More Than Life Itself

On a bright June morning, Sam Daltons world suddenly crumbles as he learns that his four-year-old daughter, Jessica, has contracted a mysterious disease. Thanks to some kind of new viral infection, her internal organs are slowly shutting down, one by one, and her doctors are unable to even pinpoint the cause, never mind find a cure. With weary shakes of their heads, they give her less than a month to live. Life has not been kind to Sam; two years previous, a drunk driver took his beautiful wife from him in a shower of crumpled steel and broken glass. Now the capricious hand of fate had reached out again, threatening to take his baby girl away from him, and with her, his only reason for living. He vows he will not let that happen. A chance meeting with a terrifying empty-eyed vagrant offers him a possible solution and a chance to fulfill that vow (A 20,000 word novella from the internationally bsetselling author of the Templar Chronicles) Praise for More Than Life Itself A filler free and nicely old fashioned tale SFX Magazine This novelette is at its most powerful when it is describing a man tormented by the decline and imminent death of his only daughter. When a mysterious apparition suggests that he make use of an ancient ritual which can save her, but only if he is willing to commit seven murders, he is initially horrified as well as skeptical. But then the opportunity to commit the first arises almost by chance, and it works, so he finds himself firmly set on the path of homicide to save her. But there is a catch. Theres always a catch. Youd think even fictional characters would know that by now. Science Fiction Chronicle a nasty little chiller that slices through the squeamish with surgical precision. SFCrowsnest