Love. The most overloaded word in our language. Love of your mate, love of pets, of parents and children and friends, all different things. We spend our last breath sharing our love. For love, we break not just the law but ourselves. Love is pure devotion, and pure corrosion.

Love propels these stories. Thrillers and fantasies, science fiction and historicals. Love chained by brain implants and little old ladies who should have been left undisturbed. Love strong enough to unravel the universe, with the knowledge to do it. Minuscule love wiggling its whiskers against your cheek. Trapped children freeing themselves through love of the incomprehensible. Love of art and family and another person, the kind of love that violates museums and gnaws Semtex. Selected from a decade of the author's work, these eleven tales affirm the power of love-at knifepoint.

"Each story is Hieronymus Bosch writing a love letter to Charlie Brown's little red-haired girl now grown and so weary she aches." - ZZ Claybourne