A Book of Horrors [Hardcover]

There are some great stories in this, both from some big names in the field (King, Campbell, Lindqvist - his first story for the English market, and truly creepy and then horrific) but more excitingly for me from some writers unknown to me. I'll certainly be checking out more stuff by Dennis Etchison, Robert Shearman, and Anglea Slatter.

... and his name is Stephen Jones. In his introduction Jones asks what happened to the horror field: it's currently been hijacked by a sub-genre called `Paranormal Romance', a sub-category aimed at teens and featuring vampires with no bite and werewolves with no teeth. It was bad enough that horror movies descended into the torture equivalent of a pornographic thrill, now it seems horror literature is turning into `chick lit'.

Someone save us!

`A Book of Horrors', then, is a rebuttal to today's current sub-genre and a call to arms for an honest-to-goodness collection of horror stories, thus it's plain "It does exactly what it says on the box" title.

But before we begin, let us pause at the book's dedication, where five writers/editors are sited as Jones's inspiration throughout his career. Horror aficionados will, of course, be familiar with Ramsey Campbell, Dennis Etchison, Charles L. Grant and Karl Edward Wagner. Less familiar, perhaps, is David A. Sutton. But make no mistake, Sutton's importance to Jones's career is huge. They have been co-editors since the 1970s, from the multi-award winning `Fantasy Tales' magazines and anthologies through to six volumes each of the equally lauded `Dark Voices' and Dark Terrors' series in the 1990s and early 2000s. It's a safe bet to assume that working with Sutton all those years gave Jones the confidence to finally go it alone with "The Mammoth Book of Terror" is 1991.

And 20 years later Jones gives us `A Book of Horrors', the flagship release from the newly formed imprint Jo Fletcher Books. Jones wanted horror and STEPHEN KING gives him it with both barrels fully loaded. "The Little Green God of Agony" is about a rich man who wants to bypass the hard work of physical rehabilitation following a plane crash. He'll try anything, as his long-suffering physio-therapist will attest: religious charlatans and all. King knows about pain: he's incorporated the ground-glass sensation of his late `90's road accident into a number of his novels, from clinical descriptions to metafictional transformations, all in an attempt to understand the pain. To deal with it. But, here, he shows what he wished he could really do all those years ago to that pain - what everyone in his position wishes they could do: to literally draw it out of them, externalise it, make it manifest and then grab it and scream, "Now I gotcha!" and promptly crush the little sucker. It's unashamed pulp. It's `Night shift' era early King. It's the book's guilty pleasure.

In "Charcloth, Firesteel and Flint" by CAILTIN R. KIERNAN Aiden (although that's not her real name) is drawn to fire. All the great devastating fires throughout history. She has been to them all. Hitchhiking on a Midwestern highway she's picked up by Billy whom she shows, whilst they're in a motel room, all that she has seen. But what can this have to do with Billy? Kiernan's writing is as lyrical and as hypnotising as the dancing flames of which her character talks.

Next we have PETER CROWTHER. Readers of his fine collection `The Land at the End of the Working Day' will know just how good he is at novelette length, and here he offers up a sumptuous 55 page novella. Like Rio Youers, Crowther can at times be a little self-conscious in his emulation of Stephen King's easy going style. "Ghosts with Teeth" starts off that way, but Crowther quickly comes into his own in a tale about strange goings-on in a New England village. He paints characters deftly and quickly and the dialogue lifts off the page. No one is what they seem - and there's more than one of everyone.

Australia's rising star ANGELA SLATTER is an extraordinary re-teller of myths and legends, although "The Coffin's-Maker's Daughter" is none of those. There is a sense of heightened realism, of a world slightly skewed and not quite like our own. Hepsibah is an artist; her art is coffin making. Special coffins. Coffin's designed to make sure the dead stay dead. Her latest commission becomes complicated when she becomes involved with the widow's daughter. But there is nothing pure about the intentions of the widow's daughter. There again, there is nothing pure about the intentions of the coffin-maker's daughter either.

