3 out of 4 stars
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Countdown: The Reckoning is a short story by Ashley Michael about how a well-off couple order some chairs online and consequently get caught amidst a perplexing story of stowaways, empty crates and Russian agents.
Kate and Scott Hagan are a childless couple who live in South Carolina in an expensive stuccoed house. Kate decides to order two discounted chairs online but they arrive with an additional crate. Later Kate and her sister find a U-shaped hole in the box and this leads to a series of investigations - was someone in the box? Who cut out the hole? How did they get in there and where did they go?
Countdown: The Reckoning is a compelling story that had me at the edge of my seat from beginning to end. The captivating plot and jaw dropping revelations kept my interest roused throughout, while developments along the story line had me constantly trying to guess who the culprit is. As the story progresses and the plot unfolds, the reader is introduced to even more layers of mystery that only complement this gripping story. The story felt genuine, as the procedures taken by police, various departments and so on did not feel artificial, but rather like the author had experience and knew what she was talking about.
Michael’s writing style has near impeccable spelling and punctuation with impressive vocabulary that contains picturesque detailed descriptions making the book enthralling to read. There was consistent use of apt similes and metaphors that conveyed their meaning well, giving the reader a vivid picture. For instance, “Like an endless row of dominoes being flicked by an invisible hand, everything plugged into electricity went down at the same time.” The sentence structure used was varied at different places which delivered the desired effect.
However, there were a few grammatical errors, spelling mistakes/typos, and some inaccuracy in the formatting of the story; however this should be fixed with a round of proofreading. I also felt that the story starts a bit abruptly, with not much background on our main characters, but as the story progresses we get to know more about them. While sentence structure was varied effectively in many places, the use of simple sentences was a bit too excessive. Moreover the beginning of the story, especially Kate and Scott’s reactions to finding the cut seemed far-fetched; in my opinion they made a bigger deal than normal after seeing a small cut in an empty box.
I must say, I was rather aghast when the book ended abruptly as I was enjoying it quite a lot! I had a few questions left unanswered even at the end, though this may have been intentional on the author’s part to let the reader them self think up the various possibilities and outcomes.
All that being said, I think the story was riveting and a great piece of work that I enjoyed the whole way through. Because of the few negative aspects, I rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. With some refinement, the story has the potential to be very successful and in my opinion will be popular among fans of thriller, mystery and suspense.
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Countdown the reckoning
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