Review: Will She Get Caught?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 04 2, 2014
Jack Erickson's "Perfect Crime" is a mystery short story in the mold of the classic TV series Columbo. The question isn't whodunit, it's whether the killer will get caught, and, if so, how.Cheryl, the story's narrator, is a successful businesswoman whose husband cheats on her every time she leaves town on one of her frequent business trips. Fed up with his infidelity, she decides to get rid of him permanently and devises what she thinks is a foolproof, two-pronged plan. First, she plans to make his death look like an accident, and, second, she sets herself up with a perfect alibi. She learns that her hubby and his mistress go for their fun and games to a cabin in the woods owned by a friend of his. So, when she goes on a trip from San Francisco to Los Angeles, she arranges for a propane barbecue tank outside the cabin to explode, killing the two of them.  She also makes it appear as if she was in Los Angeles the entire time, even though she found a way to drive to San Francisco and back without being noticed.Erickson doesn't spend a lot of time on character development, so we never really learn enough about Cheryl to either sympathize with her plight or, alternatively, hope she gets caught. Nor does this fairly short story (about 20 pages) allow much time for the type of back-and-forth mental games between killer and cops that made Columbo so much fun. Instead, Erickson gives the audience a puzzle to try to figure out. He gives us just enough description of Cheryl so that we can accept the story's central premise. Her motivation is credible, and her method is ingenious but not beyond the realm of possibility. So, we are left with trying to see if we can spot a hole in her scheme and guess whether the cops will do the same. Fortunately, Cheryl's plan is ingenious enough to make the story an entertaining diversion.One other caveat for readers: The story itself takes up only about half of the entire book. The rest of the book contains previews of two of Erickson's novels, so what Erickson advertises as a 35-page story is actually somewhat less. I received the book for free as a promotion, so the filler material didn't bother me. However, if readers are asked to pay for the story, they should be aware just how much of an actual story they are getting and how much promotional material. I liked the story enough so that the listed 99-cent price didn't seem to me to be overly excessive, although I understand some readers may differ.