Socrates Fortlow has done his time: twenty-seven years for murder and rape, acts forged by his huge, rock-breaking hands. Now, he has come home to a new kind of prison: two battered rooms in an abandoned building in Watts. Working for the Bounty supermarket, and moving perilously close to invisibility, it is Socrates who throws a lifeline to a drowning man: young Darryl, whose shaky path is already bloodstained and fearsome. In a place of violence and hopelessness, Socrates offers up his own battle-scarred wisdom that can turn the world around.

Contents:

• Crimson Shadow
• Midnight Meeting
• The Thief
• Double Standard
• Equal Opportunity
• Marvane Street
• Man Gone
• The Wanderer
• Lessons
• Letters to Theresa
• History
• Firebug
• Black Dog
• Last Rites