The Reopened Cask and Other Stories

WHAT IF -You're a detective, hired to investigate the bizarre death of man who made three wishes on a cursed Monkey's Paw? -The French police turn to you when they've hit a wall in their search for a man who disappeared in pursuit of a cask of rare Amontillado wine? -Victor Frankenstein's great nephew accidentally animates a Thanksgiving turkey implanted with more than the typical bird brain and a disturbing amount of pluck? -Zeus Himself came to you to finger the offending deity who has stolen his Fire? Does the assignment strike you as a bad match or a gift from the gods? These are the midnight musings of Richard Zwicker, mild-mannered high school English teacher by day, and after-hours writer of tall tales that definitely fall on the far side of fantasy. In this new collection of witty short stories, Zwicker finds inspiration in Greek myths, gothic horror by Poe, Shelley and Wilde, and even contemporary children's movies, to give strange, new life to a toy cowboy, ruminating robots, and an existentialist chicken who thinks a little too much about Why it wants to Cross the Road. In this delightful follow-up to his 2016 debut with Walden Planet and Other Stories, this fresh writer offers readers a bright, new set of imaginative oddities: -a one-way space journey gone very, very wrong, -a far-out pharmacy literally selling bottled-up emotions, -a retirement home resident who finds dark mysteries in the music of The Monkees, and -a lovelorn postman in Paul Revere's New England, recalling his own midnight ride and ruminating the repercussions of one last delivery. Zwicker finds fun as he plays with many great (but often humorless) stories that most of us read in school. After reading "The Reopened Cask and Other Stories," you'll want to re-read the classics with a new, not-so-serious perspective!