Review: Excellent short story about a bounty hunter
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 08 20, 2011
I am always so grateful to amazon for the free books and short stories for the Kindle.  Otherwise I'd never discover writers who are new to me, like the author of First Impressions, David DeLee.  This is an excellent short story that has characters that I like and that I got to know something about during the course of this story.Grace deHaviland is a bounty hunter from Columbus, Ohio, but she is after a fugitive who is hiding outside a small town in New Hampshire.  Colin Maynard's girlfriend and his son, Jimmy, are also holed up with him, out of the eyes of the law, or so they think. Grace checks in with the local police station and clashes with Patrol Sgt. Sean Ritter right off the bat.  When she goes to pick up her case file, Ritter won't let her take it.  He resents her "big city" ways and her intrusion into his territory, and Grace at first thinks that Sgt. Ritter knows it all, even though this is a very small town and she knows that Columbus isn't a "big" city.When Grace finally gets her file back and starts to leave to find her fugitive, Ritter insists on going with her to find Colin Maynard, who is wanted for a long list of crimes. Grace resents this at first, because she's used to working alone, but as things heat up on the case and danger becomes a reality, Ritter's presence might just be a help to her.There is a big twist at the end that I won't be the one to give away.  All I can say is that I enjoyed reading this story very much, and I'd love to read some of the author's other short stories.  There is also an introduction to his first novel, Fatal Destiny, after the story, and I've already purchased it because I want to read more of Grace deHaviland's adventures as a bounty hunter.  The short story, First Impressions, is well-written, edited, and within the short story's limited space, I got a good enough impression of Grace and what she's like and got to know her enough that I really want to read more about her. I couldn't have asked for more from DeLee's story.A short story well done!