By Harry Riley

Following the positive response to my collection of short stories ‘Captain Damnation’ and other strange tales. I decided on an even more ambitious scheme to create another book containing forty short stories. These tales follow the same theme as before of murder, mystery and imagination. I believe that if something works well you should stick with it.

But aside from that, I get an enormous amount of pleasure writing short stories. It’s a labour of love as it releases me from the daily drudgery of plotting a novel. I can develop a theme and then work out a suitable ending, before moving on to the next story.

Occasionally though, a character seems to acquire a life of its own and almost demands not to be put down, it’s then that I create a follow on tale, as with ‘The Echo Man’ and later: ‘The Death of Victor Adams.’ I’ve since created a third story to be included in another collection, called ‘Son of the Echo Man.’

The same thing happened with Osborn Lucky and the Black Cat detective Agency, ‘Pretty Blue Eyes’ and ‘Lucky and the case of the Left Hand Club’ followed shortly after.

In one story, ‘Buried Alive’ two brothers are as unlike as chalk and cheese. Mark is sensible but naïve and Joe is streetwise, a gambler and risk-taker. Attempting to educate the cautious Mark, into the ways of the wicked world, Joe persuades him they should visit a famous nightclub together and it is from that moment on that Mark’s troubles really begin…

‘Newly Weds’ move into a rambling old Victorian monstrosity of a house, high on the cliffs, overlooking the south coast. They buy it for a song, as it has not been lived in for more than twenty years. It is their intention to renovate it at their leisure but before long they find out they’ve bought much more than they bargained for…

In ‘Mirror Image,’ a young policeman finds a body in a room and tells his senior officer, “Hardly worth your bother, Chief inspector, just some low-life scum, better off dead!”

But is the body really dead: he’s taken the corpse at face value and maybe they’re both in for a shock…

I hope this brief resume gives you a flavour of some of my tales and provides food for thought as you travel through your busy lives.

Harry Riley