Recommended for Extensive Reading Learners! Short Stories by Popular Authors - A Reading Guide for Extensive English Reading [Mystery] -
A spin-off from the "Reading Guide for Extensive Reading" series in the English learning magazine "Tacho Tadoku Magazine"! This is a section where extensive reading professionals introduce recommended quality books.
Mystery Edition - December 2023 Issue -
Written by: Mami Kawade (Foreign Book Concierge, Umeda Tsutaya Books)
Recommended for Extensive Reading Learners! Short Stories by Popular Authors
This time, I will introduce two short stories by popular authors.
First is Surprise Ending by Jeffery Deaver.
It depicts the fate of Alan, a mystery writer who receives an unexpected proposal from an organized crime investigator.
Packed with multiple unexpected twists within its 51-page volume, Deaver's masterful technique of keeping the reader off-balance until the surprising conclusion is truly impressive.
It is a story that you will undoubtedly finish in no time.
Next is The Amateur by David Gordon, author of "The Serialist," which swept various mystery rankings.
A stranger met at a cafe in Paris tells a story from the past.
He once started attending art school, where he became attracted to an art model he met there and began hiring her for private sessions, but... from here, the story takes a surprising turn.
Although it is only 29 pages long, it is a crime novel that you can finish with the same sense of satisfaction as having watched a full-length movie.
Both are the perfect length for extensive reading and are currently sold as individual e-books as Kindle Singles.
These are two highly recommended, short yet undeniably interesting stories packed with the intensity of popular authors.
(1) "Surprise Ending"
Author: Jeffery Deaver
Publisher: Amazon Original Stories
Total Word Count: 19,328 words
Bestselling author Jeffery Deaver, who also enjoys popularity in Japan, is known not only for keeping readers engaged in long novels but also as a master of short stories packed with plot twists.
In this story, you will surely find yourself on the edge of your seat as you watch the shifting fate of Alan, the writer asked to assist in a criminal investigation, and you will undoubtedly be left thinking "I've been had!" by the surprising ending.
(2) "The Amateur"
Author: David Gordon
Publisher: Little A
Total word count: 9,912 words
A stranger met at a cafe in Paris begins to tell his life story.
The story, which begins from when he started attending art school, takes an unexpected turn and reveals the surprising side of a man who seems ordinary at first glance.
It is a thrilling story colored with violence that makes you want to see it adapted into a film by someone like the Coen brothers.
"Tacho Tadoku Magazine December Issue" is now on sale!
The feature for the December issue is "The Ultimate English Vocabulary Building Technique: Connecting and Expanding Through Meaning"!
Building a word network is a method we recommend as a way to increase your vocabulary effectively and without strain.
In this feature, we select familiar topics and hot subjects, and introduce methods and practical examples for networking related words to expand your vocabulary.