From Ash by M. Chris Benner

​    I’ve been checking out random kindle freebies lately, trying to be selective, looking for the bets of the best in self-published indies field. This was a pretty inspired choice. You wouldn’t know it by the cover, but one you start reading it, it draws you right in the way storytelling is supposed to. Like some many indies, it’s somewhat uneven, the interconnected stories are not all of the same quality – it begins and ends very strongly with a less exciting/consistent middle. It also would do well with a round of editing, there are typos (Shelley as Shelly), misspellings (casual as causal more than once), things of that nature. Nothing super distracting, just here and there.
     But overall, it was very entertaining. The protagonist is a police dispatcher who ends up buying a heavily discounted murder estate (first story), which turns out to be a nightmare, and the subsequent terror and trauma turn him to a different path, one of being a sort of investigative journalist, a private detective/writer. The rest of the stories are tangentially or precisely connected to his cases.
     The stories themselves vary in tone, structure, and nature, from historical gothic-like to a heavy-duty police procedural. They are uneven, but they work, each and every one, and they make for an interesting narrative total. Very dark, very bleak, very messed up…just right to delight genre fans.
     It stands to mention that the age count might be off. It’s listed at just under 300, but for me it read longer. Overall, pretty good, though. The talent is there, some finesse is needed, but that’ll come with experience, most likely. Recommended.