A Twist in the Tale: Four Stories with Surprising Endings — Mike Upton

A TWIST IN THE TALE is a book containing four different stories - but what each story has in common is that they all have an unusual and unexpected ending. A final unforseen twist - hence the title.

The first - SEA DEEP- tells the story of Pete an advertising man in London who is suddenly made redundant. Finding it difficult to get another job in the world of advertising he embarks on an adventure to fulfill an ambition which subsequently completely changes his life.

The second - ILLUSION - recounts the impact on a small boy during World War Two of seeing captured Italian soldiers behind barbed wire in a prisoner of war camp built on the moors outside Sheffield and the friendship that he establishes with one of them followed by his subsequent attempt after the war to meet the man back in his home village near Milan.

The third - CHOICE - again returns to the Advertising and Marketing world. As the story evolves we see how the central character Dave struggles with his conscience over the affair he is having with a work colleague, and how it affects  his relationship with his wife and two children. Eventually he has to make a choice - wife or mistress? But fate has a way of interfering in his decision.

The final story - GONE - deals with the issue of a businessman
happily married for ten years but who one Sunday afternoon simply walks out of their farmhouse and completely disappears. Where has he gone and why? And who is the mysterious Bulgarian woman who appears on the scene and what has she got to do with the missing man?  A taut "who-dun-it" which like the other stories at the end has a Twist in the Tale .