S.K. Winters’ short story is described on its Amazon sale page as “A Thriller” (it’s not) and is not branded as a short story (which it is). Don’t expect a novel or a thriller. What you can expect is a quick read that is long on descriptions of “palpable dread” and “eerie feelings” and detectives who repeatedly say things like “let’s finish this,” and “this might be connected to the murder.” If you are a fan of the telephone company ad where the young man stares at a bulletin board filled with pinned-up photos and spouts every cop-show cliche in the book without any coherent pattern, then this is your story.

The story follows the local Sherrif (whom nobody in the small town seems to know by name) as he investigates the murder of a local journalist (who doesn’t seem to have any coworkers or editors or even a newspaper for which he wrote who might have been able to shed some light on the story he was chasing), whose body was found in the spooky, old, abandoned mansion. The Sherrif and his female deputy find a key at the crime scene (which never unlocks anything) and a crumpled note in the dead reporter’s hand saying “this is only the beginning.” (Why would the bad guys put it there?) It’s a decent start for a mystery. We later learn that there is a hidden room in the mansion containing documents linking several prominent citizens to a murky but wide-ranging criminal conspiracy (why is this evidence lingering in the abandoned mansion?) and that the dead reporter was getting close to exposing the criminals, which is why he was stabbed through the heart. Again, not a bad plot start.

Unfortunately, in the several chapters of this short story, there is no real mystery. The Sherrif and his deputy easily stumble upon all the relevant evidence without any apparent police work, they easily find the hidden room and instantly deduce all the necessary facts (although it is not at all obvious, nor explained, how they jump immediately to the correct conclusions), and the bad guys reveal themselves for no apparent reason (and are identified as the bad guys before they do anything more suspicious than walking down the street). They find a man with the same last name as the reporter, who has key information, but we never learn whether he is related to the victim (and if not, why give him the same name?). There is a “mole” inside the police department apparently feeding information to the bad guys, but they take no advantage of it and the identity of the mole is never revealed, if they ever existed. In the end, it is not a surprise that the scope of the conspiracy runs far beyond just the players in this small town (which the bad guys proudly proclaim without advice of counsel) and that “this is not over.” Well, it is over, because the short story ends and unless the author plans to follow up with a novel that involves the higher-ups in this massive conspiracy, we’re done with this plotline. There is nobody left in the small town to expose, and considering how dumb these criminals are, if there were any more accomplices they would probably reveal them if asked.

The author here attempts to manufacture tension by repeatedly having characters state that “the stakes couldn’t be higher” and describe their creeping dread. They also tell us how critical it is that they solve this crime or the town will be in peril. But the events of the story never generate any actual tension or mystery. In the climactic scene, the cops return to the mansion (for no apparent reason) and the bad guy leadership team is there (for no apparent reason other than so they can be captured). So, the Mansion is the focal point, but there is never an explanation of why or any connection between the mansion and the grand conspiracy, other than that the hidden evidence was there, which resulted in the murder of the reporter. Who put it there? Who owned the old mansion? Was the former owner part of the conspiracy? How did the reporter stumble on the trail of the criminals? Who killed him? None of these questions are answered.

The characters never develop any depth, which is not unusual for a short story. But here none of the bad guys have any backstory or personality and none of the good guys do anything to make you care about them. So, it’s a bit of a yawn and a 45-minute time-passer. Let’s hope the author does better with a longer and more interesting story in a future book.