First Shot: 10 Stories

by Chris Well

First Shot" is a collection of short mystery, suspense, and crime stories by author Chris Well. The book also includes his short Booke Cases mystery "Don't Fall For That Trick," plus bonus chapters from two of his novels, the whodunit "Nursing a Grudge" and the crime novel "Forgiving Solomon Long."

124 pages, ebook

First published February 6, 2012

About the author

Here's the deal: When I was in the first grade, my life goal was that I would grow up to be Batman. Because I thought it was a vocation—you know, policeman, fireman, Batman. Once my first grade teacher crushed the dreams of that little boy, I guess I decided I would do the next best thing and make up stories about Batman. And then somewhere after that I learned about things like "intellectual property" and "copyright law" and "cease and desist" and decided I would have to make up stories about my own characters.

So today, I do just that: Write stories about my own characters— whether it's a doomed hitman named Solomon Long or a grumpy old amateur sleuth named Earl Walker or an out-of-work smart alec crime reporter named Truman.

Reviews

[David Lovell · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great sampler of Well's work. One of the stories was very short and did seem incomplete, but most of the other stories moved along well with great character development.
If you like mysteries with a little humor thrown in and some quirky characters give it a try. Based on the writing in this book, I have purchased one of his other books- Nursing a Grudge.