Makes You Stronger
Edition: Second (Expanded)
Series: Deadbeat
Publisher: Humdrumming
Published: September 18, 2006
Place of publication: Bournemouth, Dorset, England, UK
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 128
ISBN-13: 9781905532377
Subjects: Mystery, Crime
Genres: Horror; Humour; Mystery
First sentence: There comes a time in everyone’s life when you become aware of a very real and urgent need to look at what you’ve become; that moment when you see yourself with agonising clarity and realise it might be time to make some changes.
Description: I think you’re missing something, what did you notice about the woman in the coffin? …She was breathing. Not a common habit amongst the dead.
It’s the middle of the night and, in a dark suburban churchyard, a group of men are loading a coffin into the back of a transit van.
But why would you be taking a full coffin away from a graveyard and, more importantly, why is the occupant still breathing?
The matter obviously needs thorough investigation by the best, most capable authorities.
Which is a pity as the only two witnesses are a pair of drunken ex-theatricals with reasons of their own to avoid the police.
Tom Harris (nightclub owner) and Max Jackson (habitual barfly) are on the case.
God help us…
Deadbeat: Makes You Stronger is the first in a series of adventures set the secret underbelly of contemporary London, a place where the dead walk, magic can be bought on street corners and anything is possible.
Frankly, it’s just like every other Pulp Crime/Horror/ Zombie/Comedy/Thriller you’ve ever read.
Notes: Originally published by Humdrumming -- as ‘Deadbeat’ -- in September of 2005. ISBN 1-905532-02-4

Short-listed by the esteemed British Fantasy Society for the "Best Novella Award (2005)"
Table of contents: value: Makes You Stronger (Deadbeat); value: Deadbeat Special Features: Author's Commentary; value: Deadbeat Special Features: The Caiprinha