Fluke
By James Herbert
 
First UK edition, first impression, published by New English Library in 1977.
 
Octavo. Original black cloth, spine lettered in gilt with the New English Library colophon gilt at the foot; in the original pictorial dust jacket.
 
A hint of knocking to the top corner of the upper board; extremely faint line of colour transfer from dust jacket to endpapers, else near fine. A clean, square, tight copy.
 
Dust jacket price-clipped, with moderate edge wear, primarily to the top; sunning to the spine panel and an area of staining to the top edge of the upper flap and upper panel verso; small area showing a few indentations to spine panel, else very good.
 
Herbert's fourth novel, following The Rats (1974), The Fog (1975) and The Survivor (1976), and a marked departure from the visceral horror that had established him — announced on the jacket as "a different kind of novel." Narrated by a dog who wakes to the fragmentary memory of a former human life, it is a tale of reincarnation and revenge. It was adapted for the screen in 1995 as Fluke, directed by Carlo Carlei and starring Matthew Modine, with Samuel L. Jackson voicing a supporting role.