"The Bride Case," by Kristine Kathryn Rusch, in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, September/October 2024.
This is the ninth time I have chosen Rusch's work for the best of the week. She's good.
Last week I said that in short stories science fiction seems to lend itself more to philosophical reflection than mystery. A week later, here is Rusch coming to make a monkey out of me.
This story kept surprising me, not because of twist endings, but because the shape of it kept shifting. It starts off conventionally enough: The narrator - if he had a name I didn't catch it - is an attorney, on his way to an important homicide case, which we read a bit about. But before that case starts he has time to look in on a client who is trying her first divorce case.
Then something goes wrong, life-changingly wrong. And the story shifts. Later it changes again and we get to what the story is really about, as the narrator has to really think about his relationship with the law.
Violence. Characters in conflict. Philosophy. All in one fascinating tale.
No comments:
Post a Comment