IN PASSING

The sinister haunting of an American family in Hong Kong by the spirit of a murdered concubine... How to sink an aircraft carrier in 10 seconds. Extreme sport tragedy, an Inuit legend that describes the end of the world, and some gripping horror...

In Passing is a collection of dramatic stories, all of which sail close to the veiled no mans land between life and death.

But the stunning centrepiece of the book is an intense and surprisingly poignant novella, a medical thriller that relates the violent and heart-breaking disintegration of a mission hospital in the depths of Africa.

A creeping sense of doom and foreboding has overtaken the hospital. With independence just around the corner, things are starting to go wrong -- the malign monsoon has come early, a new recruit has turned out to be a twisted predator, and the hospitals treasured theatre sister has come down with a mysterious and deadly illness.

As if that werent bad enough, a brutal tribal chief has signalled his intention to come in for treatment. Stress levels escalate as the medical team prepare to face him, his armed enforcers -- and his witchdoctor.

Further details of the stories are given in the first few pages of the book itself.