Shrapnel

Whilst masquerading - at least initially - as a conventional thriller Shrapnel is nothing of the sort. It fragments into a dual narrative that comically and horrifically explores the mind-sets of the protagonist (Paul Lomas) and antagonist (Stephen Kelsall). The mystery plot serves as an armature through which Lomas and Kelsall reveal themselves to us in a series of major and minor incidents throughout their lives. The focus of this novel is firmly upon Lomas and how he has constructed an identity from fictional heroic figures that he has encountered in literature, popular fiction and mythology. As the story unfolds the fissure between Lomas and the heroic figures he seeks to emulate becomes more and more apparent; in the end, although he succeeds in thwarting his adversary, Lomas is shown to fall far short of the heroic models he seeks to mimic. Lomas is revealed to be vulnerable and uncertain, confused and weak: more human than the fictional characters he attempts to imitate, and consequently more heroic than they could ever be. Shrapnel is about love and death; heroism; identity; memory and imagination. It is a psychological horror story; it is a comedy; it is a thriller; it is a love story. The blurb on the original edition back cover went: 'Silence of the Lambs meets The Life & Opinions of Tristram Shandy Paul Lomas coldly executes his nemesis in an abandoned London basement. To fulfil his duty? To see justice done? To reap spiteful vengeance? To appease the ghost of a long dead friend? Reading like a television that constantly shifts channels, Shrapnel sucks the reader into a vortex of conflicting narratives that shock, amuse, terrify, and entertain. In this fascinating and blackly funny novel the question is never 'who killed who?', but 'why?' '

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