Kindle Edition Amazon Category:  Mystery/Suspense ISBN-10:  1500348015 Type: Fiction Pages: 108 Copyright: 2014 ISBN-13: 9781500348014 Price: $0.99 (eBook) Packed full of surprises, twists and turns, betrayal and romance, assassinations and murders, sci-fi and horror and more, this little book of twenty-five stories will ignite a dawning hunger to read more. You will enjoy these stories if you enjoy different genres, moral dilemmas and little insights into the lives of characters and too, love dipping in and out of easy to read books when you have little time to spare, but want a quick and satisfying read. Excerpt First 2 short stories in the book (UK English) NIGHT JOURNEY The curtain drawn, the outside world felt so very far away. The steam driven whistle announced the engine’s presence twice on the track. Pulled in quick succession, I imagined its authority and determination told the world that this powerful leviathan would carry its passengers forward unimpeded. Its call, powerful and evocative, spoke of an era left behind. My emotions were inexorably stirred. I visualised an expanding trail of steam, smoke and ash billowing outwards as the train passed through the tree lined valley and enveloped the treetops in an unseen blanket of white and grey. The sway of the carriage was soothing. Cosseted in my cocoon, I closed my eyes and let sleep cast its shadow over me as I said goodbye to the day. *** ‘Wake up. Everyone, wake up!’ Metal shearing in great clumsy clods is no sound for the faint-hearted. It penetrates the body as if a million fingernails are scratching simultaneously downwards across a chalk board. I awoke, shaken and confused. The carriage twisted chaotically, upended and threw me hard against the roof. Instinct took over. My fists clenched and my forearms bunched as I braced my body for the impact, protecting my face as best I could from the crushing collision, I felt in my bones, was coming. The window blind had retracted and revealed a volcano of sparks spewing past the glass which were igniting the leaves on the trees on the lower edges of the hillside. The train slewed to standstill. Brief silence broke. My carriage was tilted, and I found myself looking down on the twisted array. And then I heard the screams, the cries and the pleas, which came in an ever increasing wave as pitiful sounds crashed into my ears. Above this pit of hell, a man’s voice rose strong, urgent and fast. ‘There’s another train coming.’ If panic was a force, then it was hungry that night. It gorged itself on all of our fears. I arched my back and threw my legs forward. The momentum took me over the edge of my bunk and I landed feet first onto the carriage’s ceiling. Other sleeper compartments seeped blood. A quick swish of curtains in nearby beds revealed hope of life no longer resided here. Enough time taken, I ignored the trapped and injured, intent on abandoning them to their fate. I kicked hard against some exterior glass focusing my energy on the fault lines. Freedom beckoned. The lights of the oncoming train pounded out Morse code as its beam flickered along the tree line. Each one, a second less to escape. A woman’s voice, frail in the extreme, haunted my conscience. I turned, my body was half-way out. ‘Please… take my child with you.’   A SLIP OF THE TONGUE A painting of sadness still brushed a veil over her face. She carried a tray full of cakes and drinks for one over the large slabs of stone; the promise of comfort, false. She took up a seat. Alone again. The pain au chocolat magnified great blocks of grief. Flakes stuck along the shallow gullies of her face which fell away from the corners of her mouth. He sat opposite her. Late and as unwelcome, as ever. She looked up, dark skies were overhead. ‘It was Jane, last summer, the village fete,’ he said. ‘I wanted to forget her. I just couldn’t believe she was there.’ ‘It’s all too much Jamie. I’ve been waiting for it all to end. It’ll spread in the village like gossamer on the wind. We could have kept it quiet couldn’t we?’ She probed him with her spittle. ‘How do I face them all now?’ ‘I tried to flee before she saw me,’ he said, as if this vain attempt at integrity would wash, ‘but she caught my eyes.’ ‘God, you’re so pathetic. But you can leave twenty-five years, me, our three children.’ ‘It’s raining hard Kate.’ As if she hadn’t noticed, the bloody fool. ‘I’ll pay for the house, maintenance for the kids.’ ‘Yes, like you promised to be with me ‘til death.’ *** Five years later, it was raining hard again, she mused. ‘That was a lovely service vicar,’ said Murray. ‘You’re too kind,’ Kate said. He would be the last to leave his shoes’ imprint on the glistening flagstones. ‘Mind you don’t slip,’ she called out. Kate smiled as a memory jostled itself into being. Poor Jamie, she should have warned him.

Poingnant and quirky storytelling in bite size tales.
I love this book. Each story is a tiny glimpse into the lives of others: a taste of the dramas that are played out all around us day by day. The stories tap into that curiosity we have about the people we see in the bus queue or the man who walks his dog in the park. What lies behind the public face? What do people go home to? The beauty of the stories is that they are so easy to fit around busy lives. A five minute read was enough to feed my imagination, to dwell on what happened next, or what came before. The stories are rich and varied. Some poignant, some humourous and others thought-provoking and quirky.