ELEVEN NUMBERS

5 stars out of 5

I'm not normally a fan of short stories, but I am a fan of this author - so I decided to give it a go. It is, after all, only 33 pages, so how bad could it be? Well, not bad at all; not only did I polish it off in less than half an hour, the story itself is five-star worthy in my book. 

Very short stories do, however, make reviewing nearly impossible; what can you say that won't give away the farm? That said, here goes anyway: Nathan Tyler, a math professor somewhere in the United States, is prepping to head to Moscow for a meeting of mathematic minds when he gets a strange phone call. That, in turn, puts him in a strange alliance with U.S. powers that be (at the highest level), who want him to deduce a password that would allow entry into a Kremlin system that could change the course of history. Since the Moscow mathematician who created it will be attending the same conference in his city, they want Tyler to do a meet-and-greet, get to know the guy, somehow figure out the password and pass it on.

Needless to say, all doesn't quite go as planned - and that's as far as I'll go except to recommend that others who find the description intriguing go get it. My thanks go to the publisher, via NetGalley, for the opportunity to read it.

Eleven Numbers by Lee Child (Amazon Original Stories, February 2025); 33 pp.

NINTH AND NOWHERE

5 stars out of 5

If Jeffery Deaver wrote it, I want to read it. Yes, even if it's a short story - probably my least favorite form of literature (save poetry by Emily Dickinson, but that's a story for another day). It took me less than an hour from start to finish - partly because it's just 52 pages and mostly because it's totally engrossing.

The length makes it difficult to review; there's little that can be said without giving away too much. Basically, as the official description says, it's the story of seven people from very different walks of life who are "connected" in different ways - among them a near-retirement cop, a dealer of illegal firearms and a former Special Forces veteran now living on the street. That they were to meet up seemed destined from the beginning, but exactly how is threaded throughout the story but isn't fully revealed until the very end. 

What happens and how it all shakes out is interesting, but what struck me the most is how willingly I bought into stereotyped perceptions of the characters. Oopsie! Bottom line? Good story. Read it.

Ninth and Nowhere by Jeffery Deaver (Amazon Original Stories, January 2019); 52 pp.

THE GUY WHO DIED TWICE

5 stars out of 5


Generally speaking, I shy away from short stories. But once in a while, especially if it's coming from a favorite author, I relent. Recent releases by Dean Koontz and Jonathan Kellerman come to mind - short stories they wrote as lead-ins to upcoming books. In fact, I've even read a shorty by this author, who's also on my list of favorites -- albeit one co-written with M.J. Rose for the anthology FaceOff a few years back (an outstanding compilation that I highly recommended, BTW). So when I got a chance to read an advance copy of this one, I didn't hesitate.

I'm actually glad it's very short, because I really didn't want to put it down and could finish it in one sitting. As it begins, Detective D.D. Warren is at home with her crime scene analyst husband Alex and their son Jack after a day that began with a very much alive man coming to the station to insist that really, he's very much dead. Believing him to be a bit deranged, the cops send him home. That belief turns upside down a couple of hours later, though, when they get a phone call: It seems the man was on the right track but spoke a bit too soon. Now, his claim is official - and the knife in his back is a dead giveaway that someone else helped him prove his point.

Sections of the book shift back and forth from the after-work discussion to the police station and the beginning of D.D.'s day, from announcement of the man's death to the progress and conclusion of the investigation. Much of that takes place inside the man's ostentatious home, wherein live the man's widow and several exceptionally well-paid servants - all of whom are suspects. Because everything happens in such short order I can't say more without giving away too much, but it's all cleverly written with overtones of the game of Clue: We know it was a knife, but was it the chef in the kitchen? The doctor in the bedroom? The wife in the sitting room? In the end, I'm glad I didn't put money on my chosen culprit; had I done that, I'd be eating ramen noodles for the rest of the week.

After the case wraps up, readers can take a peek at the author's next D.D. Warren book. Me? Thanks, but I prefer to wait for the whole thing and go in cold turkey - but it's there for inquiring minds who want to know ahead of time.

The Guy Who Died Twice by Lisa Gardner (Penquin Group, January 2019); page length not listed.

THE GROWNUP

5 stars out of 5

Two points to note here: First, this is a very short story, not a book. Second, it's not new; it was first published as "What Do You Do?" in George R.R. Martin's Rogues anthology that includes all-new works by a number of other authors. Recently - I suppose to capitalize on author Gillian Flynn's success with Gone Girl - this was released as a standalone Kindle Single. While I rarely read short stories, my love of Gone Girl prompted me to ante up $2.99 for this one.

At just 66 pages and a single chapter, it was a quick read. Happily, it also was quite good; starting to read it perhaps an hour before bedtime wasn't very smart. In the end bedtime won, but I finished it the next morning before my usual two cups of coffee were empty.

The story centers on a young woman who makes a pretty good living "servicing" men in a back room at a psychic reading parlor. When she ends up with carpal tunnel syndrome and for the most part is unable to ply her trade, she moves to the front of the building to hand out (pun intended) her take on auras. Not long thereafter (this is a short story, after all), she meets a woman who claims to be terrified; she's living in a Victorian mansion that has a shady history with her often-gone husband, their son, and her stepson. The latter, a 15-year-old terror, is intent on killing her.

Needless to say, the woman foresees an income opportunity and agrees to help. More than that I can't reveal, but it's a really good story for those who aren't put off by the world's oldest profession and a some rather explicit language.

The Grownup by Gillian Flynn (November 2015); 66 pp.

THE RIGHT THING TO DO

5 stars out of 5

This short story lays the foundation for Jonathan Kellerman's upcoming book, The Murderer's Daughter, set for release in mid-August 2015. Although I've been vocal about not being a fan of the so-called "prequels," I caved in this time simply because it's written by an author at the Top 3 of my favorites list.

At just 47 pages it took only half an hour or so to read, and I'm happy to say it's excellent. The story stands alone, but - as I'm sure is the intent - the ending left me wondering what will happen next.  No doubt I'll forget everything I read by the time I get the full book on my Kindle Fire, though (one of the reasons I avoid prequels), so I'll write a quick review that I can use to refresh my memory before I dive into the real thing.

The story begins in 1965 (put in my perspective, at that time our son would have been two years old and I was a stay-at-home mom), when a young man named Malcolm Bluestone takes a break between finishing a Harvard degree and starting law school to visit his older brother Steve in California. The two are far enough apart in age that they've never been close, but Malcolm admires Steve and his free-wheeling lifestyle as a movie "star."

So far, Malcolm has walked the more conventional path favored by his elderly parents - Jewish immigrants who fled Germany to escape the wrath of Hitler's regime - but he's also harbored a desire to veer off course and create his own walkway. While visiting his brother's movie set and witnessing an incident that shocks him to the core, he makes the decision to do exactly that: After all, it's the right thing to do.

The Right Thing to Do (short story, Kindle Single) by Jonathan Kellerman (Ballantine Books, July 2015); 47 pp.