Review: You Come to a T-Junction - Right or Left?
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 01 26, 2012
The first two stories in Along the Splintered Path are based on choices and the third is a full blown horror story.  The first centers around a down and out failure Phillip Brown.  The economy was bad - he lost his family - he's homeless.  In others' eyes, Phillip Brown is a bum.  However this bum gets the chance of a liftime, a bag of money and coins with the body of a dead man hanging over a side of a bridge and bleeding.  Sirens sound with flashing cherry tops, he runs with the money.  What I liked about the story is the switch off between Phillip and the Williams brothers Thad & Hollis.  They held up a quickie store, a man is dead, and they're on the run.  Choices: Phillip has every right to be selfish, but he can he care?  Hollis has anger issues: how will he deal with them?  The second 'Round These Bones' is the sad end of a marriage, anger and a hasty decision, and James has a totaled car, a leg with a bone showing through and he finds shelter in a dark hut.  Lighting the Zippo, he's sharing it with dead men who are missing body parts.  Is the owner coming home sometime?  The third is 'The Woodshed' set in the North Carolina mountains and the home of an abusive father and the owner of a leather belt armed with sharp edges.  Kyle and his younger brother Kenneth (Kenny) made a bid for freedom.  Kenny isn't sure if the old man is still alive.  Kyle is sure his father is dead, isn't he?A.J. (Jeff) Brown shows an inventiveness in bringing out characters who act on who they are and they are believable, outside of some of the oddities of The Woodshed - which is a horror story par excellence.