h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This is writing of quite a high standard in my view.
I enjoyed the story; liked the false lead of the early part which gave the piece its sense of mystery.
You should consider publication in some medium other than this forum

Ron

Thanks very much

I want to echo frontiersman's praise for this story (in fact I did, but the post seems to have vanished! )

A great ending, a surprise - and a touch of Graham Greene. It's awesome!

I liked this story. The combination of a kind of contemporary noir and Greek myth produces a story which is intriguing and original. What I'm not sure about though, is whether there are too many shifts of focus from one character to another for a short story. I wasn't sure who the 'he' was in some of the sections. Is 'he' Reynolds, and if so, is he the rapist and murderer? If not we need to know more about the man who is.

I'm wondering whether this isn't worth expanding into a longer piece of writing, with some development of character and an exploration of the feud or plot that has led to two men to hunt down the old woman and her daughter.

Thanks for that

Yeah, it's a lot less clear in this version - when I wrote it in word the bit where the guy with the knife was introduced and subsequent bits with him in it were in italics, but I was too lazy to put it into guideML

At the moment, the story is going through editing for the underguide, which is a nice compliment - and I'm going to change that introduction to make it clearer. And maybe later I will play with it more, and make it longer...nice to know you'd like to read more of the tale!