While drunk in a back alley behind the bar he had gone to relax, Jasper Wilde kills a man by accident. He stumbles home drunk and tries to forget about it ever happening. The following morning, he is surprised to find himself inhabiting the body of the man he just killed. Escaping from his house mates, he goes back to the alley, but his own body is nowhere to be found. Deciding to live this new life, he realises he may have a way to cheat death, for a price of someone else’s life. But his new body is a drug dealer and when the group he is with turn on him because he cannot remember who they are and the police raid the group, he decides the best way out is to take another life. In turn he wakes up in a different body again, but this time it comes with a home life that Jasper could only dream of. Realising what power he has, Jasper knows he could be immortal and has to work out what he is going to do next while trying to ignore what price he will have to pay for his future.

When I started reading this story, I wasn’t expecting that much from the opening chapters but it soon becomes an intriguing tale of the possibilities take centre stage of taking over the body of person you kill, accidentally or otherwise. The plot follows this cleverly as time goes on and while the reason for it occurring makes some sense, it’s the actions that Jaspar takes though his several lives that are followed. The other characters come and go through Jaspar’s lives, with each of them appearing for a little while before he moves on and perhaps one or two actually having an impact on the story. This is a shame because it could have provided a neat counterpoint to Jaspar, though having it concentrate solely on him works giving the length of the tale. The final twists to the story also play out are well and provide a good thought provoking end to the story.

I’m not sure whether this would count as horror or just a well-written literary piece, but it’s worth reading if you can grab it.