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This short story will pass the time nicely for a couple of hours but there's nothing memorable to keep you thinking about it days or even hours later. Everatt Jackson first published the Road to Hell in 1975, parts of the storyline may well have reflected life in some circles back then but the complaining wife who stays at home with no job but expects her "pocket money" to go up when the main character Ben, gets a promotion is hard to imagine today as is a character like Ben who would let their wife just do this. So you've got to really read this short story as a period piece, and as such it is amicable entertainment.
The basic plot is Ben returns home with a bad headache to his four kids and sponge of a wife so decides to take a bath. His wife starts banging on the door that he has a phone call which he's reluctant to take in his condition but since it is Chloe, his brother's wife who he has wanted to bed since before the two even met he takes the call and tragically learns that his twin brother Jason is dead. All his life Ben has finished second to Jason, Jason beat him in everything they ever competed for and Ben is surprised he doesn't feel any sadness at his brother's demise. Soon Ben discovers that everything that Jason had is within his grasp in fact Jason's job and life is pretty much being forced upon him. Ben has noticed he has started picking up Jason's habits, and when Chloe offers him Jason's suits and takes him to Jason's barber who wants to cut his hair like Jason's, Ben is happy to go along with it. It seems Chloe and everything of Jason's that Ben has ever wanted will soon be his. But everything comes at a price and Jason's life may not really have been as sweet as Ben imagined it!
Genre: Mystery
The basic plot is Ben returns home with a bad headache to his four kids and sponge of a wife so decides to take a bath. His wife starts banging on the door that he has a phone call which he's reluctant to take in his condition but since it is Chloe, his brother's wife who he has wanted to bed since before the two even met he takes the call and tragically learns that his twin brother Jason is dead. All his life Ben has finished second to Jason, Jason beat him in everything they ever competed for and Ben is surprised he doesn't feel any sadness at his brother's demise. Soon Ben discovers that everything that Jason had is within his grasp in fact Jason's job and life is pretty much being forced upon him. Ben has noticed he has started picking up Jason's habits, and when Chloe offers him Jason's suits and takes him to Jason's barber who wants to cut his hair like Jason's, Ben is happy to go along with it. It seems Chloe and everything of Jason's that Ben has ever wanted will soon be his. But everything comes at a price and Jason's life may not really have been as sweet as Ben imagined it!
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Margaret Dickinson's Road to Hell