#BlogTour-‘Second Lives’ by P.D Cacek

About the book..

When four patients unexpectedly wake after being declared dead, their
families are ecstatic. However, the patients don’t respond to their names and insist they are different people. When a doctors recognizes the name of a girl whose death he witnessed, it soon becomes clear that the bodies are now inhabited by the souls of people long dead.
FLAME TREE PRESS is the new fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing.
Launching in 2018 the list brings together brilliant new authors and the more established; the award winners,and exciting, original voices!

Hugest of thanks to the ever patient and amazingly organised Anne Cater of Random Things for this tour invite to another Flametree Press classic,  ‘Second Lives’ by P.D Cacek

This is the first I have read by the author, but thanks to the extensive back catalogue the company has and the interview at the front of the book (one of my favourite things!)I will be hunting down her other works.

‘Second Lives’ is such a great story, it has a slow build, delibersately structured so tha you get to know the characters and feel that sense of loss when they die.

The story is told in alternating chapters so there is the person who dies, then the person who is about to die. This means 8 chapters have to be read before the story lines merge , and could have been confusing of not for the clear and consistent tone that P.D Cacek uses.

You get to know Henry, Helen, Sara and Jamie before Timmy, Crissy, Elizabeth and Arveh take over and it’s such a subtle, well nuanced tale that is a little creepy but what I loved so much is that there is no explanation to what happens.

No clearcut ‘lightning strike’ moment of this is how the souls came back, it is a fluke, a one off from  this narrative perspective and they way it is dealt with is quite beautiful.

How far would you go to have your loved one back ?

Would you be willing to accept someone in their body?

The challenges each of the ‘Travelers’ families have is in dealing with their very unique situation and not all of them embrace this ‘returned’ loved one. Here lies the humanity of this tale, and the contrasts could not be more varied between the souls and who they inhabit.

It is a mournful as the sigh of wind through the trees and whilst there are poignant moments of sadness, ‘Second Lives’ is ultimately about hope, the human spirit and love.

A beautiful tale, extremely well told, I absolutely would recommend this to anyone.

About the author…

P.D. Cacek has published over a hundred short stories and
five published novels. A past GuestLecturerat the Odyssey
Writing Camp, Cacek’s horror, fantasy and science fiction
stories have appeared in numerous magazines and
anthologies since & going professional in the late 90’s.

She is also proud of the book she recently co-edited, with LauraJ. Hickman, the charity anthology, ‘Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep’, with all proceeds going to
The Jimmy Fund of the DANA-BARBER Cancer Institute.

Cacek holds a Bachelor’s Degree in English/Creative Writing Option from the University of California atLong Beach and is acertified Wilderness Survival Instructor.

A native Westerner, Cacek divides her time between Arvada, CO – which looks own on the Mile High city – and Phoenixville, PA – only a short walk from the Colonial Theater where the famous “Run Screaming From Theatre”scene in THE BLOB was filmed.

When not writing, she can often been found with Patient Creatures,a group of costumed storytellers.

Twitter @PDCacek

             @flametreepress

             @annecater