Collection of short stories don’t pair well

By Kathryn Reed

Each time I picked up “All is Well, Safely Rest and Other Stories” it was a mystery what I would be reading next.

This is a collection of nine works of fiction from Wade Morgan, who used to live and work in Lake Tahoe.

The biggest problem I had is that none of the stories seemed to go with the next one. It appears to just be a collection of his short stories. And while there is nothing wrong with this per se, it is a hard collection to recommend because they are all over the place.

Stories range from young firefighters to two couples targeted by Mexican outlaws to a woman looking to find a trumpeter from Hawaii. Each is well written. Some even have unexpected turns.

I could see Morgan developing some of them into a full novel. It’s like he has the chapter or two of more than one novel written.

He is definitely a good storyteller with a good imagination.

These short stories also seem like they would have more readership appeal if they were sold separately – perhaps published in a magazine – rather than bundled in this collection.