Saturday, April 12, 2014

K is for Killing Morris Gimble

"Killing Morris Gimble" is a mainstream short story written by John C. Boland, published in the June 2014 issue of Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.  It's of rather middling quality, in my opinion.

The alternating POV of this story made the characters feel kind of odd.  It switches from omniscient to 1st-person and backs several times.  The 1st-person parts have decent characterization.  The protagonist, a 24-year-old female bodyguard, is engaging and more or less competent at least.  None of the other characters sang out to me during the omniscient parts.  Still, none of the characters were written poorly, per se.  They just aren't magnificent.

I'm still trying to comprehend this story's plot structure.  It's unorthodox for sure.  It doesn't really follow a linear pattern at all.  Stuff happens.  Tension rises and falls.  But it almost unfolds like an expanding cloud if that makes any sense whatsoever.  I fear it does not.  Bottom line: the plot is strange, yet not "bad" exactly.

The setting of this story is just as average as the plot and characters.  It has its cool spots and its bland spots.  There isn't much more to say about it.

If you have a lot of time on your hands and enjoy stories starring young female bodyguards, I recommend this story to you.  If you don't, it may be in your best interest to pass.

4 comments:

  1. Expanding cloud - no, that makes sense to me.
    Sometimes bucking the rules really works, sometimes not.

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    1. Very true. Thanks for stopping in, Mr. Cavanaugh.

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  2. Switching POVs like that is one of the hardest things to do. I know most editors won't let you get away with it, and this might be part of why (although I haven't read the story, so I can't comment on that!)

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    1. Yeah, I don't particularly like that sort of POV switch. Andy Weir's The Martian managed to pull it off, but that was an exception.

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