Dead Centre

by Tim Farthing

It is Christmas Eve and Kemp is homeless, sick and suicidal. A last pilgrimage to see his estranged daughter ends in a botched suicide bid and accidental imprisonment inside a shopping centre shut down for the holidays. With an empty mall at his disposal, he thinks his ship has finally come in and promptly hurls himself into one final bender. But as the days pass and his head clears, Kemp comes to realise something is awry. Where are the shoppers? What is the strange waterway that cuts through the centre? Who are the shadowy forms that gather there at night? And what lies beyond the tunnel that only opens after closing time? Slowly it dawns on Kemp that the sins of his past and a life spent on the margins have uniquely qualified him for a job he never asked for: ferryman to the dead.

246 pages, Paperback

Published March 1, 2024