Sledge

Ernie Lindsey's "Sledge" depicts a late night confrontation between an ex-cop turned P.I. and the psycho who nearly killed her years earlier, the type of confrontation that could easily provide the climax to a terrific thriller novel. Instead, Lindsey compresses a novel's worth of explanation and back story into a little over twenty pages, and the result is a story that's much less effective than it should be.Five years ago, cop Mary Walker was attacked by a vicious killer wielding a sledge hammer which resulted in a badly broken leg and the end of her police career. The killer, dubbed "Sledge," went on to kill several other cops but was never caught. Now Mary's on a boring late night stakeout seeing if employees are helping themselves to some of the merchandise in a warehouse. Her night gets a lot more interesting when Sledge shows up again, killing yet another cop before setting his sights on Mary to finis her off as well.The confrontation between the two takes up most of the story and it proves to be rather exciting. Lindsey is s skilled writer, and he maps out the cat-and-mouse game between Mary and Sledge quite well, including a somewhat unexpected development towards the end.Unfortunately, this is a story that would have played much better as the conclusion of a longer work. Lindsey has a complicated story to tell here and only a few pages to tell it in, so there's a lot of discussion about what Sledge had done over the years, and, once his identity is revealed, even more discussion about his motivation. None of this discussion will add to a reader's appreciation of the story, since the reader had no idea about Sledge's history with Mary. So, revealing Sledge's identity in a longer work would likely have caused readers to kick themselves for not guessing it or patting themselves on the back if they had guessed, but in this story, it elicits a shrug. If Lindsey had jettisoned the back story and kelp Sledge as a brute force villain like Jason from the Friday the 13th movies, he could have let the conflict between Mary and Sledge play out longer and become considerably more suspenseful.Lindsey apparently wrote "Sledge" to introduce the character of Mary Walker, who appears in some of his other work. As a stand alone short story, "Sledge" is a mildly entertaining diversion with which to pass a few minutes or so, but it has none of the impact of Lindsey's other work that I have read. Plus, it raises the question of whether it's worth spending money for a story that's only about twenty pages long when there are good novels available on Kindle for the same price (I got the story for free in a promotion so the price wasn't a factor). Based on the quality of the story, I rate it three stars, but if I had to pay, I would deduct a half to a full star. If you have to pay for this one, there's better value available a lot of places on Amazon (including some of Lindsey's other work).

Sledge is a fast-paced suspenseful thriller featuring author Ernie Lindsey's main character from his novel White Mountain. Private investigator Mary Walker was crippled five years ago by a serial cop killer nicknamed "Sledge" for obvious and uncomfortable reasons. In this short, we catch up with Walker, who left the force after surviving an encounter with Sledge to become a private detective, as she is conducting late night surveillance of a warehouse whose owner suspects his employees of stealing merchandise. Inevitably Sledge reappears, and Walker must confront the psychopath who crippled her and ended her career.This book belongs squarely in the suspense and thriller genres and pulls off both fairly well. Once I began this piece I was compelled to finish it, especially after Sledge showed up in the narrative. This story has a bit of a creep factor too if you try to put yourself in the character's shoes and imagine what you would do in a situation with a sledgehammer-wielding maniac. Lindsey's writing in Sledge is not particularly stylistic and this has the advantage of resonating easily to the modern reader and not distracting from any of the action. Don't think that I am saying his writing is amateurish in the slightest, as it is very professional and polished. I believe that there is a certain style and tone that works with this genre, and the author nailed it. My one criticism of this piece is some of the dialogue, which I felt could be a little out of place given the dire situation. I think it falls into the familiar trap of the villain pausing to have an extended 20/20-esque interview about why he did it. Even though I'm not a huge fan of that method of exposition, Lindsey successfully manages to work in a fair amount of character development for a short story, and it makes me wonder what he can do with a full length novel. I expect that White Mountain (which calls itself A Mary Walker mystery and not A Mary Walker short story), will have a goodly amount of substance and plot, not to mention action. If you're a fan of Jeff Deaver, Patricia Cornwell, or novelists in that vein, I highly recommend Sledge.

I'm back ! Very good story but way way & way two short. Only one question. Why was the book so short ? And, yes, I know it said "short story but a five star book could have been written from what I just read. I loved and was in pins and needles but was so disappointed by the length of the story.Sorry, I only give it as I read it.

Mary Walker is on boring night surveillance, waiting for thieves to hit her current employer's warehouse. But what she gets is something entirely different.Her mind wanders, realizing the fifth anniversary of a life changing event is almost on her, an event that had changed her life, going from a cop to private investigator with a bum leg.The serial killer, one that specialized in cops, had been dubbed Sledge, after his weapon of choice. Mary was the only cop that had survived his attack. Then he'd just disappeared.But he was coming back. This very night. Right in front of Mary.And if this were a slasher movie, the sub-title might be The Final Confrontation.The author followed this short story up with a novel, The White Mountain, which I found engrossing all the way to the end.Recommend both highly

The story was good, it's just that I really get turned off when it's apparent that the author knows next to nothing about firearms. A Glock pistol doesn't have a manual safety, nor does anybody carry one with a round in the chamber in their waistband unless they're looking have an unintentional discharge. A trained police officer certainly wouldn't do so, nor would they carry a pistol without a round in the chamber. A defensive firearm that isn't carried in a state of readiness is next to useless.

A nicely written and well delivered story. Good attention to detail, three dimensional plot and solid characters. I would like to see this story and the main character i a full length novel.

A good storyline with almost believable characters, could have made a good book if this had more filling to it. A pity it was too short, but on the whole not bad.

Excellent read full of drama and intrigue from the first few pages following Mary an.ex cop turned private investigator. Her nightmare becomes a reality once.more

This short story held my interest but I found it rather predictable. The characters were wishy washy and there were no real surprises.

Well written and intriguing story keeps you guessing right up to the very end and still wanting more of this author