Second First Drafts

by John Merritt

Factory worker Brian Green lives in a seedy bedsit and dreams of becoming a successful author. After a new tenant moves into the room above him, he hears the faint clatter of typewriter keys... He is astonished to discover that Stephen Pollock is also a scribe. Eavesdropping one day, Green learns that Pollock is working on the final stages of a manuscript of perfectly balanced prose, the contents of which freeze his blood... And then, in the throws of a diabetic seizure which Green witnesses, Pollock dies...

Michael Fink wakes up in a hospital only to be told he had tried to commit suicide after a drunken binge following the deaths of his daughter and granddaughter. He refuses to believe it, even though his memory of the night nonexistent. Slowly, with the help of those closest to him, he begins to unravel what exactly went on that night...

When Tanith Spender discovers an abandoned manuscript in a builders' skip, little does she realise its shady history. However, finding its bizarre contents unfinished, she sets out to discover more about its author and why a fire-damaged satchel containing a typewritten novel of the macabre ended up on a rubbish tip...

Teasing and subtle, from its harrowing prologue to its jaw-dropping epilogue, John Merritt's unnerving tale of suspense will suspend your disbelief until the very last paragraph,

323 pages, Kindle Edition

First published November 20, 2013