Backstreets

by Robert Hood

When Kel wakes from a coma to find that his lifelong friend Bryce is dead, he is plagued by guilt, fear and a profound sense of loss. Soon strange dreams and figures make him doubt what he has been told. Bryce isn't dead, he decides, just lost. Kel begins to search the city for his friend but soon finds his life spiraling out of control.

Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Robert Hood has been a published writer for several decades, with a long list of short stories and a few novels to his name. Though focused on Australia, he publishes anywhere he can and currently has books and stories in the US and UK. His books include the short story collections Day-dreaming on Company Time, Immaterial Ghost Stories, Creeping in Reptile Flesh and the career-spanning ghost story collection Peripheral Visions: The Collected Ghost Stories. Novels include Backstreets and the epic dark fantasy novel Fragments of a Broken Land Valarl Undead. He also co-edited the award-winning anthology Daikaiju Giant Monster Tales and its sequels.

Reviews

[Alan Baxter · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an astounding book. It's about grief. Utterly, thoroughly, this story explores the sheer and total injustice of someone lost too soon, too young. I've experienced more than my fair share of grief and this book is thoroughly authentic. That it was inspired by the sudden death of the author's young stepson (as explained in the afterword) only makes it tragic along with genuine, but what a powerful legacy in that young man's memory. This is a brilliantly written exploration of humanity. And it's a ghost story, whether the ghosts are real or the shades of memory, humanity, grief, doesn't matter. Is there really any difference anyway?