3.5 Another author I enjoy, and have been patiently awaiting her next novel. In the meantime, I'll have to make do with this short story. It is set, where most of her novels are, in Bakersfield.

A man reports his wife has died. The problem is, no one even knew he had a wife, and no one has actually seen her. A good story, with many morals. How an accusation, even without prior, can cause damage to a person's life. Also, how easy it is to judge another person, when really no one except those involved, actually know what goes on inside another person's life or marriage.

ARC from Netgalley.

I must admit, after reading the synopsis, my interest was piqued. It sounded like something really creepy was going on. Instead it turned out to be a sweet story of love that was kept hidden from the world. I'm not a big short story fan, but I enjoyed reading this one.
Thanks go to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for allowing me to read this and give my honest review.

Till death do us part.....

Oh Harold, why did no one know about your wife....until you reported her dead?

New...young...temporary...public defender Matthew has his work cut out for him because the ZENITH MAN likes his privacy and keeps his secret life well guarded....as you will see.

This touching little tale is another little goodie from the Inheritance Collection of five shorts.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the complimentary ebook in exchange for review.

A nice short story that lightly touches on things like small town rumor mills, secrets, and devoted love. That the author manages to do it all without getting too saccharine or heavy handed is a quite an accomplishment.

A great quick read.

***Thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a free digital copy of this title in exchange for an honest review.

A near perfect short story! I really enjoyed this (and the Alice Hoffman short story included in this collection). This is my first Haigh experience, and I immediately decided to find some of her past work! Can't wait to dive into a full length novel.

One of the best short stories I have ever read. Excellent plot, well developed and sympathetic characters . I would expect nothing less from a fine writer, Jennifer Haigh. I am really enjoying this series of short stories ! Great idea. Thank you so much for my advance copy, I will continue to look forward to the stories.

Jennifer Haigh’s “Zenith Man” is a short story in Amazon Original Stories’ new Inheritance collection. Opening with a husband’s 911 call reporting his wife’s death, it quickly turns into a suspected murder. Paramedics disagree on what they saw at the scene, one claiming the body was face down on the pillow and one saying it was face up. One describes the husband, Harold Pardee as suspiciously “calm and cold” while the other counters that Harold was in shock. According to the coroner’s report, Barbara Jean Pardee, known as “Barjean, died of suffocation.

Making the story more mysterious, readers learn at the outset that no one knew that reclusive TV repairman Harold even had a wife. Other than a marriage license, no evidence existed that she had ever lived—no Social Security Number, no driver’s license, no bills or bank statements in her name, no insurance policy, no job history. Haigh writes, “Barjean was the tree that fell in the wilderness. Or didn’t, with no one there to hear.” Since she had contact with no one but Harold, he immediately becomes the sole suspect and the subject of town gossip. Had he long abused this wife no one knew, perhaps keeping her chained to the bed with brain damage, or might she have been someone else, not Harold Pardee’s wife at all?

Haigh creates two interesting characters intentionally cutting themselves off from society and pursues questions of identity and perception, of suspicion and love.

Thanks to Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories for providing an Advance Reader Copy of this story in the Inheritance collection.

I received a free copy of this story from Netgalley and the Amazon Original Stories Team in exchange for an honest review.

Zenith man is a short story about a fairly reclusive and overlooked couple, Harold and Barbara Jean Pardee, who probably never thought they'd ever be newsworthy. It begins with the death of Barbara Jean, her discovery by her husband, and the furor of the town over Barbara Jean's death, mostly fueled by gossip.

It's a story that also shows that however unextraordinary we think we are, we are doing something in our lives that is extraordinary and remarkable. For Harold and Barbara Jean, it was their devotion to each other and the keeping of their vows.

a good short story of how life in a small town can be upended by a single event. The death of a townswoman that no one knew existed raises questions that do not have answers. Short read, about an hour for me.

“Zenith Man” is a nice story about a couple who, married for 32 years, kept their mutual promises. The story begins when the husband, a TV repairman named Harold Pardee, calls 911 to report his wife’s death. The fact that Harold has a wife shocks the gossipy Appalachian town in which he lives. Other than Harold, only one person even knew his wife existed. “She passed through life like vapor through a keyhole.”

Some people interpret Harold’s matter-of-fact reaction to his wife’s death as indifference. A pinkish tint on the body’s teeth and gums convinces the medical examiner that she died of suffocation. Harold is charged with her murder and a recent law school grad, filling in as the local public defender, is appointed to represent him.

Barbara Jean (Barjean), we learn, married Harold in Texas at the age of 18. Before they met, Harold and Barjean were reclusive and largely friendless. Harold is a recluse by nature. Barjean had a medical condition that left her feeling ashamed. Both are odd and seemingly meant for each other. “For thirty-two years, each had been, for the other, the only person in the world.” Why would Harold kill her?

Barjean’s family thought Harold was strange because of his Catholic upbringing. Barjean’s family is Full Gospel but her father was not unhappy that someone was willing to marry her, even if her husband was of a different faith. They weren’t prepared for the couple’s decision to move to Pennsylvania and cut the family out of their lives. Like the police officers who track down Barjean’s family, the reader might wonder if Barjean’s separation from her family supplies a motive for her murder.

The story is more a character sketch of two people who live inside their own world than a murder mystery. Taken in that spirit, the story is a success. Jennifer Haigh creates Harold and Barjean in accumulating detail. They keep secrets from the outside world because that is how they make their lives work, even if secrecy infuriates the busybodies who give small towns a bad name. A reader might not want to know them if they were real people — a reader would have no chance to know them, because of the fence around their property and their guard dog — but Haigh makes it easy to understand them.

