Old Flames

"Remember Glenn Close as the bunny-boiler scorned in Fatal Attraction? Raise that to the 10th power and you get Dora Welles, the crazy ex-girlfriend in this short chiller."
— Stephen King, writing in Entertainment Weekly, when he selected this book as one of his 10 Best Books of 2008

Old Flames
by Jack Ketchum

Featuring a special afterword by the author explaining the origins of the story!

About the Book:
When her lover betrays her and dumps her coldly, Dora's mind begins to crack.

She tracks down her old high school love to recapture what she might have had.

He's married with a family now, but Dora isn't about to let that stop her....

"He is, quite simply, one of the best in the business, on par with Clive Barker, James Ellroy, and Thomas Harris."
—Stephen King

"Tautly-written, thoroughly excellent psycho-horror."
—Manchester Evening News

"...harrowing...relentless...terrifying."
—Edward Lee

"Ketchum's poetically brutal prose, as always, is boiled down to pure, intoxicating essence, without a hint of waste or dross left over. He's a storyteller and soulsearcher with a narrative as lean as Hemingway...."
—t. Winter-Damon

Jack Ketchum is the pseudonym for a former actor, singer, teacher, literary agent, lumber salesman, and soda jerk—a former flower child and baby boomer who figures that in 1956 Elvis, dinosaurs and horror probably saved his life. His first novel, Off Season, prompted the Village Voice to publicly scold its publisher in print for publishing violent pornography. He personally disagrees but is perfectly happy to let you decide for yourself. His short story "The Box" won a 1994 Bram Stoker Award from the HWA, his story "Gone" won again in 2000—and in 2003 he won Stokers for both best collection for Peaceable Kingdom and best long fiction for Closing Time.  He has written eleven novels, the latest of which are Red, Ladies' Night, and The Lost. His stories are collected in The Exit At Toledo Blade Boulevard, Broken on the Wheel of Sex, and Peaceable Kingdom.  His novella The Crossings was cited by Stephen King in his speech at  the 2003 National Book Awards.

Available in two states:
• Limited Edition of 1,000 signed copies ($40)
• Traycased Lettered Edition of 52 signed and lettered copies bound in leather with a satin ribbon page marker ($175)

So here I am again, she thought. This is far too familiar.

There was pain of course but she embraced the pain as she always did. He was big and she was not, so she could count on pain with him. Tears and sweat were pretty much the same thing anyway she thought. She was opposed to neither.

But there was yearning. That old unwanted acquaintance.

She wanted—maybe even needed this time—to see his face. A face could speak what the body didn’t. His body told her he was close to coming. As was she. But that was all it told her. A glance over her shoulder was insufficient. Especially in the dark. And Owen insisted on his bedroom dark the way he insisted on taking her from behind.

But here in this room on this bed while he filled her he was emptying her too. She could feel a winding down. She fought that. Pushed back hard into his tight flat belly as though the slap of impact flesh against flesh and his own sounds, his grunts and moans and harsh breathing could meld into an invisible wind that might whirl around and enter her again through her open mouth and ears and eyes.

She wanted to be filled. Instead she relinquished wanting.

It was all she could do.

Lettered Edition Status:
The deluxe Lettered Edition of this book is currently with our hand-binder. After he completes his work, we will immediately ship a finished copy to our traycase manufacturer who will begin building the traycases. He requires a finished copy to guarantee the sizing is just right. We will update this page as the Lettered Edition progresses through production. Thank you for your patience.