Slow Burner - Laura Lippman - ★★★★

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AUTHOR: Laura Lippman

GENRE: Short Story, Mystery
RATING: 4 stars.

An entertaining slow-burner (see what I did there? 😛) short mystery story.

Eighteen months ago, Liz Kelsey had promised her cheating husband that she would never spy on him again. However, now she has discovered his secret burner phone, which contains many texts to an unknown number. The recipient is clearly female, and Liz is quite sure it is the same woman with whom he had cheated on her all those months ago. Liz is in a quandary. If she tells her husband about the phone, he will know that she was snooping again. If she doesn’t, he might continue the affair behind her back. What do you think Liz will do? Read and find out.

I don’t want to reveal much about the story as it is quite short. It does perfect justice to its title. The writing is slow but interesting. It mainly focusses on Liz’s perspective, with random inclusions of the series of text messages on the burner phone. (Don’t skip reading the texts.) The ending is oh-so-satisfying.

Long back, when I had read Roald Dahl’s short story ‘Lamb to the Slaughter’, I was reminded of Harry Belafonte’s song – ‘Man Smart (Woman Smarter)’. Today, I was reminded of it again.

This might not be the perfect short story, but it sure as heck was entertaining!

The story is a part of the Hush Collection, and is available to Amazon Prime subscribers.

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