Twleve tales to delight and terrify you, all different, all with one thing in common, an ending with a twist. Here is just a taster:
The Witch Hunter - a young girl accused of sorcery, but the man sent to condemn her is not as he seems...
Baby Blues - a dark future where family planning is controlled by the state and it is illegal to make love...
The Glass Guitar - Meg thinks a haunted guitar would be just the gift for her musician boyfriend...
Free Falling - some friendly aliens have discovered the cure for most human diseases, except for one, the one you have...
Shadows of the Rose - a lovers' tryst in a ruined abbey, but something is not quite right. What's that, there, hidden in the Shadows of the Rose?
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By Nina Osier
Oct 15, 2009
"Strong heroines and wonderfully ironic twists" I'm not fond of short stories, but every now and then I come across a writer who handles this format so well that my enjoyment surprises me. Annette Gisby is such a writer, because her collection of suspense tales (whose endings I could NOT see coming the proverbial "mile away") had me gulping it down in a single evening. Most of the tales, like opener "Emily's Angel," run between 1,000 and 2,000 words. Their settings vary from contemporary England, to the 17th Century, to the future on Earth and in space. The closing story, a paranormal romance entitled "Leonae," reaches the lower limits of novella length without giving the reader any sense that it's gone on too long. My personal favorite from this collection, "Witch Hunter," opens in a 17th Century dungeon. Katherine, a young noblewoman without male relatives to protect her, is confined there under horrific conditions-supposedly for... More > practicing the black arts. In reality, her crime is refusing Sir Robert's marriage proposal. Sir Robert (a man whom no woman with a choice would be likely to accept!) sends for the noted "witch hunter" Lord William Alden, even after Katherine's herbal healing skills have saved his life, so that he can force her to stand trial by ordeal. Lady Katherine is doomed, like so many other women of her era, to die by the means she has always feared most...and more than that, I wouldn't dream of telling you. The writing in these tales is frank. I found its handling of sensitive subjects (both positive-a few sensual love scenes, and negative-the aftereffects of rape) appropriate, and the scenes themselves not at all gratuitous. If you enjoy irony, and strong heroines whose lives you can live right along with them as you read, then I heartily recommend "Shadows of the Rose."< Less
