Welcome to the Black Cover Books, a spiritual trilogy of Callum Gibson’s work published by Good Guy Publishing from 2012 to 2013, collected for the first time in one anthology. Including updated versions of the dirtily grimy short story Buckle, the touchingly funny novella Year of the Rat, and the insidiously creepy novel House! The Black Cover Books also offers readers their first chance to experience Gibson’s new short story, the wickedly funny and hauntingly sweet Joseph: A Ghost Tail.
Buckle.
His name is Chuck. It’s a regular name. A regular name for a regular guy. But there’s something not quite right about Chuck. When life deals him a bum-hand, who could blame him for spending more and more time in his own company, enjoying his own fantasies? But Chuck’s fantasies aren’t what they were. They’re getting darker and darker. Jyl has no idea what’s going on in her husband’s head, has no clue about the urges that grow in his mind and strangle his heart. But she’s about to find out.
Year of the Rat.
Ben Ridley hasn’t set the alarm on his phone for one month, two weeks, and four days. There doesn’t seem any point. Ben is alone, more alone then he ever dreamed was possible. It’s not even like he can speak to his parents as, since he still lives with them even at the ripe old age of 28, the only thing they want to impart is how important it is that he grow up, move out, and move on. And so Ben sits, in his parents back garden, with no one to talk to except for a large black rat emerges from the conifers. The thing is, the rat is talking back.
House!
Jo Taylor is used to being watched. As the presenter of an online game show it is her job to be looked at. It is her job, and nothing more. She wears her professional persona like a mask, a thick and definite line between her work and her personal life. But the mask is starting to slip. And after Jo is forced to show a little more of herself then she’d like, there’s someone in the audience who is keeping one black eye on her. A someone who doesn’t just want to peek beneath the mask, but someone who wants to rip it off and tear it to pieces.
Joseph: A Ghost Tail.
Crossed between a Pug and a King Charles Cavalier, Joseph is the most miserable of mutts. He hates everything and everyone… apart from a young girl he’s affectionately named Kid. He loves Kid. He would do anything for Kid. And as the old woman who follows her around suddenly begins to get closer and closer to his beloved owner, he realises he just might have to.
