HOTEL CALIFORNIA
edited by Don Bruns
Editor Bruns offers eight tales with a twist. Make that eight twists.
Thwarted expectations are the order of the day here. Jack Reacher discovers that even a trip to nowhere can take a wrong turn in Andrew Child’s “New Kid in Town.” A corrupt senator finds his cozy life of graft upended by an unplanned visit from his brother in John Gilstrap’s “Wasted Time.” The favorite target of bullies does a one-eighty in Reed Farrel Coleman’s “Victim of Love.” A New Orleans graveyard tour takes a terrifying turn in Heather Graham’s “Pretty Maids All in a Row.” Amanda Flower reveals what happens when a client doesn’t level with the private eye he hires in “Try and Love Again.” In “Life in the Fast Lane,” Bruns shows how a hired assassin can flip the script on his employer. Of course, a hit man who misses his target can find himself in the crosshairs, like the hero of Rick Bleiweiss’ “The Last Resort.” Last but not least, a social influencer discovers that the fame and fortune she’s always wanted may not be exactly what she bargained for in the title story by Jennifer Graeser Dornbush.
Expect, and enjoy, the unexpected.