Category: Action/Thriller Publisher: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
Type: Fiction
Copyright: Nov 11 2013
Price: $2.99 (eBook)
Twenty stories with great diversity of style and settings.
Twenty short stories.
What does it feel like to take another person's life? Will the good deeds we do come back to us in different forms? Should we always trust our instincts? Is it ever too late to turn back?
These are of some of the questions posed in this imaginative collection of short stories involving amongst others; a public executioner, a super hero who's half man-half wolf, a failed celebrity writer, a disillusioned taxi driver, a father and daughter facing the end of the world, an ugly journalist, and a policeman seeking justice.
Just some of the characters in this intriguing and imaginative collection of stories where all the characters have a tale to tell. A collection that will surely leave a mark on the reader.
Excerpt
Circling the Square
Everyone knew her, even people living well outside the city had heard about the pigeon lady. Most days of the week she would stumble around the city centre. It was hard to judge her age, somewhere in her middle hundreds I would guess. Even now I feel guilty at writing something so flippant. Who do I think I am?
She was utterly oblivious to the crowds around her, the young school kids had long long ago given up on upsetting her. Oblivious. She just lived for the pigeons. Draped in a dull stain-soaked overcoat she would stagger around the corners of the square, slowly dishing out crumbs that she had stored deep down in her pockets. She would spend two or three hours every evening with the birds dutifully tripping around her feet. It did not matter how many times you watched her progress there was always a theatrical delivery to her evening performances.
On the few times I tried to attract her attention her chocolate black eyes just looked through me, she saw me but there was no eye contact There was a dull unpleasant odour around her that made it uncomfortable to linger for very long, her greasy hair was a mat of drab grey curls, there was always a dew drop perched on the end of her nose. And a damp red knitted cap pinned to her head.
She was best not observed in close-up, far better to linger at a slight distance as she circled the square, chanting her incoherent mutterings at the birds. For the last twenty years of her life it would seem she had nothing to live for other than her pigeons. People were not a distraction for her, they simply did not exist.
She utterly fascinated me so I probed about and over a period of time I learnt some of her background. She had been born between the wars in France, somewhere in the Loire Valley, where she had fallen in love with a British Army officer, impulsively leaving her homeland to live with her lover in the UK. Her name was Noelle Charpentier but unknown to her, the lover was no gentleman and already married. His eventual abandonment left a hurt that had stained her heart forever. After returning home Noelle had no friends and wanted none, and yet I was magnetically drawn to her. As I sat in the corner café and drank my glass of red wine my heart would bleed for her desperate existence. I should have tried harder.
Last week when I realised I had not seen her recently hobbling around the square I
Professional Reviews
Great stories
Loved them all - well told and had me held from the first sentences - looking forward to his next novel
Perfect for train journeys
I found that these stories were the perfect length for my train journey (and drying my hair!)
All the stories are completely different so there is something for everyone
Would highly recommend
Very enjoyable
Very enjoyable stories, not too long, not too short. Makes you think, clever ideas and looking forward to the novels.
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