Review: Worthy of the author's name.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 05 27, 2014
That moment, when you've sliced your skin with a blade, or felt it pierced by a splinter of wood. That moment when you look at the evidence and think, "That did not just happen."  Jason McIntyre  builds every word of his stories around those few seconds of painful realization--and your desire to be wrong. He makes you feel that you want to be somewhere else in the next breaths because where you are, right now, with his characters, is not a pleasant place to be. Jason makes you dread your next blink.'Mercy and the Cat' is equal to anything Jason has written, and it is chilling. However, it is freshly above those other stories of his that I have read. It is darker, more revealing, and far more dangerous.  This story hits you with all the dark power of 'On the Gathering Storm' and hurts you with as much impunity as a literal storm. His character, this Dave Bolander, is someone you like and loathe. He's that buddy you have at work that you avoid away from work. He's cocky, and smothered by marital insecurity; neither stupid nor careful, but furious. He is his own fierce gale, and still nothing compared to any bigger force he might stumble into.Dave is daring himself--daring you to watch him--and imagining that he can handle whatever trouble might be the result. But, this is a Jason McIntyre story. Both you and Dave are about to be surprised.