A while back I hada chance to read Brad's novella, Dogs of War, and while I
wasn't wowed by it I thought it showed the guy had something going
for him, and I wanted to keep his work in mind for later down the
road, like the litany of names on my watch list. Then, last week, I
stumbled across a free short story by him up on the Kindle Store. I
figured I could make some time for a 3,000 word story to check out
another piece of his work.
"Last Dance of
the Black Widow" is about a widow Abbey Whistler waiting in her
hospital room, waiting for her judgment to arrive in the wake of her
death. Time is at a standstill, seemingly frozen until its decided
whether she's headed upstairs or down. When someone joins her in the
room finally, it's her long-dead father and the news isn't good.
The story
essentially takes place entirely in the hospital room with the
revelations and action occurring through their conversation. Abbey
pleads for admittance to Heaven, but as the story progresses it
becomes clear that it's unlikely she'll get her wish, and even she
understand why deep down.
Some of the
dialogue feels a bit stiff, a tad theatrical, but it's a story I
found interesting for the fact that I my sympathy for Abbey eroded
with each page. And I thought the end worked quite well.
It's worth a look
if you want to take a chance on an independent author.
