'3 TALES OF TEENS TACKLING THEIR DARKEST RITES OF PASSAGE. Acclaimed storytellers Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, and Patrick Thomas each present an original novella brimming with enough danger, intrigue, and murder to get readers’ blood pounding and hearts racing.
'In Colchamiro’s RED INK, a paperboy with an overactive imagination witnesses a brutal killing on his route—or has he taken his fantasy spy games a step too far? In Hatton’s THE DEVIL’S DELINQUENTS, a trio of teenage misfits in pursuit of success, power, and revenge practice amateurish occult rituals... with deadly consequences. In Thomas’s A MANY SPLENDID THING, a sultry high school teacher enrolls one of her students to get rid of her husband. But will the young man really graduate to murder? '
Short story collections are a good way to discover new writers, but sometimes they can be a little hard to enjoy, you find yourself wanting to know more and wishing that the stories would go on for longer. Murder In Montague Falls manages to sidestep this by giving readers three novella's instead of shorter stories, and it works so well because of that. None of the stories in this collection would have worked half as well if they'd have been shorter in length, and use the space given over to them incredibly well.
'Red Ink' is the first story in the book, and follows Isaac, a young teen lost in the world of imagination. His story opens by tricking the readers into thinking that this is going to be some kind of spy tale, but it soon transpires that Isaac is just a normal kid, spending half his time in a make believe world. His false world is soon shattered, however, when he discovers one of the women on his paper route has been murdered.
Isaac and his friend tries to investigate, and discovers that they've simply made a mistake. It turns out the woman has gone away on holiday, and her brother is taking care of the house whilst she's gone. But is it really that simple? Isaac is convinced that there's more going on than meets the eye and is determined to find out what's really going on.
Isaac's story, despite being about murder, is probably the nicest of the bunch in the terms of gore and darker themes. It's the kind of story that can appeal to a younger reader, and people close to Isaac's age will definitely be able to enjoy it. In a few ways it feels like it would be home in a series like The Famous Five. The story doesn't get too complex because of this, yet still manages to have some surprising depth when you learn the traumatic backstory that spurs Isaac on. It's a surprisingly touching moment, and one that brought some genuine tears to my eyes.
'Red Ink' works well as a stand alone story, but it would really work as the first story in a series. I'd love to read more about Isaac and Dani hanging out together and solving crimes in Montague Falls.
'The Devil's Delinquents' by Sawney Hatton is a little harder for me to talk about, be cause it's my least favourite story in the collection. Not because it's not good, because it's an interesting story that's well written, but because of the dark turn the story takes at the end.
The story follows two teens, Cal and Derry, outcasts and delinquents. They're unpopular, hate the in crowd, and are constantly in trouble with their teachers. One day they meet Natalie, who they take an instant liking to her. She's just like them, into devil worship, causing trouble, and doing whatever she wants. Natalie is a delinquent on a whole other level than Cal and Derry, however, and starts to lead the two of them astray.
Natalie convinces the two of them that she's managed to summon demons, and can use black magic to make their lives better. Telling the two of them that they can get whatever they want if they perform a human sacrifice the three of them prepare a murder.
Now, this is a spoiler for the story, so if you want to go in blind skip to the next paragraph. The three teens decide to target one of Cal's neighbours, Tony, a mentally disabled man. In what's an incredibly upsetting scene the three of them lure him into the house, get him drunk, and stab him in the chest. This doesn't kill him though, and the injured Tony tries desperately to get home to his dad, but is killed by the three attackers. They then go on to mutilate his body, cutting out his heart. This was one of the hardest things that I've read, and I was crying by the end of the scene. It was just so brutal and sadistic that it went too far for me.
'The Devil's Delinquents' might not be to everyone's liking because of the above mentioned moment, but it is still an interesting story that deals with peer pressure, and how two people get led down a path to murder by a clearly disturbed, yet charming individual.
'Many A Splendid Thing' was a story that I felt I knew when it first began. It centres on Jethro, a teen who's fallen for his beautiful science teacher, Mrs Carmine. Jethro comes from a troubled home, his mother left his father for another man, resulting in his father descending into drink. His mother meanwhile, is so wrapped up in her new boyfriend that she actively hates her son. When Mrs Carmine shows Jethro some affection he latches onto her, and their relationship quickly becomes sexual. Things take a turn for the murderous when Mrs Carmine tells Jethro that her husband is a brutal man, and asks Jethro to help her escape him by killing him for her.
This was how I expected the story to go, but thanks to some unexpected twists and turns (and more murders) along the way the story managed to take an old trope and put a fresh spin onto events. The story has a lot of ups and downs, and I was never one hundred percent sure how events were going to play out.
Murder in Montague Falls was definitely a mixed collection, and despite the three stories being set within the town of Montague Falls and all being about murder, and each story feels very different and distinct from each other. A varied and interesting collection that is sure to entertain.
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