Do-Overs and Detours

Detours are amazing creatures. They can shortcut your existence or lead you down a forever long road that will linger far into the distant reaches of eternity. It is these unexpected tangents that people stumble across everyday that haunt in a frightening familiar fashion.

Wander into a laundromat and find a kind of time machine. Indulge yourself in a nasty game of baseball. Hitch a ride on a freight train with the piggyback man, entomb yourself in a trailer walled with books, take a ride on a bus that is going nowhere in particular, or just lean over an empty ocean and wait.

Detour around an overturned trailer of chickens and find a chance to do it all over again. Take a taxi ride with a very hungry passenger or a walk in the park to watch a juggler balance severed heads.

Reality will take you only so far--after that there's nothing to rely on but faith and fear.

Fifteen stories.

Five of them, never before published.

We've come to the edge of the map. Let's travel on a little further.

Table of Contents

Introduction by Richard Chizmar Hyperactive Cleaning Power A Fine Sacrifice The Takashi Miike Seal of Approval In The Dark and The Deep Rolling Stock Last Stand of The Great Texas Pack Rat Gin Bottle Heaven Voodoo Chicken Do-Over A Prayer For The Clockwork Twister Under The Skin, Under The Bone Once More Round The Block Jugular A Wriggle of Maggot Nail Gun Glissando I Survived The Apocalypse... (only in Deluxe Thirteen edition) The Tracks We Leave Behind (only in Deluxe Thirteen edition) The End of the Road

"This genre needs new blood and Steve Vernon is quite a transfusion." - Ed Lee

"Steve Vernon taps the strange fiction vein like no one before" - Hellnotes

"Steve Vernon is one of the finest new talents of horror and dark fiction" - Owl Goingback

"Steve Vernon is a hard writer to pin down - and that's a good thing." - Dark Scribe Magazine

"Armed with a bizarre sense of humor, a huge amount of originality, a flair for taking risks and a strong grasp of characterization - Steve's got the chops for sure." - Dark Discoveries