book cover of Trace Elements
 

Trace Elements

(2014)
A collection of stories by

 
 
"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-veteran recluse; 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


Genre: Mystery

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