Review of "Interrogation Stories," by Martin Ott ISBN 9781942515425

Review of

Interrogation Stories, by Martin Ott ISBN 9781942515425

Five out of five stars

The author blurb states that Ott is a former U. S. Army interrogator, so my first and logical thought about the book was that it was a collection of stories about actual interrogations. That is not the case at all, most of the stories are about people involved in dysfunctional relationships, whether they are personal or familial. Drug and alcohol use are an inherent part of many of the stories, there is very little in the way of violence. Although some people do get punched.

 The stories move very quickly, Ott is very good at moving the action along while being fairly thorough in describing what is happening. My favorite was “Stone Feathers,” where the featured character was former U. S. President Richard Nixon. He is about to attend a state funeral with a 21-gun salute and the other circumstances are kept rather vague. Money is a female aid that stays the course in aiding Nixon. There is an amusing section

“ ... she did not like his penchant for walking around without clothes. Like he was now. She thought he was keen and wise, but he wasn’t the cutest guy who ever lived.”

People that followed the demise of Nixon in his last months as president will recognize this story about Nixon.

 Ott is a talented writer of short stories about the harshness of life. These are not uplifting stories, in most cases the characters are doing what they can to cope and survive. In some cases they are older and attempting to somehow make peace with events that occurred earlier in their lives. In these stories, the success bar is generally set rather low. 

This book was made available for free for review purposes

http://www.amazon.com/Interrogations-Martin-Ott/dp/1942515421/