Review: Excellent suspense short stories from a master storyteller
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 11 8, 2012
Having read Dionne Lister's novel, Shadows of the Realm, I already knew that the author is a fantastic storyteller. This collection of short stories has confirmed the fact that she has a gift for telling a story. I was hooked from the start, and read the collection in one sitting. It's a short book, and the stories are not very long, but the author shows us how a skilled writer can make a short piece of fiction as engrossing and fulfilling as a longer work. Somehow she manages to reveal so much about each character in just a few pages. I was able to 'see' the stories unfold because Dionne Lister expertly described the scenes and the way the characters felt. The themes running through the stories are dark, hence the title 'Dark Spaces'. There are quite disturbing images throughout the book, but it is clear that the author's motivation is not to shock, but to explain some of the darker sides of life through the eyes of the victims, or the perpetrators. The stories mostly have a satisfying twist in the tail. Some of the subjects covered in these tales include, abuse, murder, drugs, crime. All of the stories are entertaining, in a dark and suspenseful kind of way. This is not a book for people who like happy endings. If you like thrillers and suspense, you'll love these stories.