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    Saffron
    Saffron
    Saffron
    Ebook75 pages1 hour

    Saffron

    By Darren Worrow

    3/5

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    About this ebook

    When Paul moves into his new flat his old friends rarely pay him a visit. He likes the peaceful life until his quiet is disturbed by Gavin, his noisy neighbour. His complaints spark a confrontation which ironically ends up with the two befriending each other. However Gavin is a controller, a manipulator and when Paul falls for a beautiful young girl who seems infatuated with Gavin the friendship is put to the test. She goes missing and Paul’s mind races, has he got good reason to suspect that Gavin has kidnapped her or is his jealously playing tricks on him? Perhaps all is not as it would at first seem in this dark and disturbing psychological thriller.

    Reviews from Amazon and Goodreads:

    "The observation of everyday events in detail gives the protagonist life a very 'mundane' feel, too 'mundane', it doesn't feel quite right and there builds the tension. The man who lives above him has a much more eventful life and the small details of the protagonist life becomes almost desperately sad by comparison. The writing is compelling, I could almost see where this story was going and I didn't want to go there anymore than the character did, but I was drawn to see the events to their conclusion, as he was. If you like a thrill and a chill factor you will love this book. If you scare easily its not for you. I found is disturbing and therefore give the author full credit for a job well done." (5*)

    "A very well written book, draws you in, takes you with the protagonist to places you would rather not go. An interesting view of something is all to common in the papers today." (5*)

    "This is an excellent thriller! It will keep you guessing until the end." (5*)

    "SAFFRON by Darren Worrow twists the elements of a narrative and a psychological thriller together. In the style of Edgar Allen Poe, Worrow tells the tale of two neighbors who, after some struggle, become friends. The two are exact opposite, though. Paul is an upstanding citizen while Gavin has a darker, lustier side. Gavin uses his brute strength to intimidate Paul's adversary, while Paul provides a willing mate for the man. When Gavin first presents a lusty, profitable business venture to Paul, Paul is horrified. Then, through twists and turn in the true style of Poe, the reader discovers a far more sinister plot than one can imagine." (5*)

    "This author is going places. I have read several of this author's work and the writing improves all the time. Well done and many happy years of producing the unusual." (3*)

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherDarren Worrow
    Release dateMar 20, 2015
    ISBN9781310481383
    Saffron
    Author

    Darren Worrow

    I was born in the Fling Dynasty of a small planet known as Duncan in a galaxy far, far away. My humble parents, believing the planet was on the eve of destruction, sent me off as a baby in an egg-shaped craft and I landed here on planet Earth in the spring of 1973. I was later to discover through a cavern of ice, as you do, that the planet was fine all the time and it was just a particularly nasty prank by my father’s mates down the pub. I landed in a deep jungle and was raised by a company of wolves, learning to live as they did. Until one day when a naughty tiger with a very English accent came along and I was whisked away by a black panther and a jazz singing bear to a man-village. It wasn’t the tiger I was worried about; it was the American cartoon producer following on behind him. It was at the village that I won a golden ticket to visit a chocolate factory where I fell into a river made of chocolate and was sucked up a pipe into a fudge room; happy days. It could have been worse; I heard some other kid turned into an exploding blueberry. I lived at a coastal Inn for a while until an old sailor paid me a penny to look out for a legless seadog; what a cheapskate. In finding him I discovered a treasure map and was promptly whisked away by a sailor to a Caribbean island where I got into a bit of a rumble with some pirate radio DJ called Captain Tony Blackbeard. It was that or another holiday in Clacton. At eleven I was taken away by a man with an uncanny resemblance to actor and comedian Robbie Coltrane to a school for wizards where I had to battle it out with some bald blue bloke who killed my parents, said he was a lawyer working for an author called JK Rolling or something. That wasn’t as bad as the frog flavoured semolina we had to eat for school dinner. As I grew up and went to college I decided to give my favourite toys, a cowboy and a space ranger, away to a snotty girl from around the corner, nobody told me the cowboy was really Tom Hanks otherwise I would have given them away a lot sooner. So, other than the time I was bitten by a rare spider and found myself with special arachnid powers which I used to defeat an evil leprechaun, I left college and it was all very uneventful. Nowadays I have settled down to a family life and enjoy writing books, striving to be more like Bruce Bogtrotter every day. People say “where do you get your ideas from?” I tell them I have no idea, I've had such a boring, everyday life. If you really can be bothered to know more about me why don’t you visit my website at www.darrenworrow.webs.com and find out even more honest facts?

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    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed this story. It was well-conceived, and quite unpredictable; I got to at least 84% through it before I started to realise how it might all end, and I found that ending quite satisfying indeed.

      It concerns a young man called Paul, who moves into a new flat and meets a guy called Gavin. He and Gavin become quite good friends, and spend their time drinking, smoking weed, and getting laid.

