A Catch In Time

"A CATCH IN TIME grew so vividly and beautifully absurd...I could not take my eyes off the book for long...C. A. Broadstone has easily convinced me that his writing style is indeed brilliant." -- Oliver Lippert, The Huffington Post

San Antonio Del Tequendama
Cundinamarca, Colombia
November 1938

'My front door is broken, bleeding guts of shadows...'
'...how do I find new skin...'
'...among my desolate bones...'
"But this is nothing, right?" whispered Tatiana. "I'm still alive."
These were her abstract thoughts as she stared like a saucer-eyed cat confronting a deluge--stared into her emerald green eyes in the large, heart-shaped crest-mirror hanging above the vanity table in her bedroom suite at Hotel "Bochica", Salto del Tequendama.

Tatiana Marita Ospina has run away from her forced marriage to an aristocratic philanderer, and sought sanctuary at "Bochica", a retreat for the rich and famous. The last thing she expected, however, was to discover a convoy of Nazi SS soldiers arriving at the hotel under cover of night, led by Deputy Fhrer Rudolf Hess. In the darkest hours of the morning, Tatiana's sleep is disrupted by strange, ghostly music and voices, which grip her imagination and compel her to explore the lower levels of "Bochica", where she stumbles onto the true secret the hotel has been hiding: the occult mystery behind the rising Axis powers. Openly confronted by this insurmountable horror, she must decide if she can make the sacrifice necessary to accept her role in the secret history of World War II. But will it be destiny or damnation for Tatiana Marita Ospina, as well as for the rest of the world? Weaving together psychological horror and alternative history with theater of the absurd, A CATCH IN TIME marks the triumphant and genre-defying return of dark fantasist Christopher Alan Broadstone following last year's SUICIDE THE HARD WAY: AND OTHER TALES OF THE INNERZONE. A CATCH IN TIME also includes two short stories from SUICIDE THE HARD WAY--SMILEYS' GRAVE and ROSEBLOOD--and also "CHAPTER 19" from the novel PUZZLEMAN.

SMILEYS' GRAVE
Poet Aaron Shelley Wanton has become a lost soul among artists. He's alone, miserable, broke and--worst of all--he's no longer writing. His inability to string together any words-of-worth is driving him closer and closer toward a cliff-edge of madness. Somehow he must reconnect with his muse, the Moon, who has abandoned him. Heartbroken, he once again finds himself lying among the grim stones of Mulls Cemetery, staring up at the lunar orb through the tangle of trees. On this night, however, his burning desire for the Moon's inspiration will invoke far more than he ever bargained for.

ROSEBLOOD
"It's every place I look."
The voices agreed.
The voices also intoned that today would bring something special.
With a dozen roses in hand, Andre--a filthy, bearded flower-seller wearing a prairie coat and ragged cowboy hat--stepped up to the curb b...