This masterful short story, Comet, is taken from Salter's Collected Stories.

For 24 hours only, we're offering a 30% discount on Helen Oyeyemi's novels White is for Witching and Mr Fox and Sunjeev Sahota's debut novel Ours Are the Streets.

It’s a bright afternoon in 1938 and Mary Foxe is in a confrontational mood. St John Fox, celebrated novelist, hasn’t seen her in six years. He’s unprepared for her afternoon visit, not least because she doesn’t exist. He’s infatuated with her. But he also made her up.

“You’re a villain,” she tells him. “A serial killer . . . can you grasp that?”

Will Mr Fox meet his muse’s challenge, to stop murdering his heroines and explore something of love? What will his wife Daphne think of this sudden change in her husband? Can there be a happy ending – this time?

Get 30% off Mr Fox

Sunjeev Sahota's first novel, Ours Are the Streets, was published by Picador in 2011. He is currently working on his second novel about a group of illegal immigrants living in Sheffield. 'I think – I hope – I’m around halfway through a first draft,' he says.

Here's his life in books.

The author will be reading from and discussing his latest book, Lost At Sea. A collection of mini-adventure stories from the bestselling author of The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare at Goats.