Overview

After the Quiet is a collection of short stories that explores what remains when the noise of the world fades and consequence takes its place. Set against collapsing systems, fractured relationships, and moments of irreversible choice, these stories follow men and women pushed to the edge-by violence, by memory, by moral reckoning-and forced to decide who they are when survival is no longer enough. From covert operations unfolding beneath public celebrations, to childhood moments that echo across a lifetime, to isolated survivors navigating the aftermath of disaster, each story confronts the space between action and consequence. Some characters endure. Others fail. None emerge unchanged. These are not tales of easy heroism or clean endings. They are stories about pressure-what it does to people, what it reveals, and what it costs. About loyalty tested beyond reason. About love, guilt, endurance, and the quiet reckoning that follows catastrophe. Written with restraint and precision, After the Quiet moves across genres-thriller, literary fiction, post-collapse, and intimate drama-while remaining grounded in a single question: what survives after the moment that breaks everything? Dark, human, and uncompromising, this collection marks a return to the edge-and a journey back carrying what cannot be left behind. AUTHOR'S NOTEThese stories were written over time, often late at night, usually after the world had gone quiet. Some began as questions I couldn't let go of. Others arrived fully formed, insisting on being written whether I was ready or not. They were shaped by places, by moments of tension, by the spaces where systems fail and individuals are left to carry the weight of consequence alone. While the settings and circumstances vary, the concerns remain the same: what survives after violence, after loss, after truth makes itself unavoidable. These are not stories about heroes in the traditional sense. They are about people who endure, adapt, and sometimes cross lines they can never step back from. Nothing here asks for forgiveness. Nothing offers easy answers. This collection is simply what remains after the noise fades. - Carl Lakeland

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9781764476027

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Reviews

I read After the Quiet in the small hours when the house was finally still, and Carl Lakeland's words felt like they were written for exactly those moments. These aren't flashy thrillers or tidy resolutions; they're slow burns that settle into your bones. A covert op unraveling under fireworks, a childhood memory that poisons decades later, a lone survivor picking through the rubble of what used to be normal-each piece strips away noise until only consequence remains. Lakeland writes with a surgeon's restraint: no overwrought drama, just precise cuts that expose what people do when the rules disappear. What stayed with me longest was how the characters carry their choices. There's no redemption arc handed on a plate, no villain to hate cleanly. Instead, you watch ordinary people cross lines they can't uncross, then live with the echo. One story about loyalty pushed past breaking point left me staring at the ceiling, chest tight, because the ending wasn't shocking-it was inevitable, and that made it hurt more. Another, quieter piece about guilt in the aftermath of disaster felt almost too intimate, like reading someone's private confession. This collection doesn't comfort; it confronts. It moves between thriller tension, literary ache, and post-collapse grit without ever losing its human core. Lakeland asks the same question across every story-what survives when everything breaks?-and refuses to answer for you. I finished it quieter than when I started, carrying a few of those characters with me like shadows that won't quite fade. If you want short fiction that demands attention and rewards it with depth, this is it. Dark, honest, and impossible to shake. 5.0 out of 5 stars Stories That Linger Like Smoke After the FireReviewed in the United States on January 15, 2026

Author Information

Karl Schlemmer, writing as, Carl Lakeland is an Australian author of suspense and spy thrillers, known for his lean, fast-moving narratives and grounded realism. Drawing on personal experience and a deep interest in intelligence operations, military history, and human resilience, his stories explore loyalty, sacrifice, and the unseen costs of conflict.His work blends action-driven storytelling with emotional depth, focusing on characters shaped by hard choices and irreversible consequences. Carl lives in Australia, where he continues to write fiction that favours authenticity over spectacle and tension over excess

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