Bah! i completed
6th Black Book Of Horror bloody weeks ago, scribbled down a bunch of notes to type, and now i can't find them - God, you're lucky - so, back to the drawing board. As you're probably aware, of the remaining six stories, two allude to the fallout from last years BFS awards. One was advertised by its author as a "pseudo-revenge story" in which he "names the guilty" (matter of opinion) while the other i don't think we're even allowed to comment on as there's been talk that it may become sub judice!
So lets do it.
Simon Kurt Unsworth - Traffic Stream: Mobile phone horrors. Helpful Mr. Bird is patiently trying to direct that, frankly, nasty, undeserving Mr. Samuels to his shop, but Samuels appears to be "having a breakdown" and has taken a very wrong road indeed. i'd maybe have enjoyed it more had i not read Marc Laidlaw's wonderful
Cell Call.
Mark Samuels - Keeping Your Mouth Shut: William Powell, aspiring horror author, takes voluntary redundancy from steady job so he can devote a year to writing the classic scary novel. This proves to be more difficult than he thought and, when his wife leaves him for a randy dry cleaner, William's world falls to pieces. Somehow he convinces himself that salvation lies in the arms of Sylvia Maitland, the 'seventies scream queen whose films include
The Asylum By The Borderland and an adaptation of Charles Birkin's
The Terror On Tobit. Much to William's delight, he discovers Sylvia's current whereabouts, the Felpham Seaview Hotel in Bognor Regis, and sets off to seduce her. Tragically, Ms. Maitland dies mere hours before William reaches the hotel, but he's come too far to be denied ...
First time i read this, it depressed the hell out of me, but today it had me laughing like a drain. It begins with what reads like a straight account of a personal
annus horribilis, briefly mutates into a piss-take of certain facets of the late 00's Dark Fantasy scene and then .... well, imagine the The Who's
Pictures Of Lily given a horror makeover and taken to it's logical, ultra-grim conclusion. ...
David Williamson – The Switch: Escaped convict Joe Carter has cause to regret his remarkable facial resemblance to mass murderer Marco, 'The Silent Slayer', likewise on the run after skipping his appointment with the electric chair. Like Alex Langley's
The Red Stone, a no nonsense trad horror story.
Three to go, then possibly some kind of overall comment.
While i'm here, an update
Index to The Black Book Of Horror Volumes 1-6
Stephen Bacon – Room Above The Shop [#6]
Eddy C. Bertin – The Eye in the Mirror [#2]
Charles Black – To Summon A Flesh Eating Demon [#1]
Mike Chinn – All Under Hatches Stow’d [#2]
------------------ Like A Bird [#3]
David Conyers – Subtle Invasion [#1]
------------------ The Lord of the Law [#4]
John Kenneth Dunham – Spare Rib: A Romance [#1]
Paul Finch – The Wolf At Jessie’s Door [#1]
------------------ In The Thicket [#3]
------------------ Words [#4]
------------------ Hangman Wanted: Apply In Writing [#5]
------------------ The Doom [#6]
Carl T. Ford - Many Happy Returns [#4]
Gary Fry – The Older Man [#1]
------------------ What We Cannot Recall [#3]
------------------ Bad Hair Day [#4]
------------------ Keeping It In The Family [#6]
Marcus Gold - The Man With A Hole In His Head [#5]
Steve Goodwin – Power [#1]
------------------ The Cold Harvest [#2]
Craig Herbertson – On the Couch [#2]
------------------ Synchronicity [#3]
------------------ Soup [#4]
------------------ Leibniz’s Last Puzzle [#5]
------------------ Spanish Suite [#6]
Joel Lane – Last Night [#3]
------------------ A Cry For Help [#4]
Alex Langley – The Red Stone [#6]
D. F. Lewis – A Pie With Thick Gravy [#1]
------------------ Shaped Like A Snake [#1]
------------------ Squabble [#2]
Mick Lewis – Gnomes [#6]
Steve Lockley – Imaginary Friends [#6]
Steve Lockley & Paul Lewis - Family Ties [#3]
Julia Lufford – The Meal [#2]
------------------ The Looker [#3]
John Mains - The Spoon [#3]
------------------ With Deepest Sympathy [#4]
Franklin Marsh – Last Christmas (I Gave You My Life) [#1]
------------------ The Lake [#3]
------------------ All Hallow’s Even [#4]
L. H. Maynard & M. P. N. Sims – Onion [#2]
Daniel McGachey – “Shalt Thou Know My Name?” [#1]
------------------ The Crimson Picture [#2]
------------------ And Still Those Screams Resound…’ [#4]
Gary McMahon – Family Fishing [#1]
------------------ Black Glass [#2]
------------------ Takashi’s Last Symphony [#3]
------------------ Love is in the Air [#4]
Christine Mortimer - Out Of Her Head [#3]
Paul Newman - Widows Weeds [#3]
Frank Nicholas – Crows [#1]
------------------ In An Old Overcoat [#3]
Reggie Oliver - The Head [#4]
------------------ Mrs. Midnight [#5]
------------------ Mr. Pigsny [#6]
Rosalie Parker - In The Garden [#5]
Sean Parker – The Sound Of Muzak [#1]
------------------ Death-Con 1 [#3]
Rog Pile – Cords [#1]
------------------ The Pit [#2]
------------------ The Scavenger [#3]
------------------ Nails [#4]
John L Probert – Size Matters [#1]
------------------ In Sickness And … [#2]
------------------ John And Jenny And The Lump: A Cautionary Tale [#3]
------------------ Two For Dinner [#5]
------------------ De Vermis Infestis [#5]
------------------ Six Of The Best [#6]
Hazel Quinn - Flies [#4]
David A. Riley – Lock-In [#1]
------------------ Now and Forever More [#2]
------------------ A Sense Of Movement [#3]
------------------ Their Own Mad Demons [#5]
------------------ Their Cramped Dark World [#6]
R. B. Russell – An Unconventional Exorcism [#6]
Mark Samuels – Regina vs. Zoskia [#1]
------------------ Keeping Your Mouth Shut [#6]
Richard Staines - No Such Thing As A Friendly [#5]
Ian C. Strachan - The Devil Looks After His Own? [#4]
------------------ Starlight Casts No Shadow [#5]
David A. Sutton – Only In Your Dreams [#1]
------------------ Amygdala [#2]
------------------ Dead Water [#4]
Anna Taborska - Schrodinger’s Human [#5]
------------------ Bagpuss [#6]
Simon Kurt Unsworth – Traffic Stream [#6]
Raymond Vaughn - Winter Break [#5]
David Williamson - The Chameleon Man [#5]
------------------ The Switch [#6]
91 stories in all. Lord John Llewellyn Probert has provided six, but the only person who can possibly have their work featured in every volume is cover artist Paul Mudie. Other regular contributors are:
John Llewellyn Probert - 6 stories
Paul Finch, Craig Herbertson, David A. Riley - 5 stories
Gary Fry, Gary McMahon, Rog Pile - 4 stories:
Steve Goodwin (one pseudonymous), D. F. Lewis, Franklin Marsh, Daniel McGachey, Reggie Oliver, Mark Samuels (one pseudonymous), David A. Sutton - 3 stories:
Mike Chinn, David Conyers, Joel Lane, Steve Lockley (one in collaberation with Paul Lewis), Julia Lufford, John Mains, Frank Nicholas, Sean Parker, Ian C. Strachan, Anna Taborska, David Williamson - 2 stories: