Monday, November 7, 2011

"Last Dance of the Black Widow" by Bradley Convissar


A while back I hada chance to read Brad's novella, Dogs of War, and while I wasn't wowed by it I thought it showed the guy had something going for him, and I wanted to keep his work in mind for later down the road, like the litany of names on my watch list. Then, last week, I stumbled across a free short story by him up on the Kindle Store. I figured I could make some time for a 3,000 word story to check out another piece of his work.

"Last Dance of the Black Widow" is about a widow Abbey Whistler waiting in her hospital room, waiting for her judgment to arrive in the wake of her death. Time is at a standstill, seemingly frozen until its decided whether she's headed upstairs or down. When someone joins her in the room finally, it's her long-dead father and the news isn't good.

The story essentially takes place entirely in the hospital room with the revelations and action occurring through their conversation. Abbey pleads for admittance to Heaven, but as the story progresses it becomes clear that it's unlikely she'll get her wish, and even she understand why deep down.

Some of the dialogue feels a bit stiff, a tad theatrical, but it's a story I found interesting for the fact that I my sympathy for Abbey eroded with each page. And I thought the end worked quite well.

It's worth a look if you want to take a chance on an independent author.

No comments:

Post a Comment