Review: A MATTER OF CHOICES...Well crafted suspense here and much food for thought.
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 06 5, 2013
To begin with, this is a rather difficult work to assess and review.  Part of the problem is that this little book does not quite make it into the novelette or novella category, but rather it is a short story - the sort of short work that use to be found in the wonderful old magazines which have all unfortunately have gone the way of the passenger pigeon. In many ways the "reading machines" have taken the place of my old beloved publications when it comes to short stories - a fact for which I am personally grateful. I must be very careful not to include a spoiler here.The geographical location is in upper Michigan, deep in the woods.  An insurance fraud investigator is watching and filming a man suspected of making a good living via a fraudulent disability claim.  Is all what it seems?Let me tell you that this is not an action packed story.  There are no chase scenes, no fights, no absolute presents of physical danger...or is there?  This is a first time author it would seem and I was so very, very gratified that there were no vampires, zombies or werewolves involved...how refreshing!This though is a slow and intensely crafted story of suspense.  The author builds this feeling; a feeling of the unknown and implied "bad things could happen," very skillfully.  It is also a story of choices; of doing the right thing after all the facts are known and is everything as it seems?There...no spoilers as far as I can tell.I suppose that the most important aspect of this work is the writing.  I download quite a large number of these rather inexpensive works to my Kindle simply because I live good and novel writing.  I most certainly got my monies worth with this one.  This is not always the case.  About 95 percent of these short works fall directly into the "wretched" category.  Not so with this one.  This is obviously a new author and I will be the first to tell you (and I suspect that the author would too), that he has a way to go before he can set at the same bar with Hemingway or his like.  But I tell you truthfully, this young writer most certainly has the potential and I suspect that we will be hearing much from him on down the road.This one is well worth the download and read.Don BlankenshipThe Ozarks