Jack Ketchum's first paperback in seven years, Old Flames, is actually two novellas collected together, the titular piece and Right to Life. Fear not, though, as both novellas pad the volume's size out to that of a regular novel.
Old Flames concerns itself with the tragic love life of Dora Welles. She's never been in a good relationship in her life except for her school age romance to Jim Weybourne. That one ended badly but, after her most recent guy cheats on her, Dora decides it might be worthwhile to track Jim down and give it another try. With the help of Flame Finders, a detective agency specializing in finding old lovers, she tracks down Jim in California and flies out to 'accidentally' run into him. But when she finds him, she also find out he's married and has two kids. But Dora's come a long way and gone through a lot to get back with Jim, and she's not about to let something like a wife ruin her plans.
Right to life is about a trip to the abortion clinic to take care of that irritating baby problem plaguing Sara's womb. She's dropped off down the street by her lover to avoid the lines of protesters, but as he goes to find parking, she end up kidnapped by Stephen and Kath. Kath is barren and Stephen believes that a baby will help solidify they rocky relationship, and with his past adoption is out of the question. So the easiest solution is to kidnap a woman who's just going to throw out her baby anyway, and raise it as their own. During the 6 month wait to term, all they have to do is keep Sara chained in the basement and keep her from dying or escaping. But Stephen seems to enjoy the fact that he has a human torture toy in his basement moreso than the baby that will keep his relationship together.
Both of these novellas, like any of Jack Ketchum's work, are brutal in their depiction of human interaction towards fellow man. And in typical Ketchum fashion, we also see a lot of the underlying psychology at work in the characters; nothing in these stories comes out of the blue, there's a precursor for everything, such as Dora trashing Owen's apartment in the beginning of Old Flames, or Stephen's abuse of Kath prior to kidnapping Sara in Right to Life. None of this comes off as heavy-handed or forced, it's handled very subtly, and any twists in the stories come as a natural progression of events, not a shock for shock's sake. Very well written in Ketchum's kinetic, rapid-fire style and a very nice addition to the bookshelf.
My complaint here is a simple but big one: length. Now, I'm not opposed to novellas at all, but if the book I'm reading is actually a novella I would like to be forewarned of the fact. When Old Flames just ended about 100 pages earlier than I expected, I have to admit I was a little surprised and not in a good way. I had just really gotten into the groove of things and all of a sudden, BANG! Welcome to Right to Life. It wouldn't have bothered me so much except that 1) I was really enjoying Old Flames and got the carpet yanked out from under me and 2) Right to Life is actually like 20 pages longer. As long as you're anticipating the length of the stories it shouldn't be that big of a deal but I totally got blindsided and, as petty as I am, it diminished my enjoyment. Consider yourself forewarned; it is now officially too late to come crying back to me.
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Mass Market Paperback: 336 pages
Publisher: Leisure (May 27, 2008)
ISBN-10: 0843959991
ISBN-13: 978-0843959994