The Killing Circle

by Andrew Pyper

  There is even the time to dream of revenge. A plan to sell the house on Euclid, leave the city altogether and disappear with Sam, make ourselves safe. Then, a thousand miles away, I will set myself to work. To take something from Angela, the only thing that might matter to her. The Killing Circle. If I make it out of here, maybe I’ll write it myself. Stick a knife in her heart. Steal back the book she’s been assembling from the stories of the dead.

  But these are only lullabye thoughts. The drifting weightlessness before the crash. For the first time in what feels like forever, I’m not striving for anything, not searching. No envy, unrequited admirations, the hollow yearning to be noticed. Not afraid.

  Last thoughts?

  There’s the notion I might have some kicking around, perhaps a lesson or two of the kind you find at the end of novels. Something affirming and buoyant. I’m sure I could come up with something if I had the time, but I don’t. Because here it comes: a wool blanket being pulled up over my shoulders, my head. Darkness. Blocking the light from the inside out. But before it takes me I surprise myself by laughing. A terrible, shaking, coughing mirth that echoes through the empty rooms of the farmhouse. A ghost sound. The laughter of a man without a story who sees that what has brought him here might have made a good one, if there was only someone else, one Dear Reader to tell it to.

  Acknowledgments

  My thanks to those who have helped this book—and helped me to write it—whether as listeners, questioners, editors or friends: Maya Mavjee, Julia Wisdom, John Parsley, Peter Joseph, Anne O’Brien, Anne McDermid, Martha Magor, Vanessa Matthews, Sally Riley, Lesley Thorne, Brent Sherman and Sean Kane.

  A Note About the Author

  Andrew Pyper is the author of three novels and a collection of short stories, Kiss Me. His first novel, Lost Girls, won the Arthur Ellis Award for Best First Novel, was an international bestseller, and a Notable Book selection in The New York Times Book Review, London Evening Standard, and The Globe and Mail. His follow-up, The Trade Mission, was called “remarkable and compelling” by the Times (UK) and was selected as one of the Ten Best Books of the Year by The Toronto Star. His third novel, The Wildfire Season, was a national bestseller and acclaimed in Canada, the US and UK. He lives in Toronto.

  Please visit www.andrewpyper.com

  By the same author

  NOVELS

  Lost Girls

  The Trade Mission

  The Wildfire Season

  SHORT STORIES

  Kiss Me

  Copyright © 2008 Andrew Pyper Enterprises Inc.

  All rights reserved. The use of any part of this publication, reproduced, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, or stored in a retrieval system without the prior written consent of the publisher—or in the case of photocopying or other repro-graphic copying, license from the Canadian Copyright Licensing agency—is an infringement of the copyright law.

  Doubleday Canada and colophon are trademarks

  Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

  Pyper, Andrew, 1968-

  The killing circle / Andrew Pyper.

  eISBN: 978-0-307-37187-4

  I. Title.

  PS8581.Y64K48 2008 C813'.54 C2008-901919-9

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Published in Canada by

  Doubleday Canada, a division of

  Random House of Canada Limited

  Visit Random House of Canada Limited’s website: www.randomhouse.ca

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