Review: Short story: "Ushers" by Joe Hill

Ushers by Joe Hill
Published November 2024 via Amazon Original Stories

Agent Duvall has a task—to investigate a train crash that killed dozens and injured many more. In particular, he needs to investigate Martin, a young man who should have been on the train but wasn't...and who has escaped death before. He's sure that Martin has secrets. And he's right—he just doesn't understand quite what those secrets mean.

This was a satisfyingly creepy short story—swallowable in one or two sittings, but with enough depth to learn something about each of the main characters and to worry about their fates. I don't want to get too much into it (it's only about 30 pages, so there's not too much to say about the plot that won't contain spoilers), but I appreciate how much is left up to interpretation until the end.

Altogether, feels like a very classic spooky (not quite horror) story for autumn. Kept me reading but won't keep me up at night; had creep factor without ick factor.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.