It’s the end of an intensely hot summer in Vancouver, and Razor’s complex and misunderstood best friend Chris has just driven a stolen police car through a road block and over a cliff to his death.
Fireball takes us back to the start of that relentless summer, and unravels the events leading to Chris’ death as we follow four teenagers through the months that will come to define their future. First hailed as heroes for saving a drowning woman, they attract unwanted attention as minor local celebrities, but this respect is quickly replaced with envy and then harassment.
Tyler, with the assured and confident air of a seasoned author, keeps the pressure building, right up to final fiery climax.
Extract
Chris knew it was coming to an end. He didn’t say anything, but he didn’t have to. I could just tell. We’d gone down to Cates beach to drink a few beers and throw away those stupid medals. That’s where it happened.
They said I helped him, which is complete crap. Chris didn’t need my help. He could have done it blindfolded, with one hand. Of course, nobody wanted to believe that. Diggs claimed we did it together, and that’s how the papers wrote it up. If it weren’t for my dad, I probably would have ended up in prison.
But the point is, Chris did it alone. Just him and his fists.
‘Shit,’ I said. ‘Did you kill him?’
‘Beats me.’
We stood on either side of him, looking down. His face was a mess. Droplets of blood were scattered all over the sand, like bright red bugs.
I leaned in closer, listening. ‘I don’t think he’s breathing, man.’
‘It doesn’t really matter either way.’
I didn’t understand what he meant at the time. I do now. He hadn’t planned on stealing the squad car, or crashing it into a roadblock at a hundred miles an hour, but that’s what happened. In an instant, the car became this blazing fireball, bright as the sun. Even that didn’t stop him. He kept going, right off the cliff and into the ocean.
About Tyler Keevil
Tyler Keevil grew up in Vancouver, Canada, and first came to the U.K. in 1999. Since then, he has received several awards for his short fiction and filmmaking. His stories have been published in a variety of magazines and anthologies, including Interzone, On Spec, New Welsh Review, and Planet: The Welsh Internationalist. He lives in mid-Wales with his wife, Naomi. Fireball is his first novel.
Fireball is published as part of the Bright Young Things series by Parthian Books. All books in the series are from debut authors.
