Pale Fragments book review

My friend Paul Walmsley has published an eBook which goes by the title of Pale Fragments. As my own writing has ground to a halt I thought I'd have a go at writing a review of his book. It is available to buy on Amazon with the paperback edition coming out next year. 


A gripping and at times disturbing story

There are times in Pale Fragments when it is difficult to tell whether the main character, Mike Bracken, is in the present, whether he is dreaming or having a near death experience. This is why I found it to be such a page turner - you never know what lurks around the next corner with seemingly minor characters suddenly becoming vital to Mike's very survival. The story itself revolves around demands for a sum of money which arrive without actually telling Mike why he owes the money or to whom.

After an introductory section giving us some background we find Mike recuperating at home, following an assault by a patient at the hospital he works at. Just at the point where he is starting to get back to some sort of normality he is harassed by an officious postman, who seems to be able to deliver mail and then disappear into thin air. The postie is followed by three debt collectors who could have stepped out of a Coen Brothers film and who take far too much enjoyment out of battering the hapless medic. You really do feel both his physical pain and mental anguish as he tries to figure out what on earth is going on.

Taking a job at a filling station to try and raise the cash, he meets further seedy and seductive characters but events take an alarming turn when he finds himself hospitalised after an accident. The final part of the story moves at a rip roaring pace and you are left almost as out of breath as our hero is after a ride in a taxi which appears to be able to move at the speed of a racing car.

The one disadvantage of reading this book on a e-reader is that I found I occasionally wanted to skip back and remind myself what had happened earlier in the story. This is where the humble paperback wins hands down. Fortunately Pale Fragments is coming out in hard copy next year.