robert s malan

Downriver to the sea (the black sea) the blood stream flows. The sun gone cold. No dawn beyond the void. In all this I see, a darkness in mind.

‘I never did buy the whole angels and demons thing,’ I say. ‘No way it’s as simple as that.’

‘It never is. But …’ He leans forward, as if he’s about to let me in on a secret: ‘… there are demons, John, though they’re not what you’d expect. And the thing is, you can’t run from them, much as you try. They’re always there, deep inside your soul. And you want to set them free.’

John Andras has debts to pay, whittling his life away as a prison guard. But a fateful encounter with one of the inmates is about to change all that ...

Because the warden has a special assignment for him, and he’s not the kind of man to take no for an answer. Now John needs a key, and the only one who knows where to find it is a shackled prisoner in a cell that shouldn't be there.

As his dreams grow darker, each step seems to be pulling him closer to the precipice.