Review: Nice collection of short thrillers
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 07 1, 2011
Intoxication is a story about Leslie, who, when her boyfriend drinks her coffee one day at the office and becomes sick, decides her secretary was really trying to poison her. The rest of this novelette explores whether or not the character's suspicions are correct, or if someone else is the true killer. But is she paranoid, as her boss believes, or is there truth to her theory that someone is out to get her?The general plot of this book is intriguing and there are plenty of twists and turns until the surprise ending. My biggest complaint is that right after Rick falls ill, Leslie assumes the coffee he drank sickened him and that she knew who did it. I would have liked to see more support as to why she immediately jumped to this conclusion. I also didn't see sufficient evidence to support that Leslie could be crazy. If that aspect of her characterization could have been developed more, I expect it would have added more suspense to the book.I found some occasional grammar mistakes and typos, and occasionally the dialogue seemed stilted. But overall it was pretty clean. 3 starsAlso included in this book was The Hitchhiker. I actually thought the characters and plot were better developed in this story than in Intoxication. The ending kept me on the edge of my seat. 4 stars.And finally, the last very short story, The Bike: without sufficient time to develop the characters, the motivation for the plot doesn't ring true for me. It left me with more questions than answers. 2.5 stars.