The 13th Prophet is noir science fiction done with perfection. Mulligan Burke is a private investigator hired to solve a murder. The victim is one of twelve prophets that people around the world hold up as gods. These people are the human embodiment of the emotions they represent. Desire, Defiance, Grace, Satisfaction, Solitude, Strength, Clarity, Courage, Care, Passion, Control, and Bliss. They’re personalities are copied and uploaded into other people so they too can become gods, for a price, without any effort or justification for their ennoblement. But Defiance is dead, and people are panicked and unruly; unsure of where they’re going to get their next personality upgrade. Mulligan is beyond his prime, but even with bad knees, fake teeth and a receding hairline he’s still more than a match for most people and the last crime he solves will be the one that changes the world.

This is a short story and I’m happy to see that no time is wasted. Every sentence in the story offers something that paints the picture of the overall world, develops the characters, or moves the story along. The language is crisp, clean and easy flowing and in that lays the enjoyment as provocative ideas or staple detective mystery devices unravel before you with little effort. What I liked most about the story was that the reader has equal opportunity to solve the crime along with the detective and the conclusion of the story comes about logically. Aside from a few grammatical errors this was a near perfect execution of a short story.

E-Book: 23 page
Published July 8th 2013 by T. Lucas Earle
ASIN: B00DU2IQGU