      It's not very well edited though, with nary a comma in site, and mixed up words all over the place (affect vs. effect, stuff like that). It's also written in slang, which is completely understandable, because the narrator is British, but there were times when I didn't completely understand what certain things meant... which was compounded by the aforementioned confused words and lack of punctuation because I ALSO didn't immediately get what was intentional, and what was an error.

      That being said, it's a great psychological thriller, and reminds me somewhat of Fight Club (oh dear, I hope THAT little bombshell doesn't give away too much for you). If you like that sort of thing, you're sure to like Saffron!

    Book preview

    Saffron - Darren Worrow

    SAFFRON

    DARREN WORROW.

    SAFFRON

    Darren Worrow

    Copyright 2013: Darren Worrow.

    1st Edition published by Purple Papaya LLC 2013

    2nd Edition published by Smashwords 2015

    No part of this publication may be reproduced without written permission from the author.

    No similarity between any of the names, characters, institutions, persons or substances in Saffron and those of any persons living or dead is intended and any such similarity is purely coincidental. The scenarios depicted in this publication are solely for the purposes of entertainment and are not intended to promote or condone any activity deemed illegal by law.

    www.darrenworrow.webs.com

    1.

    Saffron felt her own urine trickle down the inside of her thigh, flowing into the fetid puddle around her buttocks. Its warmth momentarily bought sensation back to them, they were numb from the freezing stone floor but before too long she knew it would chill back to the icy room temperature.

    There she sat, naked, bloody and bruised with her hands tied around her back by thick chains securely attached to the back of the stone wall. The dust was the only thing that blanketed her dank white body, gradually becoming more deliberately remote as an immeasurable amount of time had passed. She bowed her head and involuntary tears passed by her cheek, causing ripples in the urine puddle as they dropped.

    Why did she get herself into this mess she thought, a perpetually pitched question of which she could not fathom another answer to, other than, curiosity killed the cat; she wanted to understand the life outside her confines, she wanted to taste that forbidden fruit, to learn about sex. She did not realise it would end her up here, fighting for a breath.

    Her breath indeed came short, but one last yearning, one last boost; she wanted to let her surroundings, whatever was further beyond the couple of feet around her that were visible through the poor light a last understanding of her pain, her discourse and her horror, she let out an enormous cry for help despite knowing it was useless. She had tried this futile attempt before; no one could hear her, at least no one that cared.

    She continued her vocal protest until she paused to listen for the sound of familiar footsteps approaching the door. She braced herself, crippling her senses and flexing her emotions.

    2.

    I awoke abruptly with a cold duvet; it was rife with moisture, the pillow soaked with perspiration. I was jerked into reality by the horrific thoughts that invaded my dream. Still dark, I knew day was far off. Rubbing my head in sorrow I found my way out of the bed, out of the room and in the company of Gemma. She was awake, that much I could tell.

    Gemma, I couldn’t sleep for worry, I softly told her, you know he told me he was nuts, he told me he was schizophrenic, I thought he was bluffing, you know, just doing it to claim sickness benefit. Now I guess maybe I was wrong, I think he has……he has done something with her, murdered her or some shit like that. Damn! I held my head as I sat down on a wooden chair, "I guess in order for you to understand, the way I see it I would have to tell you the whole story…………………..

    3.

    I was delayed, it took longer to get into town then I estimated and then I hadn’t considered the amount of rush-hour traffic trying to get through this bustling market town. All those lorries should be on the motorway not clogging up the narrow roads here just to make a slight shortening off their journey time.

    Then when I did get into town, park up and find the street I was dammed if I could find the fucking house number. Over three quarters of an hour late now no doubt the landlord had gone. I am here anyway, lets at least find the property and maybe I can have a gander through the window. I was still unsure about moving here as it was clearly further to drive to work then I suspected. However I couldn’t find a gaff in the town I was living, it was all overpriced. There was an old Canadian beatnik type woman who showed me her house and her prices were fair. The room for rent was tiny though and she gave me a lot of waffle about not having a TV licence as she hated television and therefore didn’t own one. She was a children’s writer and so I could understand that her hate for TV was justified, she favoured books. I liked to read too but TV these days was essential, surely. This and other aspects to our confabulations led me to believe she was eccentric, to put it mildly, in fact I would go as far to suggest that she was barking. I wondered, upon leaving her humble abode politely if she would change her opinions on television had some producer offered her a contract to put one of her books into an animated cartoon. Never mind really, she had obviously lost the plot from LSD many decades ago. A nice enough lady and very interesting to boot but you have to be more selective when finding someone to lodge with.

    It was best in the long run that I lived on my own as I did once before, I preferred it that way. When I shut the door the mess that is in there is the mess I made.

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