Review: FLASH FICTION FOR THE COCKTAIL HOUR, Cathryn Grant

• Format: Kindle Edition (amazon)  and .mobi (Smashwords) N.B.other formats available on Smashwords
• File Size: 42 KB
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: D2C Perspectives (December 11, 2010)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004FV4SKI
• Source: I bought it

An e-book of short suburban noir fiction, a collection of 11 short stories, some little more than vignettes, each skilfully leaving something to the reader's imagination.

Contents

• A Thousand and One Bottles of Wine
• Tranquility
• Sitting with the Dead
• Amputation
• Superior
• Out of Options
• Under Surveillance
• Reverberation
• Work After Dark
• For Temporary Relief 
• Love Is Blind

Each story takes a scenario that may have crossed the reader's mind, like George in Tranquility enjoying his early morning solitude reading is newspaper at the kitchen table. Our newspaper delivery man appears to be attemtping to demolish a particular plant. In George's cases the delivery is deadly accurate in landing the paper in a puddle created on his driveway overnight by the watering system.

In Sitting with the Dead, what deadly family secrets might Clara, her grandson's fiance, uncover with her stupid seances?
And what about Superior, where road rage has a quite unexpected result?

We all have neighbours who we "keep an eye on". Surveillance asks how they might see the fact that we are constantly watching them. In Reverberation a night of fire cracker celebrations triggers terrible reprisals. And have you ever worked back late in a creepy building? Work After Dark shows just how scary that can be.

A lovely collection of flash fiction that explores some of those thoughts we've all had, that lie just beneath the surface.

My rating: 4.3

Cathryn Grant’s Suburban Noir fiction has appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine. Her short story, I Was Young Once received an honorable mention in the 2007 Zoetrope All-story Short Fiction contest. Her flash fiction has been published at Every Day Fiction and Powder Burn Flash.
Connect with Cathryn online: website: http://suburbannoir.com Twitter: http://twitter.com/cathryngrant Facebook author page: Cathryn Grant, Suburban Noir Author

Counted in e-book challenge