"Relative Stranger," by Amanda Witt, in When A Stranger Comes To Town, edited by Michael Koryta, Hanover Square Press, 2021.
This is your basic suspense story, nice and simple. Protagonist in danger. High stakes. Nothing extra needed.
Glory Crockett lives on a farm and one day a stranger knocks on the door. What's disturbing is that he resembles her husband, Owen. Turns out his name is also Owen Crockett. He's the bad-news cousin she has heard about but never met, largely because he has spent most of his life in prison: "a one-man crime spree." Now here he is, with a glib charm that rings completely false.
And somewhere outside the farmhouse is Glory's husband and her four young sons.
Anything else to mention? Oh yes. When the cousin comes in he leaves a spot of fresh blood on the door. But he's not the one bleeding...
You'll read this tale in one sitting.
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