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The Cupboard: Seven dark and unusual stories - with novella The Procedure
From noir and dark satire to spies and off-beat crime, the seven short stories in this compact, yet perfectly-formed, collection brim with excitement, invention and compassion.
Buy now or download for free
A magician walks into a cupboard and is never found…
A sleeper agent lives in fear of retirement…
A cat-lover suspects her husband of murder…
A dog’s name risks ruining a love affair…
Now with bonus novella The Procedure
When two astronauts find themselves stranded in a distant galaxy far from earth, they don’t panic – the space mining company they work for has a rescue procedure that has never failed. But the procedure brings its own surprises…
Bestselling and award-nominated author Charles Harris brings his typical dark humour, razor-sharp eye and the effortless control of a master storyteller to pack a novel’s worth of plot into a page, revealing worlds that are both recognisable and yet subtly shifted as he tells of the moments when lives are changed forever.
In genres that vary from mystery, magic-realism and supernatural fantasy to off-beat romance and espionage, the seven bite-sized stories and novella in this short, yet perfectly-formed, collection are brimming with surreal invention and compassion.
“A natural story-teller” – Ian St James Awards
Buy now or download for free
A magician walks into a cupboard and is never found…
A sleeper agent lives in fear of retirement…
A cat-lover suspects her husband of murder…
A dog’s name risks ruining a love affair…
Now with bonus novella The Procedure
When two astronauts find themselves stranded in a distant galaxy far from earth, they don’t panic – the space mining company they work for has a rescue procedure that has never failed. But the procedure brings its own surprises…
Bestselling and award-nominated author Charles Harris brings his typical dark humour, razor-sharp eye and the effortless control of a master storyteller to pack a novel’s worth of plot into a page, revealing worlds that are both recognisable and yet subtly shifted as he tells of the moments when lives are changed forever.
In genres that vary from mystery, magic-realism and supernatural fantasy to off-beat romance and espionage, the seven bite-sized stories and novella in this short, yet perfectly-formed, collection are brimming with surreal invention and compassion.
“A natural story-teller” – Ian St James Awards
104 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 17, 2020
4 people are currently reading
6 people want to read
About the author
Charles Harris
11 books27 followersCharles Harris is a bestselling, award-nominated author and award-winning writer-director.
His latest novel, the comedy crime Play Me! has won a place as a finalist for the Page Turner Awards 2025.
Harris likes to give his novels a political edge and to go undercover to research them. For Play Me! he worked with SAS veterans, journalists researching high-profile assassinations and charity workers dealing with international corruption. He goes to great lengths to get the right details, to the point of falling off a mountain in the Caribbean.
For The Breaking of Liam Glass, a gripping satirical tale of tabloid scoops and betrayal, he smuggled himself into tabloid newsrooms and local government offices. His debut novel, it was an Amazon bestseller and shortlisted for Wishing Shelf and Eyelands International awards.
For his second novel, the psychological thriller Room Fifteen, he worked with police and talked his way into a police cell. It also became an Amazon genre bestseller.
He has won international TV and film awards for his darkly satirical documentaries, dramatised documentaries and his debut feature movies, the black comedy Paradise Grove. He has had short stories nominated for awards and his non-fiction work includes the bestselling Teach Yourself: Complete Screenwriting Course (John Murray) and Jaws in Space (Creative Essentials). Both are recommended reading on MA screenwriting courses.
He has also trained extensively in hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) which he uses to help writers, directors, actors and other artists, is a board member of the Society of Authors - and is a sixth Dan in Aikido.
He has a wife lives with him in North London and two sons who don't.
His latest novel, the comedy crime Play Me! has won a place as a finalist for the Page Turner Awards 2025.
Harris likes to give his novels a political edge and to go undercover to research them. For Play Me! he worked with SAS veterans, journalists researching high-profile assassinations and charity workers dealing with international corruption. He goes to great lengths to get the right details, to the point of falling off a mountain in the Caribbean.
For The Breaking of Liam Glass, a gripping satirical tale of tabloid scoops and betrayal, he smuggled himself into tabloid newsrooms and local government offices. His debut novel, it was an Amazon bestseller and shortlisted for Wishing Shelf and Eyelands International awards.
For his second novel, the psychological thriller Room Fifteen, he worked with police and talked his way into a police cell. It also became an Amazon genre bestseller.
He has won international TV and film awards for his darkly satirical documentaries, dramatised documentaries and his debut feature movies, the black comedy Paradise Grove. He has had short stories nominated for awards and his non-fiction work includes the bestselling Teach Yourself: Complete Screenwriting Course (John Murray) and Jaws in Space (Creative Essentials). Both are recommended reading on MA screenwriting courses.
He has also trained extensively in hypnotherapy and NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) which he uses to help writers, directors, actors and other artists, is a board member of the Society of Authors - and is a sixth Dan in Aikido.
He has a wife lives with him in North London and two sons who don't.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
April 7, 2022
A collection of 'tales of the unexpected.' Contained within these short stories are the creepy, the disquieting, and the macabre. Charles Harris here give us his curious and unpredictable take on life, in stories that sometimes remind me of Roald Dahl and and other times have Woody Allen-like flavour. They are the sort of stories that leave you with a frisson of unease. I do like the Classic Tales of the Macabre and in some ways the author's style puts me in mind of some of those: an elegant narrative that suddenly twists you round and drops you into a dark pit. Recommended to all lovers of noir but also those who like to be shocked out of their habitual ways of seeing things.
October 10, 2020
some interesting wee stories in here - his novels are even better, check them out!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews