Spider Web

by Jonathan Harrington

The cool air of the night was raging. The victim looked up, dazed and momentarily, blissfully unaware of their fate. The killer was close. The victim knew it, only wondering what bizarre sequence of events had led them into this situation; this mess, this fight. The victim could hear the sound of creaking stairs and a door shutting. Something bad was going to happen. The killer, bold and unassuming, picked up the tool. The wind raged on. The footsteps came close. The heart beated faster. This was the victim's last moment in this world. The killer raised their tool. With a fast swipe of the tool, the killer split deep into the neck, cutting veins and bruising the skin. The second hack was fateful. The victim opened their eyes and turned around. The victim was dead.

144 pages, Paperback

First published August 19, 2009

About the author

Jonathan Harrington has published poetry, fiction, and non-fiction in everything from the New York Times to the Texas Review. He received a M.F.A. from the University of Iowa Writers’ Workshop in 1983. Jonathan has published a chapbook of poems, Handcuffed to the Jukebox, and his poetry has appeared in Poetry East, Texas Review, Main Street Rag, Pebble Lake Review, The Shop (Ireland), Green River Review, Black Bear Review, Kentucky Poetry Review, South Florida Poetry Review, The Spectator, English Journal, Skylight, and countless other publications as well being featured on public radio.

In 1989 he edited New Visions: Fiction by Florida Writers. Tropical Son appeared monthly in Metro Magazine and won the coveted Gold “Charlie” Award for best column of the year from the Florida Magazine Association in 1990. In 1992, twenty-six of these essays were collected in Tropical Son: Essays on the Nature of Florida, and published to wide critical acclaim. After working as an editor at Harcourt Brace Jovanovich and teaching Creative Writing for ten years at the University of Central Florida, Jonathan moved to New York City in 1993. In the next ten years he published a series of highly popular mystery novels: The Death of Cousin Rose, The Second Sorrowful Mystery, A Great Day for Dying, St. Valentine’s Diamond and Death on the Southwest Chief. The books appeared in hardback, paperback and book-club editions.

Born in Florida, United States, he currently lives in rural Yucatan, Mexico, where he has translated into English, and published, the wonderful works of some of today´s main Mayan poets.