Copyright ©2016 Paul Kane
Cover art copyright ©2003 Vincent Chong
Introduction copyright ©2016 Muriel Gray
Copyright © Paul Kane 2016
The right of Paul Kane to be identified as the
Author of the Work has been asserted by him in accordance
with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, scanning, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission from the publisher.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
eBook ISBN: 978-1-909640-87-0
2016 SST Publications eBook Edition
Published by
Short, Scary Tales Publications
15 North Roundhay
Birmingham
B33 9PE
England
www.sstpublications.co.uk
eBook design by Paul Fry
First Digital Edition: December 2016
OTHER BOOKS BY PAUL KANE:
NOVELS
Arrowhead
Broken Arrow
Arrowland
Hooded Man (Omnibus)
The Gemini Factor
Of Darkness and Light
Lunar
Sleeper(s)
The Rainbow Man (as P.B. Kane)
Blood RED
Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell
Forthcoming: Before & Deep RED
NOVELLAS & NOVELETTES
Signs of Life
The Lazarus Condition
Dalton Quayle Rides Out
RED
Pain Cages
Creakers (chapbook)
Flaming Arrow
The Bric-a-Brac Man
The P.I.’s Tale
Snow
The Crimson Mystery (chapbook)
The Rot
COLLECTIONS
Alone (In the Dark)
Touching the Flame
FunnyBones
Peripheral Visions
The Shadows Trilogy
The Adventures of Dalton Quayle
Shadow Writer
The Butterfly Man and Other Stories
The Spaces Between
Ghosts
Monsters
The Dead Trilogy
The Spirits of Christmas
Forthcoming: Disexistence & Nailbiters
EDITOR & CO-EDITOR
Shadow Writers Vol. 1 & 2
Terror Tales #1-4
Top International Horror
Albions Alptraume: Zombies
The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration
Hellbound Hearts
The Mammoth Book of Body Horror
A Carnivàle of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground
Beyond Rue Morgue
Forthcoming: Dark Mirages
NON-FICTION
Contemporary North American Film Directors: A Wallflower Critical Guide (Major Contributor)
Cinema Macabre (Contributor)
The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy
Voices in the Dark
Shadow Writer – The Non-Fiction. Vol. 1: Reviews
Shadow Writer – The Non-Fiction. Vol. 2: Articles & Essays
DEDICATION:
For my parents, who always believed—and my lovely Marie.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS:
My thanks to Paul Fry at SST for giving me the chance to celebrate all these years of fiction. A huge thank you to Muriel Gray for her wonderful introduction, and to Vincent Chong for the allowing us to use his artwork for the cover. And a massive thank you to all the editors and publishers who had enough faith in the stories to publish them originally. As usual, hugs and massive thank yous to all my friends in the writing and film/TV world, for their continual help and support in the past. A very special thank you, though, to people like Clive Barker, Neil Gaiman, Mandy Slater, Stephen Jones, Amanda Foubister, Alexandra Benedict, Christopher Fowler, Stephen Volk, Tim Lebbon, Kelley Armstrong, Peter James, Mike Carey, Barbie Wilde, John Connolly, Pete & Nicky Crowther, Simon Clark, Jason Arnopp and so many more. You’re all the best. Last, but never, ever least, a-big-words-are-not-enough thank you to my supportive family and my wife Marie, who keep me sane when the world is crazy. Love you guys more than anything.
PREVIOUS PUBLICATION HISTORY
Shadow Writer (Enigmatic Tales Number 7, Winter 1999)
Strobe (Nemonymous Issue 1, November 2001)
Rag and Bone (The Butterfly Man, PS Publishing 2011)
Biorhythms (House of Pain site, May 2002)
Yin and Yang (Peripheral Visions, CGP 2008)
Men of the Cloth (The Spaces Between, Dark Moon 2013)
The Butterfly Man (The Butterfly Man, PS Publishing 2011)
Homeland (Assembly of Rogues, Rainfall Books 2005)
A Chaos Demon is for Life... (Estronomicon Christmas Special, Dec 2008)
Dead Time (The Lazarus Condition, Tasmaniac 2007)
Signs of Life (Signs of Life, Crystal Serenades 2005)
Eye of the Beholder (Alone (In the Dark), BJM 2001)
CONTENTS