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Black Run
A psychiatrist’s chair, a charming ex-soldier who wants to tell his story, a snowboarding holiday to remember a lost friend. What could possibly link them to the strange experience Dr Grace Knights encountered at a funeral?
When Dr Knights takes over her late business partner’s psychiatric practice, she has to filter through all of his clients. One case takes her notice, Major Crystal, and he is desperate to tell his story. It’s a boring, cold Christmas, Major Crystal is a beguiling man, and when he begins his story with, ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’ then he has her attention.
From the author of the supernatural thriller Ashwood House, Black Run is a ghost story novella that visits Cambridge, Italy and Afghanistan. Just how safe is Dr Knights when she hears the phrase, ‘la morte tis ta inseguendo?’
When Dr Knights takes over her late business partner’s psychiatric practice, she has to filter through all of his clients. One case takes her notice, Major Crystal, and he is desperate to tell his story. It’s a boring, cold Christmas, Major Crystal is a beguiling man, and when he begins his story with, ‘Do you believe in ghosts?’ then he has her attention.
From the author of the supernatural thriller Ashwood House, Black Run is a ghost story novella that visits Cambridge, Italy and Afghanistan. Just how safe is Dr Knights when she hears the phrase, ‘la morte tis ta inseguendo?’
162 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 13, 2017
1 person want to read
About the author
L.K. Jay
13 books43 followersI first started writing fiction during the summer holidays in 2009 whilst working in education. During the evening I am a martial artist where I am currently a 2nd Dan black belt in taekwondo. Prior to 2009 I spent several years writing for martial arts websites and magazines interviewing some of the country's most prominent martial artists but made the switch over to fiction after several hundred articles and having several ideas for fiction I wanted to explore.
I love a classic ghost story as you will read in 'The Listening Post' but I like to keep my tongue in my cheek as well in 'Two Penny Blue'.
New novel just out, 'The Policeman Who Was Afraid of the Dark'
Also, a full length novel where three women hunt for spooks, men and a few other spirits besides in 'The Ghost Hunters Club'.
I love a classic ghost story as you will read in 'The Listening Post' but I like to keep my tongue in my cheek as well in 'Two Penny Blue'.
New novel just out, 'The Policeman Who Was Afraid of the Dark'
Also, a full length novel where three women hunt for spooks, men and a few other spirits besides in 'The Ghost Hunters Club'.
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
January 16, 2019
"Do you believe in ghosts?"
When psychiatrist Dr Grace Knight hears these words from her new patient, ex-soldier Major John Crystal, she is instantly hooked. It's a boring, dull Christmastime and Grace – widowed, childless, and rather lonely – is still reeling from the unexpected death of her business partner. She is a likeable, if occasionally rather prickly, woman, and – as might be expected of a psychiatrist – rational and sceptical in her outlook. She is used to working with the manmade spectres that haunt the human brain, but has no experience of dealing with ghosts.
All that changes when John walks into her office one afternoon, suffering from a condition which she at first puts down to PTSD, a remnant of his experiences in the army. However, even before she meets John she has already had a haunting vision of a dark figure at her business partner's funeral – a vision that seems to be connected with John's story.
And what a story it is. Starting in a quiet ski resort in Italy, and then moving on to war-torn Afghanistan, Black Run is a tale of guilt, revenge, and the darkness that haunts the human soul. The "black run" of the title is the name of a challenging ski run for experienced skiers (if you, like me, have never set foot on the slopes, such an explanation might be necessary) and it forms the backdrop for one of the most unsettling parts of this thoroughly unsettling story, as John is followed by a distant, dark figure that seems to haunt his every step. I've never been skiing, but for a moment I felt like I was there on that lonely slope, with the evening closing in and no one around apart from that silent, inescapable figure.
The same must be said of the section that deals with John's experiences in the arid, dusty hell of a war-ravaged Afghanistan. Few of us know what it is like to serve as a soldier in a country torn apart by rival powers, religious extremism and terrorism, but L.K. Jay does a fabulous job of portraying it. If Italy serves as the setting for John's encounter with a ghost, it is in Afghanistan that he confronts the evil of which humans are capable – and it is here, too, that he is forced to acknowledge that that same evil might exist within his own nature. If the parts of the book set in Italy are eerie, those played out in Afghanistan are downright disturbing.
Having read several of L.K. Jay's ghost stories, and having enjoyed them all, I felt like I knew what to expect of one of her books by now: a well-told story that relies upon setting and mood to build tension, and which never insults the reader's intelligence. I got all of that, and more. Black Run is intriguingly structured, with several narratives set inside one another like a puzzle box, slowly taking the reader to the heart of the mystery. Unlike some of her other stories, there is no happy ending here, just a lingering mystery – and a sense that danger, while it might have been averted for the time being, is nevertheless a constant presence in our world. If you enjoy intelligent ghost stories that deliver subtle, well-crafted chills, this is the book for you.
When psychiatrist Dr Grace Knight hears these words from her new patient, ex-soldier Major John Crystal, she is instantly hooked. It's a boring, dull Christmastime and Grace – widowed, childless, and rather lonely – is still reeling from the unexpected death of her business partner. She is a likeable, if occasionally rather prickly, woman, and – as might be expected of a psychiatrist – rational and sceptical in her outlook. She is used to working with the manmade spectres that haunt the human brain, but has no experience of dealing with ghosts.
All that changes when John walks into her office one afternoon, suffering from a condition which she at first puts down to PTSD, a remnant of his experiences in the army. However, even before she meets John she has already had a haunting vision of a dark figure at her business partner's funeral – a vision that seems to be connected with John's story.
And what a story it is. Starting in a quiet ski resort in Italy, and then moving on to war-torn Afghanistan, Black Run is a tale of guilt, revenge, and the darkness that haunts the human soul. The "black run" of the title is the name of a challenging ski run for experienced skiers (if you, like me, have never set foot on the slopes, such an explanation might be necessary) and it forms the backdrop for one of the most unsettling parts of this thoroughly unsettling story, as John is followed by a distant, dark figure that seems to haunt his every step. I've never been skiing, but for a moment I felt like I was there on that lonely slope, with the evening closing in and no one around apart from that silent, inescapable figure.
The same must be said of the section that deals with John's experiences in the arid, dusty hell of a war-ravaged Afghanistan. Few of us know what it is like to serve as a soldier in a country torn apart by rival powers, religious extremism and terrorism, but L.K. Jay does a fabulous job of portraying it. If Italy serves as the setting for John's encounter with a ghost, it is in Afghanistan that he confronts the evil of which humans are capable – and it is here, too, that he is forced to acknowledge that that same evil might exist within his own nature. If the parts of the book set in Italy are eerie, those played out in Afghanistan are downright disturbing.
Having read several of L.K. Jay's ghost stories, and having enjoyed them all, I felt like I knew what to expect of one of her books by now: a well-told story that relies upon setting and mood to build tension, and which never insults the reader's intelligence. I got all of that, and more. Black Run is intriguingly structured, with several narratives set inside one another like a puzzle box, slowly taking the reader to the heart of the mystery. Unlike some of her other stories, there is no happy ending here, just a lingering mystery – and a sense that danger, while it might have been averted for the time being, is nevertheless a constant presence in our world. If you enjoy intelligent ghost stories that deliver subtle, well-crafted chills, this is the book for you.
Displaying 1 of 1 review