I Just Read About That…

SOUNDTRACK:

[READ: December 18, 2023] “Ghost Mountain Island Murder Mystery”

This year my wife ordered me The Short Story Advent Calendar.  This is my sixth time reading the Calendar–it’s a holiday tradition!  Here’s what H&O says about the calendar this year.

The 2023 Short Story Advent Calendar is a deluxe box set of individual short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.  Now in its ninth year, the SSAC is back to once again bring readers a deluxe, peppermint-fresh collection of 25 short stories from some of the best writers in North America and beyond.

The author of this story was Colin Winnette.  Each day has an online component with the author with a brief interview.

It’s December 18. Colin Winnette, author of Users, isn’t sure that the snake is part of the experience.

The narrator and his wife win a prize to Ghost Mountain Island.  It seems great.  They can do what they want and stay for thirty days.  And if they solve a weekly mystery they can stay longer.

I rather loved that the story simply opens lie that with no details about how they won the prize.

They were a little concerned about the ghost in the name of the island, but not really concerned.  And then:

My wife and I had nightmares and every now and then then the beach would become blood and soak our feet and dot our calves,

One night he awakes wrapped in snakes.  Another night she has crabs in her hair.

Why would anyone vacation like this, they asked each other.

She decided to climb ghost mountain. Three days later when she returned, he asked her what she had seen.  But to every question he asked, she simply gave cryptic answers.  He was growing very annoyed by this.

I enjoyed this story but it kind of devolved into the two of them fighting and trying to outdo each other in terms of misery.  I wanted a little more out of it.