The Big Light

A collection of short stories. Beginning with Sam, an intellectual who is board of theory, infiltrates a crime gang headed by Swan, a man burdened by guilt over the death of his younger brother. And with an estranged father re-entering his life and a wedding approaching, he seeks redemption and peace. Instead, finds an oddly comforting solace in chaos. Ben, a struggling writer working at a car parts store doubling as a drug front, is suddenly kidnapped-mistaken for someone else-by none other than Swan. The strange encounter sparks something in him: a new angle for his writing. A chance meeting with Sam and housemate Bee, deepens this shift- Unbeknownst to him, Sam's father could be his long-awaited path for recognition. Meanwhile, private investigator Dale Lander, haunted by the unsolved murder of his daughter, begins seeing a pattern in missing child cases. However, Tabby Yenta hires him elsewhere to investigate a media CEO, whom she suspects is involved in the theft of a VHS tape and research documents belonging to the disgraced Professor Zeigler-the scientist responsible for resurrecting her and five others. A second chance, but with a catch. As Zeigler faces extortion and threat of criminal prosecution, he begins manipulating the experiment's outcome, knowing the only escape is the Killswitch at the chime of a city clock. Meanwhile, the cost of living is affecting Jerry Fenn. An ex-con living in a cold inner-city flat. Sorting through documents left by his partner Zoe's deceased father, David Lewin, he finds a strange diagram: a tin can, a cigarette, scattered jargon, and cryptic equations. Zoe had brushed it off as one of her father's science class experiments. But when Jerry notices the same business card-taped to page 38-is the same he had seen in jail, he decides to investigate the company. A shadowy investment firm, funding bizarre concepts. This inspires a disturbing idea: put criminals into a furnace, use their energy to heat low-income housing and care homes. Crime goes down; communities benefit. In another corner of the city, journalist Frankie Lowe investigates the "afterlife venture"-a costly swindle promising paradise after death, run by the elusive con artist Clive Henderson. Frankie discovers his associate's dad, John Holland, a once-respected lawyer, has fallen for the scheme. Meanwhile, investor Simon Pickard is losing sleep-and grip on reality. The only option he has left. Murder. So, as he awaits his associate, who is always late, Frankie is watching the elderly man opposite, unaware it is the deceased John Holland, yet somehow very much alive, and with a story to tell. Now, the bright light flashes once again at random into the eyes of the 'man in a shed' as he lies in a coma. Found crumpled in a ditch by a dog walker-mistaken for someone else-he now spends his days in a hospital bed, listening to reruns on the TV in the corner as well as having regular earworm. His desire for most things fading fast, and as he drifts through memories of chestnut hair, tinned curry, stolen toilet paper, and cheap weed, there is little left to look forward to. Except the regular and welcoming injection given by the quiet nurse. Opening his mind-to visions, ideas, so vivid, surreal, and absurd, but never too far-fetched. Gangsters named after birds, a P.I. haunted by the past, the 'man in a shed' is putting the world to rights, one that is strangely justified.