AustLit

'These 30 short stories are bound by a collective eclecticism, shades of darkness and narrative twists. The darkest themes – violent crime (Blood Red and the Eighth Dwarf), suicide (Pin Back Your Ears and Smile) and the spectre of incest (Terror by Torchlight) – are tempered by the light (If Horses Could Talk, Old Lady’s Dream, Crown for the Coronet). But even in the lightest, darkness lurks. No character in these tales – the overzealous cop in Sweet Transvestite, the brutal husband in Cutting Board Killer, the mysterious man on the run in Strangers on a Plane – will stop to smell the roses. The convicted rapist / killer in Devil’s Doorway will hardly get the chance … but is the Death Row inmate guilty, or innocent?

The reality is that the world can be a dark place. It turns bleak and forbidding in the futuristic Thirty11 when, fortunately, none of us will be around.' (Source: Publisher's blurb)