Review: A dark, gripping novella...
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 07 16, 2011
Without realizing it, I'm discovering myself a fan of novellas.  Short stories with wonderfully created worlds and disctinct characters that are very easily imagineable.  On Dark Shores is such a novella.This story is set in a grimy little town where it is ruled mercilessly by the moneylender, Copeland.  He and his bodyguard, Blakely, keep the villagers cowering with fear, extorting money and doling out beatings on a daily basis.  There are two sisters, and one has been forced to become a thief, being a distant relative to Copeland himself.  When the older sister realizes she'll be unable to protect the younger any longer, she determines it is time to try and escape from the clutches of her cousin.There's clearly more going on with the townfolk than they let on.  The bodyguard, Blakely, used to be a boxer, and has the power to eliminate the moneylender's grip over the town, but instead chooses to hide his emotions in booze and drugs.  There's the barkeep, Mickel, who was formerly a medic, I think, and is forced to resume his old profession as the town doctor is afraid to cross Copeland.I won't go into any other details here lest I inadvertently give away a spoiler.  Let me just say, instead, that I enjoyed the story.  The writing was smooth and flawless in execution.  I had no problems imagining I was skulking around in the dark streets of Scarlock.  This isn't a story for the faint of heart.  There's gruesome scenes of torture and murder and of unspeakable acts of cruelty.  On the plus side, the scenes are so well written that you're glued to the pages waiting to see what happens next, much like you would do if you saw an train wreck:  you know you should look away, but you find yourself transfixed to the scene.  Like that.  :)There were a few critiques that I could find.  Again, without giving anything away, the skeleton scene.  I'm not sure where that came from, but I was confused about why it was there.  I think I see where the author was going with it, but just thought it was odd and not really fitting with the rest of the story.  I feel as though the story was cut off abruptly, but I'll take that as a good sign, as I'm clearly intersted in learning what happens next, when Karma will finally catch up to those who need it, and what the fate of the older sister is.Ms. Clement, nicely done!  I'll definitely pick up the next in the series when it's released!