Clouded Judgment (Paperback or Softback)

‘She wasn’t making this easy for him, but he had to go. He was doing it for the right reasons, and she would thank him for it later – except it was unlikely that she would remember any of it, or even him.’

Six weeks ago Colin Holly had been a different man. Now, after saving a world, his life had changed – up to a point. He had tried to engage more with his surroundings, and he’d kept doing the daily crossword in case he was needed again, but what he really wanted was not to go home to an empty house, not to miss Anna, and to find Kia and the team wanting his help and support. Perhaps, if he’d known what was in store for him during the next twenty-four hours, he’d have hidden himself away and held his head in his hands. But maybe it was time to vacate cupboards and deal with matters head-on; having protected the planet, how difficult could it be? It couldn’t turn out to be any worse, could it?

Meanwhile, somewhere deep in the North Atlantic Ocean, all was calm. The sky was clear and blue, the sun was high and warm, and the air was fresh and clean. Everything was quiet…’

This is a crossword-based, London-located speculative fantasy story from renowned crossword compiler Marc Breman, whose puzzles have appeared in almost every national paper. Set in a parallel world almost identical to our own, the Cryptic Chronicles series is based on the question of what the world would look like if it was governed by the daily cryptic crossword puzzle.