Dark Steps

By Martin Pond

A collection of short stories, a series of twist endings, and one author's dark steps back into writing ...

A teenage boy waits to take a sinister test he may or may not pass; a new father hears a strange voice on his daughter's baby monitor; a poisoner's best-laid plans go terribly astray; an enigmatic man gets as close to death as he can; a young boy wonders why Christmas just doesn't feel right this year; after the year from hell, a man is driven to extreme measures; a dying man reveals a black secret to his son; and, after four years in limbo, a man's life starts to unravel ...

These dark tales of the unexpected are for fans of the short fiction of Stephen King, David Morrell and Dean Koontz. Step outside of the every day and take dark steps into a shadowy place ...

Reviews:

"...Waiting Room is an intriguing and mysterious Brave New World-type tale set in the near future which keeps the reader guessing right to the end..." (Eastern Daily Press, 4th December 2010)

"...rises to a level that has earned my profound respect...With 'Waiting Room', Martin Pond conjures up a near-futuristic world in which a boy is about to take a test, except no one will tell him what it is about, which has disastrous consequences for him." (Ian Chung, Sabotage Reviews, 3rd April 2011)

On Dream Feed: "A chilling tale of demonic abduction, worthy of le Fanu. It is succinctly structured with barely a word wasted and plays cleverly on the ambiguous significance of sounds...A horribly compelling fable!" (Dr John Yeoman, Writers' Village, 15th July 2011)

On Resolution: "A persuasive drama of a life fallen into ruin, well orchestrated by the story’s ‘count down’ structure." (Dr John Yeoman, Writers' Village, 15th July 2011)

• Language: English
• Publisher: Martin Pond
• Release date: Aug 30, 2011
• ISBN: 9781466025547

Martin Pond

Martin Pond is a Man of Kent, now living and working in Norfolk. His stories have appeared in Unthology No 1, Streetcake magazine and Alliterati magazine, whilst three poems have appeared in The Artillery Of Words magazine. Martin's first collection of short fiction, Dark Steps, was published in August 2011. Two standalone short stories, Turn Around Where Possible and Cold, followed in 2012. The non-fiction essay, Tesc-No: living without supermarkets, was published the following year. Drawn To The Deep End, Martin's first novel, was published in September 2017.

Book preview

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