If a Tree Falls in the Forest

De: H. Dair Brown

Narrado por: Virtual Voice

Can justice be served across timelines?

Fans of Gillian McAllister's "Wrong Place, Wrong Time" and the chilling Sally Field classic film, "An Eye for an Eye" will enjoy this gripping psychological thriller that explores the complexities of grief, the power of nature, and the unexpected ways justice can be served.

Lisa Bates, a renowned String Theorist, stands in the wake of her daughter Amalie's brutal murder. Grief gives way to a chilling resolve—Lisa will face Amalie's killer, David Rucker Leeds, not for forgiveness, but for a far more intricate plan.

Regular visits to Leeds on Death Row become a twisted dance.

As Lisa delves into his past crimes, she conceals her true intentions beneath practiced stoicism and feigned friendship. She harbors a forbidden knowledge, a scientific theory about the manipulation of time itself that remains to be tested.

Can Lisa rewrite the past, rewind fate, and bring her daughter back?

Beneath the ominous shadow of a fallen wolf tree in the Appalachian wilderness, the scene of Leeds' crimes, a dark secret waits to be unearthed.

Will the unforgiving hand of fate rewrite history in a way Lisa can't control?

---------------------------

A version of this story originally appeared in the Still of Winter anthology (Inky Bones Press). Following is a review of this story from that publication:

"'If a Tree Falls in the Forest' by H. Dair Brown - I picture a random person saying, "I bet nobody can curate and edit a short-story collection and also have time to contribute a solid story to it." Then of course Dair would be like, "Hold my beer." She seems dead set on delivering one of the best stories in every collection she releases and I think this was my favorite story she's written. At every step, I could feel how meticulously the story was crafted with callbacks, parallels, and just damn great turns of phrase. It felt like every element of this story pulled double duty as the plot advanced and it all felt organic instead of on the nose. I'm also a big fan of figurative language fitting with the characterization and Dair gave it in spades. A physicist sitting across from a murderer and considering, "Leeds was an intricate piece of math that made up life. Him, a motherless, unloved boy. Her, a mother without a child. They made their own sort of equation, she supposed." Chef's kiss, right there. That's the sort of writing that great stories are made of."

-Russell G