3 out of 4 stars
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Cruel and Unusual is a book of four short stories of "judicial horror" by Erik Dean. The first, Witch Tryals (1692) (intentionally misspelled) takes us back to the time of the Salem witch trials, to those tortured or executed on suspicion of practising witchcraft...with a twist. Judge and Jury is an intriguing tale of a new sheriff's arrival in a lawless shanty town in the Old West, and a travelling medicine man with a knack for incredible inventions. The Devil Made Me Do It! covers the court case of an accused serial murderer whose outlandish claim is disputed by an unexpected witness, while The Wheel is a "wheel of execution" spun by a member of the public in the not-too-distant future to decide the method by which a condemned murderer is put to death.
Dean's writing style is neat and easy to read, with simple, short sentences. The prose is straightforward, telling the story without any unnecessarily "flowery" language or description. Each of the tales in this book had interesting twists, which I enjoyed. Overall, I found all the stories entertaining. Dean has a habit of occasionally stepping out of his stories to talk directly to the reader, such as in The Wheel, where he stops to ask whether they have formed an opinion about the verdict for the court case he is describing. I found this an engaging tool to get the reader thinking about the main issues of the story.
The author prefaces each story with an introductory note explaining the background and setting the scene before launching into the tale itself. Though this sort of thing is not commonly used in fiction, I found them worthwhile, interesting insights into Dean's mindset and background for his stories. The last part of his introduction for The Wheel states: "Let us watch together as a courtroom drama plays on our mental TV screens. The packed courtroom has come into our view. The words 'Nightclub Shooter' are displayed at the bottom of our screens. We see the camera pan over to the defense attorney as he whispers to his client. The hands and feet of the accused are shackled. He is flanked by two large detention officers."
As for negatives, there were occasional examples of dialogue and its attribution which struck me as questionable or unnecessary. One example was: "'I wasn't too sure that it would work. But since you saved my life, I had to give it a try,' Donovan said. 'You're the first person that I have brought back from the dead,' he added. 'What are you going to do now?' Donovan asked." Since this dialogue is all spoken by Donovan, the words "he added" and "Donovan asked" could be edited out, leaving the latter part as clean dialogue with no attributions. Also, in The Devil Made Me Do It!, I found the following line from the judge a little unrealistic: "Are you sure you want to plead that?" Courtroom jargon is generally quite formal, perhaps: "Is the defendant sure about their plea?"
In addition, Judge and Jury was easily the longest of the four stories, and it dragged on a little too long for me. I enjoyed the unique storyline but felt the central quest for revenge by a wronged character ran for longer than necessary. My judgement: judicious editing required. I also found ten minor errors by around two-thirds of the way through the book. However, overall I found Cruel and Unusual an entertaining collection of short stories without any major flaws, and I rate it 3 out of 4 stars. I would recommend it to fans of both crime and horror, though be aware there are some particularly disturbing concepts. The stories are easy to read and entertaining, with some intriguing twists to really hold the reader's attention.
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Cruel and Unusual
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