Border Crossing (Twelve Terrifying Tales for 2011) [Kindle Edition]

Everyone loves a good comeuppance story. Since so often in life the villains don't get what they deserve or what is coming to them. Granted this guy is worse then many having so many just awful traits you have to dislike him..which might be a slight flaw, you feel no real remorse for this guy. Sometimes the best villains are the ones that are a little too close to home or where you can understand where they come from.

I like the crossing of cultures and legend becoming fact. I would love to know more about Mike and his ability to charm people. His story would be a good one as would his meeting of the girl that got her revenge.

But as this is a short story the action moves fast and furious with great detail on what Mike is thinking or doing and how he goes through life making his choices which only lead him to the conclusion and the very fitting end.

A bit darker then Shana's previous tales this one is well worth a read. Its fast paced and good for a quick but satisfying read.

I enjoyed this story... the author suggested I read this one so I did and it's well worth $1 I paid for it. The action is great, the pacing is smooth, and it never lets up until the end. The story is laced with a slight sense of suspense the entire time building up to the explosive ending.

My only complaint would be I wish this were a full length novel... I'd love to see how Mike became who he is and more back story to the entire story... but hey, it's a short story, and it works.

I'll be back for more reading soon! :)

-Jim Bronyaur

Border Crossing is a competently written but otherwise uninspired story about a serial killer that gets killed. Michael Connally is a gun runner, drug dealer, and killer of sexy young women: hitting three stereotypical points designed to make sure the reader knows he deserves to die. His regular trips across the border to Mexico to meet with his illicit contacts brings him in contact with the legend of El Chupacabra. The legend becomes all too real to our anti-hero, and eventually he gets what is coming to him.

It's an old formula, and I don't necessarily mind formula in my fiction. But I just never cared what happened to Connally. He's rather lifeless. He's not likeable in that Hannibal Lecter way; the type of killer so smooth and brilliant that you can't help but admire him even if you are repulsed by his actions. Nor is he despicable in any meaningful way. Yes, I get it. He's a bad man. He rapes and kills women. I should be appalled. But his behavior is so stereotypical and generic that I feel like I've already read a version of this story multiple times.

Mechanically, the writing is sound. The pacing is handled well and the plot moves forward logically. But for stories like this, everything hinges on the ability of the reader to care one way or the other about the main character. I either need to like him enough to worry about what will happen to him, or hate him enough to want to see him get his just desserts. And neither happened.