The Etiquette of Booby Traps by John Boden

Trade Paperback.

A booby trap is a device or setup that is intended to kill, harm, or surprise a human or other animal, triggered by the presence or actions of the victim.

Here they are stories; small, sturdy and surprising in their levels of camouflage and damage.

-A grieving man grapples with a double whammy of loss by fishing and finds that sometimes you catch more than you expect, if you use the right bait.

-The world splinters in many different ways and scenes in a kaleidoscopic series of prose snapshots

-The young product of a lifetime of abuse grows to find her true course and embrace the trail of smoke it leaves.

-A small coastal village finds something unusual washed upon their shore.

-An abandoned amusement park has strange truths to share with a trio of teenagers.

-A woman mentally spars with the creature that haunts her property.

-Loneliness leads to wanting--and wanting has a voracious appetite, so discovers an introverted fellow in a far from typical morning at the office.

The stories are short and scattered in theme and setting but mind where you step, for they have sharp edges and hair triggers and a few of them bite hard.

"Singular and deeply palpable, each story collected in The Etiquette of Booby Traps is a delicately planted snare—a swift ambush of menace, brutality, and unending sorrow." —Eric LaRocca, author of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke


About the Author:

John Boden lives a stone’s throw from Three Mile Island with his wonderful wife and sons.A baker by day, he spends his off time writing, watching TV, or laughing with his wife. He likes Diet Pepsi, cheeseburgers, heavy metal, and sports ferocious sideburns. While his output as a writer is fairly sporadic, it has a bit of a reputation for being unique. He owes an unpayable debt to Ken Wood who invited him along at the start of Shock Totem and that singular act rekindled his love for writing, after ignoring it for 20 years. His books include: Dominoes, Spungunion,Walk The Darkness Down, as well as the collaborative novellas Out Behind The Barn (with Chad Lutzke), Rattlesnake Kisses, Jedi Summer, Cattywampus, and the forthcoming Black Salve (with Robert Ford) and Detritus In Love (with Mercedes M. Yardley). He thanks you from the bottom of his hairy heart, sincerely.

Cover art by Matthew Revert