Recently I read "Just Outside Our Windows, Deep Inside Our Walls" by BRIAN HODGE which is, so far, the best short story I've read this year. A novelette, "Roots and All" is partly about the loss of the old country ways. No one, now, smiles and waves. No one wants to know their neighbour. The neighbours are not someone you want to know. Gina and Dylan have gone to their grandmother's house to tie things up following her death. Returning brings back memories of their cousin Shae who died 8 years ago at the age of 19. Seemingly abducted, her body was never found. Only a scrap of clothing. Old women's tall tales permeate this story, too: of the Woodwalker and old Hickory Bones. Discovering what truly happened to Shae will involve going down a dark and strange road indeed. With a sitting-around-the-campfire voice of Texan Joe R. Lansdale, Hodge is that best of genre writers: someone who can spin a fabulation of the fantastique so completely that believing in what is occurring is never a question.

DENNIS ETCHISON has written few new stories in recent years, so "Tell Me I'll See You Again" is a real treat. Short and almost ephemeral, this tells of a group of kids who fake elaborate deaths by the side of the road. David is special and his friend Sherron wants to find out what that something special is. The story's afterword tantalizes the reader by promises an upcoming collection of all-new stories from Etchison.

Swedish horror novelist sensation (`Let the Right One In', filmed twice) JOHN AJVIDE LINDQVIST gives us a 40 page novella in the form of "The Music of Bengt Karlsson, Murderer" which sees a father and son move into a new home following the mother's death. In an attempt to wean his son off computer games, the father encourages him to play their mother's old piano. But there's something eerie in the notes being played. And far more eerie is the history of the house. Locals have it that musican Bengt Karlsson, distraught at the death of his wife, hanged himself in the very house the father and son now live. Only the son is hearing voices, and the voices are children, who say Bengt Karlsson killed them. And there can never be any justification for killing children... surely?

RAMSEY CAMPBELL is a master of the paranoid conversation where how the character interprets what is said is just as important as what is actually said. "Getting it Wrong" is pure vintage Twilight Zone, pure dark. Eric Edgeworth loves his old movies, but when he receives a call from a radio quiz show saying a colleague from the cinema where he works has nominated him as a `phone a friend' Eric believes it's a wind-up and deliberately throws the answers to the movie questions he's asked. But his answers aren't greeted by the sound of a buzzer and a cry of "Wrong!" but by commands of `twist', `closer' and `wider' followed by sobs and moans. These phone calls occur over three nights. And, then, what will happen to Eric's colleague if he gets it wrong a third time? And, more, what will happen to Eric himself?

ROBERT SHEARMAN's "Alice Through the Plastic Sheet" has the cadence of a child's story book. Alan and Alice have new neighbours. Vans arrive and unload their furnishings. And everything is brand new: still cardboard boxed and shrink wrapped. The new neighbours themselves might as well be, too, because Alan and Alice never see them. Despite its premise - and indeed its creepy demise - this is a wondrously funny tale, and yet another triumph for Shearman, as it proves yet again why he is considered one of the best short story writers to recently appear.

In LISA TUTTLE's "The Man in the Ditch" Linzi and JD are moving to the country, and on the road there she thinks she sees a body lying in the ditch. As they settle into their new home she keeps seeing this dead body everywhere, dreams of it. Soon JD must spend the night away as part of his job and Linzi is home alone. A sense of unease imbues every page and the last two pages crank it up until they're giddy with tension and fright. The end socks a gut-punch.

REGGIE OLIVER has now - with this present 56 page novella - become the rightful heir to M. R. James. As the author says in the afterword, this story was inspired by the 1857 painting "The Child's Problem" by Richard Dadd (a Google search will immediately turn it up). Set in the early 19th century it follows young master George as he is left in the care of his cankerous uncle following his parents' need to move to a medical school in India. The boy's uncle sets him cryptic tasks of things to find in the estate's vast grounds. The boy is more resourceful than the uncle imagined... so much so as to uncover more than the uncle wished. A tale (as the author says in the afterword) of guilt, power games, childhood and the loss of innocence. Oliver wears the language of the past masters of horror with such ease that his tales feel like rediscovered lost classics. And this present one sets a new bar of excellence. Remarkable.

In "Sad, Dark Thing" by MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH an aimless man wanders aimlessly into the woods to a rundown collect of shacks sign-posted `Tourists Welcome' where he discovers a sad, dark thing which he buys and takes home. Short and enigmatic, this may be a tale of a man happily embracing death. It may be many things. The power lies in its language, its wry observations and, of course, its openness to interpretation. Read more ›

This is an excellent anthology, all of the tales were gripping and spooky from the start, very satisfying and I would recommend it.