Reviewed by: BigAl
Genre: Short Story Collection
Approximate word count: 60-65,000 words
Availability
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on a YES above to go to appropriate page in Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or
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Author:
“V.S.
Kemanis is a California native and currently resides in New York. As an
attorney, she has been a criminal prosecutor for county and state agencies,
argued criminal appeals for the prosecution and defense, conducted complex
civil litigation, and worked for state appellate courts.”
Kemanis
also has three short story collections available and is working on the second
novel in her Dana Hargrove legal mystery series. For more, visit her website.
Description:
“Tempting
little wrongs, moral dilemmas, subconscious desires. Blinded by self-deception,
even the best of us are led astray. In these 14 stories, you'll encounter familiar
misdemeanants from every walk of life and their unwitting—or complicit—victims.”
Appraisal:
This is a collection
of slice-of-life stories, each with a character who has a flaw, often
exacerbated by a dose of self-delusion. With the exception of that flaw, they
could be just like us. (Or maybe they are just like us and we don’t want to
admit it.) Each is well told, with interesting characters, which might go
without saying since it is usually the imperfections that make a character unique.
A few of
the stories stood out, each for different reasons. Cat, for the twist ending that snuck up on me. Where I Am stood out because it is much different from the other
stories in setting and genre, although that reality was slow in penetrating my
consciousness. Last, A Simple Case,
because it features Dana Hargrove, the protagonist in Kemanis’ novel Thursday’s List, which I had previously
read. This story takes place prior to the novel. Dana learns some lessons that
will be beneficial for her future.
Format/Typo Issues:
No
significant issues.
Rating: ***** Five stars
1 comment:
For a short story writer, it’s always fascinating to hear which tales in the collection stand out and why. Thanks for reading Malocclusion and for the great review, Al!
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