Review: Quirky with a touch of Fraughtness
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 06 19, 2013
A quirky little short story which has left me in a little bit of a quandary as I have no idea how to tag it! I wasn't sure whether it was a mystery or a thriller or a who dunnit ...Rich Lacey is an employed  private investigator working for 'Bossman' who is trailing a guy through deserted country roads and into the backwoods of Michigan.It needed to be a short story as I don't think there was much more mileage in it.  Having said that it was well written and the premise is one that we see all too often, especially here in the UK where investigators attempt to get evidence against those who have 'suffered' an injury and are then getting hefty insurance payouts or state benefits as they claim they are unable to work. Lacey's problem is that Rufus Stamford has gone of the grid moved from an urban area to a an area where the critters outnumber the humans, so how does he manage to get the evidence he needs to have the claim and ongoing payments suspended?  The investigation is further complicated by a chance meeting , or was it, when he attempts to find a motel for the night which then places doubts in Lacey's mind about the job he is doing.For the paltry sum of 0.77 pence UK,  or $1.17 in the US  this is a diverting wee read that passes the time rather pleasantly.  It has a touch of fraughtness in it with Lacey second guessing his decision to follow his target off road and into the woods and then fearing for his own safety when he discovers that he is alone in the wilderness with a guy with a gun, does he survive and is his conscience pricked enough to .......As I say below in my scoring the editing seems to have been done properly but there were no links, which is always helpful, but it seemed nicely laid out although, whether it is Mr O'Reilly or anyone else, even in a short story of 29 pages I do like a natural resting point that gives you a break.  There were a couple but you were already on to the next sentence before you actually noticed them.Two grammatical errors; then the, instead of than the,  and couple places instead of couple of places so overall not bad as I have seen worse in mainstream publishing and by well known authors.The book cover certainly gives you the plot in one picture but there is just something about it that I can't put my finger on, that really doesn't do it for me, sorry can't explain it any better than that.On the strength of this though I may just be tempted to look at the other short stories put out by this author which can be seen here or hereEditing for Kindle: 4 out of 5Reading Enjoyment: 4 out of 5Page Count: 29Front cover Art Work: (related to story) 4 out of 5Plot: 5 out of 5Overall Rating: 4 out of 5