By MONTE DUTTON Click here. In 1991, Rodney King said, “Can’t we all just get along?” In Matthew 5:19, Jesus said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” I don’t like Mondays. They make me catch up when I don’t want to. I spend most of the time on weekends …
Tag: murder
Such an Unlikely Venue for a Descent into Hell
Woe be unto those unfortunate souls who live on Honeysuckle Lane. It appears to be like any other middle-class neighborhood, this one located outside Dublin. The people there have secrets, most of which are just those that might appear familiar to you and me. A man is hiding a gambling addiction. A woman is bored with …
Continue reading Such an Unlikely Venue for a Descent into Hell
What a Tangled Web I’ve Weaved
I'm sort of a mass of contradictions this morning. I want to get myself in the mood to work on fiction, but, so far, this has been one of those mornings in which I can't come up with a topic, and so I bide some time by reading my timeline, and checking the weather, and …
An Open and Shut Case
As husbands went, Layla could have done worse than Preston Cranstern. The sex was good. He was, by most accounts, competent at his job. He had some annoying facets to his personality. For instance, Preston had an absurd habit of insisting he was right when he obviously wasn't. Once he had asked her to proofread …
Nothing Left to Lose
On Saturday morning, I was riding around and around my front yard on a mower, listening to Charlie Robison’s “Desperate Times.” That’s where this dark tale started. Joe Scharmann had applied for dozens of jobs. Three had deigned to invite him for interviews. Those whose job it was to conduct the interviews knew better than …
Ladson Could Sure Play Ball
Here’s the whole short story. As usual, I’ve gone back and fixed some details. I had some fixation with naming a character Ladson and referring to him several times as Troy, mainly because I knew a Troy once with a similar last name. It’s entirely possible there are other little glitches I’ll discover later. I …
A Matter of Trust
This is the final episode of a short story. The first two, in order, were “A Bit Sketchy on the Details” and “The Wrong Girl.” Barney Parmenter was mildly surprised when the Sheriff was still at his office, and a little disappointed, but he’d said he’d drop by, and it wasn’t wise not to live …
The Wrong Girl
This Episode Two of a short story. One more remains. The first was “A Bit Sketchy on the Details.” I went back and revised the first episode slightly to adjust for a decision to change the plot a bit. Once it’s done, I’ll post the entire short story in one take. Thanks for …
A Bit Sketchy on the Details
It’s common for me to start one of these stories planning on making it short and sweet, but then my imagination takes hold, and it starts growing. This is Part One … of something. Barney Parmenter thought it a pleasant surprise when he saw the kid thumbing at the entrance to Interstate 35W near …
The Lucky Break
The morning had already been bad enough. Five years earlier, Max Marberry had run the Crestwood office of the Warren Insurance Agency, that is, until Harry Warren had sold out to a Spartanburg agency owned by Leland Allin, who had installed his son as the manager of the Crestwood storefront. Now the elder Allin was …
Nightrider's Lament 