Tracy Knight

Trace Elements Tracy Knight

"Tracy is what so few other writers, even the great ones, are . . . an original," writes Ed Gorman in his Introduction. "His fascination with human beings of all stripes linked with his skills as a writer and poet combine to shape the voice and form of his stories." From the author of The Astonished Eye and Beneath a Whiskey Sky, here are 13 stories both bizarre and humane that span mystery, science fiction and horror. *A young intern is assigned to deal with an outcast man who suffers psychotic episodes every Father's Day. *A man sets out to murder both himself and his deformed daughter, who can't tell him that she loves being alive. * The mysterious entity, trapped in a nursing home, has absorbed more human grief than even a visitor to earth can bear . . . and it's all spilling out."Genre author Knight, who has written both science fiction and westerns, offers 13 short stories that focus on people who are either damaged, marginalized, or both: a man who loses his mind every Father's Day; a 'cat lady'; a former stage star, now living in a nursing home; an elderly dementia sufferer; a war-veteranrecluse; a young woman with cerebral palsy. Knight, a clinical psychologist, takes us deep inside his characters, letting us get a good look at what makes them tick. These aren't just character studies, though; they're compelling pieces of short fiction, with gripping, often unsettling tales to tell. ...(R)eading them as a whole gives a stronger sense of the author's gifts as a storyteller, especially his ability to create characters who seem uncomfortably familiar, making us wonder if we, too, may one day join society's damaged and marginalized." --David Pitt, Booklist