NSA Priest

This is an outtake from a blog post discussing the Chalk Short Stories over at The Irresponsible Reader. It probably works better in the context of the whole, but, you never know.
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First thing to know is that when Mr. Allison says “Short Story,” he means short. This is annoying, but I'll get to in a moment. However, it's a great length for reading while sitting in uncomfortable hard plastic chairs while waiting for an elementary school musical to begin.

Still, it had juuuuuuust enough of good ol' Chalk to make you want the next novel.

This one starts with a nice little paranoid (unless they are out to get you) description of the NSA's work, and sets up a need for Chalk to get some of that information. He knows how to get it, but it comes with an unusual price – and as Chalk sets off to get what he needs to pay that price, things get interesting.

This was great, this was everything I wanted it to be. Except I wanted more. This feels like the bare bones of something – not an entire novel, but a good setup for one. It's condensed, it's the synopsis of something – powdered fiction, just add water. Whereas Concession Cover-Up felt like it was missing a lot, this was complete, it just would be better if there was more detail, more time spent with it all.

Still, glad I read it.