Interwoven characters measure humanity's progress on a rumbling cross-country bus.
A retirement home escapee is off to parts unknown.
The Devil quits (he's in love with a waitress).
Unexpected gunshots create late-night companions.
A traveling salesman gets to choose his own place in the Universe.
A wandering ex-priest searches for answers on a messy legal pad.
Somebody's flinging pennies at a naked businessman and she's not sorry that it hurts.
Stranded, a worried student finds himself, and dinner, deep in the middle of nowhere.
A drunk widow skips the service. A long overdue family reunion solves nothing and resolves everything.
Then two lost, grownup kids decide something really big for the rest of us.
But the Bus Driver? All he's praying for is a good night's sleep.
“. . . this is a unique, intriguing offering with an overriding sense that people love and hurt and suffer, but ultimately goodness prevails. The author draws authentic characters and, often, startles with poetic imagery."
- BLUEINK REVIEW
“. . . vivid scenes unfold like a movie, pulling readers into a world where destiny is constantly reshaped by choices, some seemingly insignificant, others catastrophic . . .”
- Courtnee Turner Hoyle (5/5 stars)
“. . . the kind of novella that has you contemplating life well after you’ve finished the final chapter . . .”
- Stephen Christopher (4/5 Stars)
Variety pack of stories on a journey through the strange and unexpected.
A local serial killer reminds his friends and neighbors to never forget the QUIET ONES.
Chaos ensues when townsfolk mistake experimental Army communication helmets for alien antennae during OPERATION DRAGONHEAD.
Out in the HIGH DESERT, a reluctant hero and rotten sheriff face off in a western with cars instead of horses.
PAGANINI exposes the wicked life of the infamous 19th-century Italian violinist.
In YARDLEY COUNTY, a dead escaped convict finds redemption at the hometown robbery that began his criminal career.
Meanwhile . . .
Lost adults start VALLEY FOOTBALL.
And down at THE TROP, a magical East Hollywood motel is home to stock characters who find themselves on the down and out.
“. . . beneath the antics of small, shifty characters trying to survive beats an enormous emotional generosity in these truly original works. If Ray Bradbury and Charles Portis had a love child, it would be Adam Fike. These stories are highly recommended.”
- BLUEINK STARRED REVIEW (NOTABLE BOOK)
“. . . a creative, rule-bending anthology that rewards readers who appreciate fiction that doesn’t color inside the lines . . .”
- Carol Thompson (5/5 Stars)
“. . . these stories don’t just entertain, they provoke, twist, and delight . . .”
- K.C. Finn (5/5 stars)
INDIVIDUAL STORIES
EBOOK/KINDLE UNLIMITED
LIKELYSTORY.BLOG REVIEW
“PEOPLE MAKING DANGER surprised me with how many different layers it manages to hold at once. At first glance, it’s a collection of short stories but the deeper I read, the more it came together into a reflection on what it means to live with risk, to carry trauma, and to wrestle with the edges of survival.
Fike writes about ordinary people under extraordinary pressure. Each story feels like a small explosion—characters pushed to the edge, not by dramatic fantasy but by the sharp, recognizable challenges of real life. That immediacy made the book difficult to put down; I always wanted to see what would happen when danger inevitably arrived, and how the characters would react to it.
One of the things I appreciated was how different the voices and settings felt across the collection. Some stories simmer quietly before snapping into violence or heartbreak, while others throw you into conflict from the first page. Yet even with these shifts in style, the book has a cohesion—it keeps circling back to questions about survival, choices, and the thin line between safety and chaos. The repetition of these themes gave the collection weight without making it feel repetitive.
The characters themselves are what lingered with me. They’re not perfect; often they’re messy, flawed, even unlikeable at times. But they’re always believable. Fike has a way of sketching just enough detail—a gesture, a memory, a bitter aside—that makes you recognize these people instantly. In some cases, I felt like I had met them before in real life, which made their downfalls and small victories all the more striking.
By the end, I came to see the title, PEOPLE MAKING DANGER, as more than just a clever phrase. These aren’t just stories about danger happening to people—they’re about how people create, provoke, or invite danger into their lives, often without meaning to. That nuance—danger as something we stumble into, sometimes through love, sometimes through pride, sometimes through desperation—is what makes the book feel bigger than the sum of its parts.
Overall, PEOPLE MAKING DANGER is an unsettling and varied short story collection where the everyday collides with the extraordinary. What makes it powerful is not just the danger itself, but how ordinary people create or invite it into their lives. Fike’s ability to shift between tones—grim, satirical, surreal—keeps the collection fresh while always grounding the stories in authentic human choices. It’s a book that lingers, leaving you to wrestle with what danger really means in the context of family, community, and survival. If you enjoy short story collections that reflect on what it means to be human, than this book could be for you. Happy reading!”
Quick note
This is an attempt to blend paperback prose with the Cole & Haag script format.
The stories are told primarily in the present tense and without quotation marks because it's a limited narrator speaking. I do capitalize sort of funny, based on the character. I feel people are built from their actions and enjoy breaking their patterns. I also dislike upfront summarization much past the logline. Spoils the fun.
They are what they wanted to be.
I'm proud to be a part of it.
Best,
af