Deception: A Short Story

by Eric Halpenny

Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. In Deception, the difference between friend and enemy quickly blurs. Dmitry, a hardened Russian spy in the Cold War, has no mercy for his adversary Olyesa in this spy thriller. Olyesa and Dmitry navigate their way through the murky waters of agents and double agents while simultaneously struggling against each other for survival. When their divergent plans collide, it threatens to destroy them both.

Kindle Edition

Published April 10, 2018

About the author

Eric Halpenny is a seemingly normal engineer by day, but a fiction author by night. He hasn't quit his day job. He loves to write about interesting worlds and people that he creates. He started writing novels at the age of eight, but waited to publish until thirty-eight. He is often inspired in the middle of the night or while driving home from work.

He lives in Northern California with his wife and three children. He loves inspiring quotations, and one of his favorites is from Les Misérables by Victor Hugo: "To learn to read is to light a fire." He would love to know that his writing lit the fire of reading, introspection, and hope in others.

Reviews

[John Coon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dmitry is an elite interrogator who yearns to move up in the world of espionage. Deception chronicles his mental cat-and-mouse battle with Olyesa as he schemes to climb the ranks. Eric Halpenny does a good job of capturing Dmitry's jealousy, anger, and fear. Nothing is as it seems in espionage. The same can be said with Deception. It peels back layer after layer, exposing a desperate character blinded by his own bullying personality and sheer paranoia. Dmitry isn't a sympathetic character by any stretch of the imagination, but he is representative of his environment. Deception is wordy in places and it takes a while to get going. Once it gets going, however, the story offers up a compelling twist that leads into a satisfying conclusion.

[Eichin Chang-Lim · Rating 5 out of 5]

The plot well reflects the title of the short story: Deception. It subtly reveals the message to the reader that it's not what it appears to be right from the initial paragraph. With that in mind, I was prompted to focus on how the author applies his wordsmith skills to craft the subtext storyline. The antagonist, Dmitry, attempts to use the body language to psyche out the main female character, Olyesa. Mr. Halpenny masterfully uses lines like, "He purposefully let his eyes linger on her body rather than her face all the way across the room until she stood directly in front of his desk," to depict the intimidation he imposed on her through a mental game. As the anger and malevolence dominate him, he eventually physically assaults her.
For a spy tale, the plot takes time to be established. It appears to be a slow drag in the first third; however, it's a necessary setup for this genre, I assume. The characters are well-developed. The main character's mind is so confined, locked up, and twisted by his fiery ambition to the point that he is blindsided by Olyesa's ultimate strength and deliberate deals. After all, she is the one who has the upper hand from the beginning.
This a well-written short story for someone who is seeking a brief escape through a fun read.

[April Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

Deception is a well-written short story about a thoroughly unpleasant man named Dmitry. The author drops readers into Dmitry’s world without any preamble, so it takes a bit to get acclimated. Once that happens, readers are subjected to Dmitry’s often repugnant thoughts and outlook on life. This is a man who enjoys physically and emotionally torturing people, and he gets to do exactly that as part of his job. The ending, although predictable, is completely enjoyable and makes the entire journey more than worthwhile.

[Joy Lo-Bamijoko · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an interesting story about a bully named Dmitry. His pride and superiority complex pushed him to treat Olyesa, a co-worker with contempt and even physical attack. All of this in the name of him being the man, strong and intelligent, and she being the woman, weak and stupid.

Olyesa bore Dmitry’s mistreatment to the end for a reason. A beautiful ending!

The author wrote a fascinating, almost insider account of the Russian society and how she treats her female citizens. It was sometimes very comical. The story, however was very wordy. Most of it was told with the author inside the head of the characters. There were very few dialogues, and action. I would have loved to see more real interaction between all the characters.

[Karen Ingalls · Rating 4 out of 5]

I almost stopped reading the book because I could not grasp what the plot of the story was. I am glad I persevered while the roles of the two main characters, Dmitry and Olyesa came to be understood. The further I read the more I wanted to keep reading and the ending was superb. It was well edited and the descriptions of the characters and scenes were such that I could "see" them.