Wildcard
Jem doesn't do risk. He doesn't play games with chance. At least not until his ex-girlfriend shows up on his doorstop in tears and tricks him into signing for an impossible debt. Thrust into an underworld of card players who bet anything they can think of—favours, information, secrets, even coffee—Jem has to figure his way out of a debt he doesn't understand, in a world where the rules are twisting, complex, and never explained. Relying only on a woman who plays life like she plays a game of poker, and drawn to a young man who offers temptations Jem's not sure he can trust, there is only one thing he is clear on: the consequences of losing in this crowd. Because the last guy to owe a debt like his was just found floating face down in the ocean, and if Jem doesn't sort this out fast, he could be next.
Kathryn Hore is a Melbourne writer of speculative and thriller fiction with a taste for blending dark genres in twisting ways. Her short fiction has been published in several anthologies and magazines, including Aurealis, Midnight Echo, and The Crime Factory, and anthologies such as the Australasian Horror Writer’s Association’s ‘Best Of,’ Dead of Night. When not writing, she works in archives, libraries, and records management, and has a couple of small children to keep her busy. The Wildcard is her debut novel.
