Swetha - a chronically perturbed mind > Recent Status Updates

The sixth decoy by Paul Kemprecos
3 ⭐️
When retired Boston officer and Ex- Marine Socarides is approached to find a collector item, he unwittingly nearly sends a man to his grave. His discovery does bring to light as to where the item was, and his employer decides to take it by force.
I think this is the kind if story that would have stood out as a novella rather than a short story. Just an opinion

Midnight in the garden of death by Heather Graham
4.5 ⭐️
Its basically a spook story, but one with elements of supernatural blended in with the horrors or reality. When Hayley and her cousin Marcy, decide to host a slumber party at the Barclay cemetary ,that was famous for its vampire lore, the kids were bound to be scared. When a prank nearly derails the plan, it turns worse when a body is actually found.

Night shift by Linwood Barclay 4⭐
This was good. Larry is waiting for his friend to come to the bar as promised,when he strikes up a conversation with another patron. He shares his memories from working in the newspapers with the stranger and recalls a particular incident of how he and his friend allegedly stopped a guy from mimicking a mass shooting.
Little did he know as to why his friend was late...

Gone forever by Joseph Badal
This short story is the definition of short. And I did not have a proper closure for this story. It revolved around a sort of hate crime against the church goers in a church, where a guy walks in with a machete and literally chops people done(not a very graphic description, but still mentioned), and how the main character loses everything overnight, and becomes a zealot/ madman of sorts.2

The character of Mitch.. is probably the only character that I somewhat like and sympathise so far.

All aboard by Hank Phillippi Ryan
Ummmm. This is just meh. And I would say 2⭐️. It deals with an overheard phone conversation and the person who overheard it intervene in what seems to be something of a plot to murder someone’s professional career.
There was nothing special about it apart from the fact that it comcentrated on women helping women out in ways that is usually not done. But .. nothing special

Cellphone intolerant by Kevin O Brien
This was kinda ok. Wasnt anything special as to say, but rather say that karma gets back at you. Ed hates people who ignore everything and are glued to their cellphones. He longs to punish them somehow. And hence ends up inventing Intruder. It short circuits the phone and gives the user a shock. This in turn brings about another wave of violence, and he finds himself as the cause

12.01 by Alan Jacobson is a high speed chase kind of situation, where a detective and a profiler fight against the clock to save a victim. When Stevie Vaughn is sent to the death chair, he goes with the grim satisfaction of his legacy being immortalised. Just hours before his execution, a woman is kidnapped from the very store he used to kidnap women from, and that leads to the chase.
Quick and fast...
4 ⭐️

Trigger warning for self harm!!

It has a lot of petty rivary d history that is yet to be completely revealed, not sure if someone actually did die. But I think I know where this might be heading. And yes, it does have the And then there were none vibe, because of the island setting, but in that, people were dying left and right, which was the thrill aspect of the book. Here, it's more of an anticipation of something bad that is to happen

I think I sort of jumped the wagon a bit. Because the book seems to have characters that I believe are from the previous books, and the mentions of instances from then, or just picking up a conversation with a context I have no clue about is a bit puzzling and frustrating.
Other than that, the book is incredibly detailed, not only in terms of criminal investigation but also medical aspect, including psychiatric.

There are some parts that are interesting and it makes total sense. And yet there are parts that made me go, how the hell can you say that without scientific back up. I checked the notes and he has cited many books as his references, which go with titles like “Theory of .....”...
Which makes me realise how infuriated people were with the author and the book in general.

Its long drawn and too descriptive, especially since its being told by the main character

This book is slow. Not a thriller. It more about the story of how the sister deals with the death of her elder sister, when she was a kid.