Going Back (Trade Paperback)

After it happened, my marriage only lasted two more months. Janine? She would tell me, some fifty times a day, that it wasn't really my fault. But she never looked in my eyes once, each time she said it. And by mid-February, she was gone.

Time is of the essence, and in these eighteen stories from acclaimed dark fantasy writer Tony Richards the essence of time is the link that pulls his characters together. Richards explores the nature of reality and perception filtered through the lens of time; examines how our decisions can lead us down unsettling paths, and however carefully we make our choices they can still contain strange consequences, even tragic ones.

A Man becomes trapped within a never-ending day, another tries to prevent a child's death by returning to the past. Two others explore enforced loneliness and blind computer dating, each with terrifying results. Nine rocks predict the end of the world, and a beautiful stranger continues to exist even though her time is at an end. Meanwhile, non-existent cats play havoc with a bewildered couple's life, as mortality nudges at our shoulders, drawing ever closer.

If only time was more flexible. Which way would you turn the clock, forward or back?

NOMINATED FOR THE BRITISH FANTASY AWARD, 2008

Tony Richards is the author of more than eighty short stories and ten novels and novellas, including the Raine's Landing series from Eos/HarperCollins. His work has appeared in Fantasy & Science Fiction, Weird Tales, Cemetery Dance, Asimov's,Alfred Hitchcock's, The Third Alternative, Black Static, and numerous top anthologies, and has been nominated for both the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy awards. His publications with Dark Regions Press include the widely praised Shadows and Other Tales. Widely travelled, he frequently sets his stories in the places he has visited. He is currently working as a full-time writer, and lives in London, England, with his wife.