A dark short story collection full of horror, suspense, and murder.Trev is in a desperate spot. He needs a fix to ease the cold sweats and teeth-clattering jitters. He’ll do anything to ease the pain, even the unthinkable.Natalie is tired of being at home without her husband. Fury boils deep in her gut, taking her back to a familiar dark place.Phil had it all until an unfortunate event … unfortunate event knocked his life off-kilter. But he’s not going down without a fight.
In this suspenseful short story collection, desperate souls set out on violent journeys with the hopes of maintaining their ‘perfect’ lives.
How far will they go to regain control?
Warning: Contains scenes with graphic violence.
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On the cover of Jilted by K. T. Rose, I see a picture of a woman with the eyes concealed or blanked out as if someone swiped from left to right across the book cover. Maybe they swiped from right to left. Your Tinder preference may vary. Below the picture, I see that this is A Trinity of Wicked Tales. Further, it is only Volume One. And then comes the clincher, this is A Dark Suspense Short Story Collection. OK, I’m in, the author has hit all my favorite genre buttons. That is a lot of information on the front cover.
Junk for Two ***** Trev was in love, but he wasn’t faithful. He loved Suzie but he loved heroin more. He would do anything for a fix, but his real concern was for Suzie. He did it all for her. Even the killing of the two convenience store owners was for Suzie. Or it was for heroin. In the end, it didn’t matter.
Iris ***** Natalie was a loving girl. She always paid attention to and took care of her boyfriends. She expected they would love her in return. Theo had gotten sidetracked with some cheerleader, but Natalie could have fixed that if Theo cooperated. But Theo had called her a stalker and that was something Natalie hated to hear. She took care of that situation just as she had always taken care of Theo. Now there was Jason. It was several years later but it looked like history was about to repeat itself. At least with Jason, it wasn’t a cheerleader. She was going to have to take care of another problem. No one really understood Natalie. Maybe Dr. Gabby did. She must remember to ask Dr. Gabby at her next session.
Phil ***** Phil might have been the perfectly disguised sociopath. He had lived with his father since the age of ten after the death of his mother. He had learned to be friendly and outgoing with everyone if there was some benefit for him. For several years he and Rob had enjoyed the perfect relationship as friend and in their employer/ employee relationship. Rob had the money and Phil had the manipulation skills to run interference for Rob’s indiscretions. Phil had created the situations that allowed for Rob’s painless and inexpensive exits from Rob’s first, second, and third marriages. He was ready to help Rob again with fourth wife Heather, but something had gone wrong. Phil had lost Rob’s trust. Someone had told Heather about Rob’s plethora of one-night stands. Rob suspected Phil and had decided to fire Phil after their long association of many years. Phil was not happy. When he returned home to wife Lana, he found that Rob had told Lana about Phil’s extracurricular affairs. Lana threw Phil out. Having lost a job and a wife, Phil was down to his last two girlfriends plus the du jour hook-ups. It was good that Quinn would do anything for him. She would even kill. Sara was equally devoted and bought into a plan to help Phil eliminate annoyances. It was time to clean house.
Phil was a nasty individual but at least he hadn’t killed his mother. Not that he could remember.
This short story collection might offend some readers with frank and explicit sexual language. It is not used solely with the intent to shock and I didn’t feel it was overused. Still, this is not something for the kids to read.
I felt the first two stories were well done but Phil was unnecessarily complex as far as characters. This led me to give the collection four Amazon stars. At USD 0.99, it is a good value for a collection of short reads.