Cormorants

by Michael Z. Lewin

Charlie will do anything to keep Beverly away from drugs and on the straight and narrow. So his arrangement with Lennie Slaughter seems the ideal solution - Charlie robs the houses and with the proceeds, Lennie makes sure Beverly has the best treatment money can buy. But at what cost...?

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Michael Zinn Lewin is an American writer of mystery fiction perhaps best known for his series about Albert Samson, a distinctly low-keyed, non-hardboiled private detective who plies his trade in Indianapolis, Indiana. Lewin himself grew up in Indianapolis, but after graduating from Harvard and living for a few years in New York City, has lived in England for the last 40 years. Much of his fiction continues to be set in Indianapolis, including a secondary series about Leroy Powder, a policeman who frequently appears in the Samson novels, generally in a semi-confrontational manner.

Another series, however, is set in Bath, England, where Lewin now lives. This features the Lunghis who run their detective agency as a family business. So far there are three novels and nine short stories about them.

Lewin has also written a number of stand-alone novels. Some have been set in Indianapolis and others elsewhere. His latest novel, Confessions of a Discontented Deity, is even set partly in Heaven. A satire, it breaks from Lewin's history of genre fiction.

Lewin is the son of Leonard C. Lewin, author of the 1967 bestselling satire The Report from Iron Mountain: On the Possibility and Desirability of Peace.

Reviews

[Emily G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short story focuses on how a person may react when finding out they are being used and duped. It also sees justice done.

It is not long enough to find out why Beverly is important to Charlie or even how Charlie ended up in this position, but it doesn't really matter as you get caught up in the story from the get go. It a bit like reading flash fiction :-)!