - then look no further than Slash and Burn.
