Execution Day: A Short Story

by Amanda Linehan

They want him dead. The most dangerous man in the city. Will it be by poison? Or maybe an "accident"? Or maybe by a good old-fashioned gunshot wound? That's what they're here to decide, but by any method, one thing is for certain. Execution day is coming.

13 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 3, 2014

About the author

Amanda Linehan is a fiction writer, indie publisher and INFP. She has published three novels and a couple handfuls of short stories. Her short fiction has been featured on Every Day Fiction.

She lives in Maryland, likes to be outside and writes with her cat sleeping on the floor beside her desk.

Reviews

[Cheryl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a 4.5 star read

[Michael Gardner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Execution Day is a short, straight to the point story. Five people sit round a table plotting to murder someone known as ‘father.’ They all have different motivations and ideas about how it should be done, so there’s plenty of tension. Amanda Linehan is good at writing tense scenes, picking out the pertinent details that flesh out the story. I saw the twist coming but enjoyed it all the same.

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading short stories can be a short-cut to finding out if you like an author’s writing style and genre. Some authors are particularly good at it; the novella or short story is a different test of skills than the regular novel.
Amanda Linehan writes well and this short introduction to her work is a good short story.
A group of people meeting to arrange something out of the ordinary which immediately makes their conversation interesting.
Characters are well drawn and cleverly as little as needed is revealed leaving an air of mystery.
Some exponents of this format have a twist to realign the reader’s initial understanding. There is a major reveal here that you perhaps can’t be blamed for not seeing it coming.

[Madelon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Family, friends, and colleagues are supposed to have your back… right? When they collaborate against you, only one thing is certain.

This is a well written, well-conceived short story that is well worth your time.

[Clara Ferreira · Rating 2 out of 5]

It has everything to be a brilliant book. This short story could be one of the chapters of an amazing book. I wish that the author could do that.
The short story it is too little and it finishes when it stars getting interesting.

[Sharon Nichols · Rating 4 out of 5]

Execution Day

This was a short story that was pretty good but is not my favorite story. I'm not sure why I couldn't seem to get into it.

[Mangus · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice

It always is a enjoyable read when it comes Mrs. Linehan's work. I have come to count on its brevity with a punch.

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't love it, didn't hate it. Pretty simple story, easy to follow. It almost seems to be a prologue.

[Jordan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Of the four Amanda Linehan stories I've read so far (Ghost Coach, The Note, Father McMahon's Confession, and this one), I think this was my least favorite. The fact that nobody had a name made it interesting, but occasionally confusing. It bugged me that I never learned exactly what each of the individual's relationship was to the man or their motivation for participating in this planning, especially since the man somehow knew about the meeting. Was someone in it a mole? It's really hard to say. It was an intersting story though.

[Alasdair Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Execution Day is an interesting exploration of the motivations for murder. In a few pages, it introduces characters with a range of reasons for wanting someone else dead. As a reader, one is left wondering what the family business actually is!

[Ralph]

interesting quick short read. I would try another one of Amanda's books.