Even people we might not want to know, and who might not want to know us, have value. That value will always be recognized by someone. The story’s value lies in its illumination of that truth.

RECOMMENDED

Many thanks to NetGalley, Amazon Original Stories, and Jennifer Haigh for an ARC in exchange for an honest book review of Zenith Man. My thoughts and opinion are 100% my own and independent of receiving an advance copy.

Another little gem from the Inheritance collection. This is the third out of five stories that I have read and although I still really enjoyed this, I probably liked this a little less than the others. These are very short stories (this one is really short) and all evoke deeper questions about life, love, hopes, and dreams. All are written by well known, talented authors.

Meet Harold, the zenith man, named such because he is the town’s resident TV repairman. Harold’s wife turns up dead one morning and the town is buzzing. No one even knew he had a wife. Her death seems suspicious and he is charged with her murder. It turns out his wife has been hidden away for years, never leaving the house, no social insurance number, no connection with family. They were married right when she turned eighteen because her father wouldn’t give his permission earlier and have been married for thirty years. She had epilepsy and suffered from seizures but never visited the doctor in town.

This is a small town. Four traffic lights in total. Gossip spreads, suspicion is high and rumours run rampant. Was Harold abusing her? Did he keep her trapped in her home and never let her out? Did he keep her in chains? A local lawyer picks up his first murder case and decides to defend Harold.

This didn’t stir as much in me as the other stories because I think of its length. It took me maybe twenty minutes to read the whole thing. I think, for me, the questions of judging someone else’s life, the choices they make was a key theme. Harold wasn’t a likable guy. He was very antisocial, antagonistic to visitors and very private. His wife lived an odd life. A completely solitary life with no social interaction. She was embarrassed about her seizures and had been teased as a child. Did they have true love? Did they talk to each other? Who knows? But does that give us the right to say that it isn’t the way it should be?

This is a great collection of short stories and I am enjoying all of them. It is amazing how much these talented writers can pack into a few pages. Food for thought for sure. Don’t expect the warm and fuzzies. Really worth reading.

This is a very good short story! It's very telling in how nothing is as
it appears sometimes. This book had a very nice ending. I am interested
in reading more by the author.

Thank you so much, NetGalley, Jennifer Haigh, and the publisher for giving me
the chance to read and review this amazing short story!

Zenith Man is an interesting short novella by Jennifer Haigh. Due out 19th Dec from Amazon, it's 23 pages and will be available in audio and ebook formats.

This is my first introduction to this author's work and I'm thoroughly impressed. I've always had a particular fondness for short fiction because it's spare and technically challenging, so you get a better feel for an author's expertise with the form. The characterization amazed me. The author was able to transform an almost Gothically odd character (the titular Zenith Man), antithetical to most of my beliefs and values, into a sympathetic character (who may or may not have murdered his wife).

It's a short read, but definitely a worthwhile one. I tend not to stray too far from my admittedly narrow genres, but I will absolutely be chasing down Ms. Haigh's back catalogue. She's a natural storyteller and I really enjoyed this short work.

Worth noting for Kindle Unlimited subscribers, this book (and the others in the Inheritance series from Amazon) are included in the KU subscription library to borrow and read for free.

Four stars

I thought the premise of this novella was very interesting, but would have liked it to be more fleshed out, as think this could make a great full length book.

What I really enjoy about these shorts is that it allows you to sample authors you've never read and see if you like their writing. In this instance, I definitely want to read Faith by same author soon.

Well, I am in awe with how 23 pages can pack such a punch with so much to think about. I was completing drawn into this story and when it ended I was like "that's it" and then I remembered this is part of the Inheritance collection of five stories about "secrets, unspoken desires, and dangerous revelations between loved ones" and I will have to do some thinking here. I do love the ones that make me think!! Once I started to think about this story I do have lots to say about it, however, this is one you really need to experience for yourself.

I received a copy from the publisher on NetGalley.

Harold is a man of few words, few friends (one friend, actually), and a man that the towns people realize they know less about than they ever thought they knew. You see, Harold's wife died and until she died, no one in the little town knew she existed.

So now Harold has a court appointed attorney, a young man who never seems to finish his sentences and who lives in his parent's basement. How is this young, brand new, attorney going to prove that Harold didn't murder this woman that no one even knew existed.

I liked the slow, country feel of this story and will read more of Jennifer Haigh's work. This short story is part of the Inheritance collection of short stories, by various authors. Thank you to Amazon Original Stories and NetGalley for this ARC.

What happened to Harold the tv repairman’s wife? He called in to 911 to report that she’d died, in bed... but no one in town even knew she existed except her husband Harold and his best friend. People think Harold killed her.
Did he?
This was a short and mysterious little story, and I liked it.

Thanks Netgalley and Amazon Original Stories!

An interesting, off-beat. Nice twists and ending. Recommended for short story fans.

I really appreciate the review copy!!

What an intriguing and also a disturbing little book. A book that I wish would just continue on for a while. Great writing, and a story that could easily be a full length book.

Thanks to Amazon and NetGalley for my early copy, in exchange for a personal review

#ZenithMan #NetGalley

This is the fourth book I have read from the Amazon Inheritance collection and I enjoyed it very much. It struck me while reading it that authors must think up short stories like this one all the time and some of them grow to become full novels while others do not.

Zenith Man is one which I could imagine becoming a full book. There were so many hints that there was more behind things than met the eye and so much back story just waiting to be discovered. I wanted to know more about Harold's wife's epilepsy, more about the story of their marriage and whose idea it was that she lived the way she did.

Such a short book to provide so much to think about afterwards! I must admit I do not know the author but I am now intrigued to find her other work.