The Murder of Katie Boyle-A fun short story with two likeable heroines

I’ve become a fan of Libby Fischer Hellman over the last year or so and I’ve read a book in each of her Georgia Davis and Ellie Foreman series.  This short story, which is also published in “Nice Girl Does Noir” has both of her heroines.  When Ellie finds a dead body, Georgia is one of the cops on the case.  I really love when a writer has their literary worlds overlap.  I often wonder why more writers don’t do it.  To me, it grounds the stories and makes them seem more realistic.  

Ellie arrives early at her exercise class and has the unpleasant discovery of a dead body.  Georgia’s boyfriend, a detective is having a meal nearby with Georgia, not yet a detective, and brings her along to the scene of the crime.  It’s definitely not best-friends-at-first-sight for Ellie and Georgia.  The POV moves back and forth between the two so you have plenty of insight into what’s happening.  When Georgia makes a crucial discovery, the case is blown wide open.

This is a short story, you’ll probably have it read in 20 minutes or so.  But if you are a fan of Georgia Davis or Ellie Foreman it’s fun to see them when Georgia was a still a cop and Ellie was just learning how to be a single mom.  As with Libby Fischer Hellman’s other writings, you have a well-written compelling story with sympathetic heroines.

More info about Libby Fischer Hellmann 

• Would I pay money for it?  I'd probably buy "Good Girl Does Noir" rather than this stand-alone
• Would I read more by this author?  yes 
• Would I recommend this to a friend? yes

Purchased as a Kindle freebie July 8, 2013

The Boddy in the Snowbank-An entertaining little story

This publication shows how the changes in the publishing industry can promote new ways of telling stories and new ways for authors to get their work out to the public. This is a short story, 6 pages long, that began as a blog post from the 7criminalminds blog where they gave a writing prompt and different authors used it to create a short story. It's apparently always a freebie which would make sense at that length.  It is obviously a very quick read at 6 pages.  

The prompt was "The Clue characters are locked in a winter lodge. Mr. Boddy is found dead in a snowdrift with no visible signs of trauma. Who did it and how do you prove it using just the things in the lodge?” I don't know if the other blog posts were published for Kindle but if they were, I would read them.

I'm a huge fan of the game "Clue" so the characters were quite familiar to me but in a story as short as this there's no way to really develop them or give much backstory.  I found it an entertaining little read, reminiscent of the 1985 movie.

 

7criminalminds blog 

More about Jenna Bennett 

• Would I pay money for it?  No, too short
• Would I read more by this author?  yes 
• Would I recommend this to a friend?  If they like to read short stories, which some people don't