It’s science-fiction month at BestSelling Reads. Enjoy this sample of a book you could #win in the Spring Fling Science-Fiction & Fantasy Giveaway, the bestselling doppelganger sci-fi thriller
By Seb Kirby
The guy with the bad attitude has been following me all week. My agent, Jerry, keeps telling me I have to get used to stuff like that, now that my writing has broken and I’m the next big thing in the literary world. But I don’t buy that. Just my luck that the bad attitude guy is also a writer. And, the last thing you’d expect from a guy who’s trying to be a literary type, he has a bunch of heavy friends. Worse than that, he’s saying that he’s me.
You don’t believe me? It’s just my paranoia at being exposed to all this sudden media interest? Well, I can prove it to you. Read on.
I’m sitting in this bookstore on Oxford Street signing books. There’s a queue of about twenty or so waiting for a signature and I’m getting the feeling of being watched. OK, there are people there who’re looking at me who have come to the signing and I know what you’re going to say, ‘You don’t like people looking at you, why set out to be a well-known writer?’ And I say, no, being watched. The feeling that someone, somewhere is looking you over out of sight. The kind of thing you just feel.
And sure enough, when the signing’s over and I’m in the bookstore washroom cleaning my hands, there he is. I see him in the mirror first, coming up on me from behind. There’s no one else about. He’s picked his moment. It’s just him and me. I turn to face him, hands dripping. Our eyes meet and he stands there open-mouthed in front of me. He’s staring at me, eyes wide like he’s just seen the most frightening thing in his life.
‘I don’t know what you’re into but I can’t cope with the way you look.’ He’s there, right in my face.
I try to keep calm. ‘What’s with the way I look?’
‘I saw you first on TV in the interview show and I couldn’t believe it. You look just like me. Not similar, exactly like me. The same style, the same clothes, the same way of talking.’
You can see why I say he has an attitude problem.
‘So, you want to be like me?’
‘No! I’m saying that you are me. That in some whacked out and screwed up way you are another me.’
‘OK, Buddy, what’s your name?’
He doesn’t want to answer. But when I start to smile, he does. ‘Mark Bellamy.’
‘Raymond Bridges. That’s my pen name. You didn’t have to steal that as well.’
I can see where this is going and start to move towards the door. He grabs my shoulder and I spring back to face him. His eyes are a world of fear.
‘I know what you are. There’s a name for you. I found it out. A doppelganger. You’re my doppelganger, that’s what you are.’
I know then that he’s mad, that something is happening in his life to make this so much of a trauma for him.
‘I’m telling you here and now, Bridges, whoever you are or whatever you are, that I’m going to do you. Not here, nowhere as public as this. Somewhere very soon in a place of my choosing when you think it’s safe. And I’m going to do you dead.’
I can tell right there and then that he’s never going to make it as a writer. But the threat is real. I shake him off, make towards the door and leave him standing there.
Outside, I say nothing to Jerry. I don’t think he’s going to understand.
About Double Bind
Over there! Someone like you. Not just like you. Someone who is you
From the moment he encounters his doppelgänger, life-changing experiences come thick and fast for Raymond Bridges as he attempts to unravel a mystery that goes to the heart of his being.
It’s a thrilling journey that leads him to question so much of what he finds in the world around him – including the loyalty of those he thinks he knows well.
What he uncovers is a conspiracy that shakes the world he knows to its foundations and asks key questions about our responsibility to the planet.
A book that just might invoke deep thoughts about how we live today – or just be appreciated for the wild ride of the imagination that it undoubtedly is.
Reader reviews of Double Bind
‘The storyline and the characters are so compelling that you’re drawn in from the start.’
‘What a fantastical sci-fi told as a cautionary tale – I loved it! This story is fast-paced, extremely well-written and extraordinarily different – one that gripped me from the beginning to the very end.’
‘Hooks you early on…. it’s hard to stop reading. An excellent story and really well told.’
‘Thought provoking and exciting ….. chillingly believable.’
‘I like a thriller like this one where the plot takes you for a wild ride but leaves no loose ends in the grand finale.’
Win Double Bind and 9 other great books, on a new Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, in the BestSelling Reads Spring Fling Science-Fiction & Fantasy Giveaway.
