James Cooper's story of a boy and his father scraping out a tenuous living in an economically devastated America, while the murderous Gasoline Man carves a nightmarish path through their lives and into their dreams, is at once a damning indictment of the modern world and a tender examination of the directionless rage and fear we all experience as the old order collapses and something new and frightening takes its place. If, When, Never is a story that leavens its horrors with wisdom and thought, leaving you in a deeper place than you were when you started. –  Nathan Ballingrud, author of North American Lake Monsters and Crypt of the Moon Spider

A rich and immersive tale of a hard-scrabble, small-town childhood, where a boy's secret terrors are mirrored in a community’s real-world horror. –  Stephen Gallagher, author of The Bedlam Detective

In If, When, Never, James Cooper infuses a memory piece about a boy and his petty criminal father in survival mode on the lowest rungs of American society with mystery and horror in the person of a serial murderer, the Gasoline Man, who haunts the boy’s dreams. This multi-layered approach effectively captures childhood’s strange dichotomy of innocence and gimlet-eyed observation. It’s a triumph of concise yet emotionally moving storytelling. –  Richard Lange, author of Rovers, and Joe Hustle

30pp