Smart, snappy, compelling tales.
This debut collection of flash fiction explores a broad range of themes, from love to criminality.
Inspired by a literary competition in a local newspaper, Cornfield began writing stories of 101 words in length. He started producing a tale a day and soon accumulated over 400 pieces. This captivating series opener includes 101 of those stories, each inspired by a specific prompt. The opening tale, “A Most Unexpected Gift,” is shaped by a prompt that simply reads “Found Property.” It introduces a character called Shakes, a destitute scavenger who finds keys to a Mercedes on the street. He drives off happily in the car, unaware of what is lying in the trunk. In “Lessons From a Grim Reaper,” a member of the hordes of reapers sets about “rebranding death” for the social media age, calling himself the “Grin Greeter.” Meanwhile, in “Unfortunately, not Everybody’s a Baseball Fan,” responding to the prompt “execution of an innocent person,” an assassin’s lack of sports knowledge leads her to take out the wrong target. Other tales introduce squabbling lovers, hoodlums getting their stories straight, and fated fraternity brothers enjoying a vacation in Tahiti. Flash fiction places significant pressure on a writer to communicate entertaining plotlines using very few words. Cornfield rises admirably to this challenge. The author holds the power to write tantalizing sentences that quickly and effortlessly draw readers in: “Jessica playfully kissed his ear as she removed the .22 revolver from her purse.” The brevity of such statements compels readers to speculate beyond the confines of the narrative itself. This speculation is all part of the fun. Many of the stories in the collection are driven by the delightful crackle of dryly humorous dialogue: “ ‘That was quite a meal, Lace,’ Glen smiled. ‘They said the recipe was “foolproof” but you showed them.’ ‘Thanks, hon. Imagine how good it might’ve been if I’d cared.’ ” There are rare occasions when Cornfield’s plots struggle to entertain. For instance, “Neither Safe nor Sane,” about waging revenge on “raging pyro” neighbors, has an uncharacteristically matter-of-fact denouement. But the author rarely misses the mark, and the bite-size stories found here will prove sufficiently addictive to cause readers to devour them one after another.
Smart, snappy, compelling tales.Pub Date: Nov. 18, 2022
ISBN: 9781667866321
Page Count: 224
Publisher: BookBaby
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2022
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2023
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
Uneven but fitfully amusing.
Betrayed by her husband, a severely depressed young woman gets drawn into the over-the-top festivities at a lavish wedding.
Phoebe Stone, who teaches English literature at a St. Louis college, is plotting her own demise. Her husband, Matt, has left her for another woman, and Phoebe is taking it hard. Indeed, she's determined just where and how she will end it all: at an oceanfront hotel in Newport, where she will lie on a king-sized canopy bed and take a bottle of her cat’s painkillers. At the hotel, Phoebe meets bride-to-be Lila, a headstrong rich girl presiding over her own extravagant six-day wedding celebration. Lila thought she had booked every room in the hotel, and learning of Phoebe's suicidal intentions, she forbids this stray guest from disrupting the nuptials: “No. You definitely can’t kill yourself. This is my wedding week.” After the punchy opening, a grim flashback to the meltdown of Phoebe's marriage temporarily darkens the mood, but things pick up when spoiled Lila interrupts Phoebe's preparations and sweeps her up in the wedding juggernaut. The slide from earnest drama to broad farce is somewhat jarring, but from this point on, Espach crafts an enjoyable—if overstuffed—comedy of manners. When the original maid of honor drops out, Phoebe is persuaded, against her better judgment, to take her place. There’s some fun to be had here: The wedding party—including groom-to-be Gary, a widower, and his 11-year-old daughter—takes surfing lessons; the women in the group have a session with a Sex Woman. But it all goes on too long, and the humor can seem forced, reaching a low point when someone has sex with the vintage wedding car (you don’t want to know the details). Later, when two characters have a meet-cute in a hot tub, readers will guess exactly how the marriage plot resolves.
Uneven but fitfully amusing.Pub Date: July 30, 2024
ISBN: 9781250899576
Page Count: 384
Publisher: Henry Holt
Review Posted Online: Sept. 13, 2024
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
SEEN & HEARD
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.
Scottoline’s latest links her great love of Italy with her long record of female-centered crime fiction.
Julia Pritzker has a presentiment that something terrible is around the corner, but she never imagines just how terrible: When her husband, Philadelphia attorney Mike Shallette, tries to protect her from a man who grabs her designer bag, he gets stabbed to death before her eyes. Julia’s grief becomes laced with guilt when she realizes that her daily horoscope had predicted a calamity she’s now convinced she could have prevented. The news from Italian attorney Massimiliano Lombardi that his late client has left her millions in cash and an estate worth nearly as much again doesn’t comfort her, but it does provide distraction—especially since she’s never heard of Emilia Rossi and has no idea why she’s been chosen as her heir. Since Julia, adopted at an early age by a couple who’ve been dead for years, wonders if Emilia might have been her biological grandmother, she travels to Chianti in hope of recovering some of Emilia’s DNA. Unfortunately, caretakers Anna Mattia Vesta and Piero Fano have burned all of Emilia’s clothing and personal items on her orders, so there’s nothing left to test. Growing convinced that the stars are directing her and that her history is rooted in Emilia’s decrepit house, Julia turns down repeated offers for the property and resolves to secure evidence confirming the relationship between Emilia and her. Now all she has to do is protect herself from the shadowy figures tracking and following her and recover from a series of vivid, hallucinatory nightmares that seem to be the cost of claiming her heritage.
The mystery plot and the Italian idyl both play supporting roles in this fairy tale for grownups.Pub Date: July 15, 2025
ISBN: 9781538769997
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 16, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 15, 2025
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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