Wired Slate

A collection of stories by JOHN LAKE

Ghosts, earthquakes, bears, time loops, climate change, the yakuza, cloning, virtual reality, immigration and lost love are just some of the nightmares, wishes, hopes and triumphs explored in this collection of tales by the author of the Hot Knife trilogy.

The stories are as varied as the characters who tell them. An old man on a quest through a flooded London of the near future. A small girl affected by scarlet fever. A Japanese assassin on a mission to London. A celebrity duo hosting a daytime TV show. An archaeologist in the far future looking to score their big chance...

Including the novella The Lou Daniels Confession, here are sixteen tales, weird and otherwise, of angst, displacement and fractured identities.

'Lake's characters are often in the grip of blind luck or a hostile fate but sooner or later a willed destiny comes into play as they confront their demons'

- Tony Harrison

'One of the most compelling writers around' - Anthony Clavane

JOHN LAKE's writings have been long-listed for the Fish-Knife Crime Short Story Award and the Guardian Not the Booker Prize. His previous novels are Proxima West, Hot Knife, Blowback, Speedbomb, Amy and the Fox and Before the Gulf.