The Man and the Crow

Shorter fiction is something that I have come to appreciate very much later in my reading life. I like how there is a little world shining in a nugget of a story. The Man and The Crow is a story that has been on my Kindle for a while and I have just been waiting for an opportunity to read it.

Well, as Morrissey says ???How Soon is Now??? ??? pretty damned soon, I???ll tell you Mozzer!

The Man and The Crow is my Gateway into Rebecca Crunden???s writing and I have to say ??? I like it!

The story starts out as any good story should ??? with a Murder!

All good stories start with a murder, it brings that little bit of p???zazz to a story! Gets it off the ground with a bang!

However, the trajectory that this little firecracker takes from there is ace!

At the begining of the story, we meet Jessica, a part time store assistant at a hardware store who also has a room mate, who is a bit strange and a little bit annoying. She regularly brings home stray animals that don???t like Jessica. Even the rabbits that her room mate bring home don???t like Jessica.

And whilst Jessica???s room mate might be a bit of an oddity, Jessica quite OK with that. However, her sharing with Clara is cut short when she comes home to find a man standing over Clara???s dead body, a knife in his hand and a Crow on his shoulder.

She???s a bit shocked to say the least, but at least he has the common decency to offer some financial recompense for the cleaning bill!

The story then shifts perspectives to follow the Man, Enlil and the Crow, Aris, the main stars of the show.

In a small amount of time, we get to learn that Enlil & Aris have an agenda, and what follows is a tale of witchy goodness that won???t spoil your reading appetite.

In this short little tale, Rebecca Crunden writes a wonderfully dark tale of witchcraft and revenge that leaves you wanting more of these two characters.

The story is skillfully done, as in a short space of time, you get back story, motivation, world building all wrapped up in a bundle of wry wit. I loved it!

In fact, I want more of these two as they are such a good double act and I would love to see what they get up to next, especially as Rebecca Crunden leaves us with a bit of a cliffhanger.