In October 1983, something happened in Shadows Close. The dead-end road was subject to a week of horror that left the inhabitants shaking with terror. This book documents that week and what happened to each resident. Unlike other short story collections, the characters appear throughout the book as each household lives through its own terror. Shadows Close has ghosts, killers and heroes; be warned that it is advisable not to read it after sunset. A young boy decides to protect his mother at all cost; a house slips into the floodplain; a couple find themselves reliving a story that is a hundred years old; a ghost, who killed its own mother, is threatened; a man tries to save his family from the evil which is steadily crawling toward his house. Written in the lean style of dirty realism the short stories are awash with fear and horror. Set within the confines of one street the stories have a strong narrative framework that allows the location to become as much a character as any of the people in the stories. The threshold has been crossed and Shadows Close is the boundary where the human character is placed under a darkly tinted glass.
About the Author: Kate Murray has recently completed her Masters in Creative Writing and is currently working as an illustrator and writer. Her first anthology of short stories 'The Phantom Horse' was published in December 2013 and she subsequently has had another anthology published by Raging Aardvark; "Love Just Is" looks at the truth of love, in all its guises from romantic to obsessive. She is currently working on an anthology of ghost stories which should be published at the end of October 2014 and is also writing her first novel. Kate runs two blogs, one is about her life as a writer (kate0murray.wordpress.com) and the other is a serialisation of a novel, "The Gone"; a disaster hits the world while Bitsy is on a flight from Italy. She lands to find that the world is completely altered and she must learn to survive in a place where everyone is not who they appear to be (thegone.wordpress.com). Kate has had short stories published in magazines and e-zines, including 'The Lampeter Review', 'Jotter's United', and 'What The Dickens'. She has had short stories included in the 'Twisted Tales 2013' anthology published by Raging Aardvark, and the 'Busker Anthology' and 'Spooky Tales Anthology' published by What the Dickens. Kate's artwork has been exhibited at the Museum Of Modern Art in Machynlleth where she was selected after entering the art competition and at Aberglasney Gardens as part of the Mid Wales Art group. Her artwork has been published by companies from Norway to Australia and her latest works will have illustrations in it. She has also had a series of line drawings published by Staffordshire Wildlife Trust in their biodiversity action plan. Kate currently works in the foothill of the Cambrian Mountains where she has a purpose built workshop that she affectionately calls her 'house' as she spends far more time in there than anywhere else.