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Post by nightreader on Oct 26, 2007 17:35:11 GMT
Glad you posted this Dem - I bought 'Zacherley's Midnight Snacks' from The Fantasy Centre when I was down there. Also the Ray Russell collection 'Sardonicus' (Ballantine 1961) - same cover artist? Had no idea who Zacherley was so thanks for that
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Post by nightreader on Oct 24, 2007 17:33:13 GMT
Richard Powers The Fiend In You Ed. by Charles Beaumont (Ballantine Books 1962) Introduction’ – Charles Beaumont ‘Finger Prints’ – Richard Matheson ‘Fools Mate’ – Stanley Ellin ‘Big, Wide, Wonderful World’ – Charles E. Fritch ‘The Night Of The Gran Baile Mascara’ – Whit Burnett ‘A Punishment To Fit The Crimes’ – Richard M. Gordon ‘The Hornet’ – George Clayton Johnson ‘Perchance To Dream’ – Charles Beaumont ‘The Thirteenth Step’ – Fritz Leiber ‘The Conspiracy’ – Robert Lowry ‘Room With A View’ – Esther Carlson ‘The Candidate’ – Henry Slesar ‘One Of Those Days’ – William F. Nolan ‘Lucy Comes To Stay’ – Robert Bloch ‘The Women’ – Ray Bradbury ‘Surprise!’ – Ronald Bradford ‘Mute’ – Richard Matheson These are “tales of insidious evil that lurks within every human being”, where “the real roots of abysmal terror and monstrous evil lie in the human mind”… ‘Finger Prints’ - Richard Matheson On a night time bus a man sits opposite two women communicating in sign language. One of the women is a deaf mute, the other her troubled paid companion. At the insistence of the deaf woman he finds himself sat beside the companion. She tells how tired she is of the deaf woman, how she never leaves her alone, how she can never be with a man because she can’t get away. Then she makes a desperate and fierce sexual advance which is practically rape and also seems quite vampiric... And the deaf woman has been watching all the time... This was a strange and disturbing opening story, quite ugly in fact. The bizarre parasitic relationship between the two women makes for uncomfortable reading... ‘Fool’s Mate’ – Stanley Ellin Downtrodden and dreary George receives an unexpected gift of a chess set. His bossy sneering wife Louise is scornful and refuses to be his chess partner. George becomes obsessed with the game but still lacks an opponent. In time George’s passion for chess materialises into Mr. White, a mirror image of George physically but opposite in every other way possible – confident, dominant, astute. And Mr. White really hates Louise… ‘The Hornet’ – George Clayton Johnson A man in a car with a hornet. He’s in a strop after arguing with his wife. The hornet is mean and crawls ever closer. He takes a swipe with a newspaper and crashes the car, killing himself. The hornet survives and flies off into another car. That’s it. ‘Perchance to Dream’ – Charles Beaumont Philip Hall goes to a psychiatrist, desperate and afraid to sleep. He’s been awake for 72 hours he says. He has a heart condition and the doctors tell him a sudden shock could kill him. He also tells how he’s been dreaming, of a girl in a fairground who lures him on to a rollercoaster ride, each time he dreams he becomes more afraid, until he can’t tell reality from dreaming… Probably my favourite story so far, perhaps a little obvious – you kind of know what’s coming but sometimes that doesn’t matter. ‘The Thirteenth Step’ – Fritz Leiber This takes place at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting and focuses on Sue, a young girl “just out of her teens” who started drinking at the age of seven. By thirteen she was a confirmed alocoholic. Sue tells of her descent into addiction and her ever present fear of Death, who is waiting for her in a big black shiny cadillac, who tells her there is a thirteenth step to the AA’s prgogramme… Mute’ – Richard Matheson This is a very thoughtful and thought provoking story. Paal’s parents are killed in a ferocious house fire on the outskirts of a small American town called German Corners. The boy is taken in by the Sheriff and his wife Cora, who is silently hiding her grief over the loss of her own son in a swimming accident some years before. Paal never speaks, the sound of words spoken is painful to him: “then the sound would start again, rising and falling in a rhythmless beat, jarring and grating, rubbing at the live, glistening surface of comprehension until it was dry, aching and confused.” It is pretty clear to the reader that Paal is telepathic but the Sheriff and his wife are horrified by what they see as the neglect of his parents in not teaching him to speak. In time a Professor from Germany arrives to see the boy and all is explained. Paal and three other children were part of an experiment, to raise them as telepaths, communicating only with their minds. But by the time the Professor arrives the damage has been done, and finally Paal speaks. This is a very different offering from ‘Finger Prints’, it is a sad story rather than horrifying. It explores the notion of well-meaning but misguided good being dangerously close to evil. In the end poor Paal loses a great gift in order to fit in… ‘Lucy Comes to Stay’ – Robert Bloch This looks like a basic re-telling of ‘Psycho’ as far as I can see, instead of Norman and Mother you have alcoholic Vi and alter-ego Lucy. It is Lucy who plans to break Vi out of the sanatorium, it’s Lucy who stabs Vi’s husband George in the neck with the scissors – not Vi. Even if this does feel like familiar territory it still works, there is something very chilling about madness I think.
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Post by nightreader on Mar 18, 2008 14:08:49 GMT
Cover art: Michael Whelan ‘The Year’s Best Horror Stories 8’ – Ed. by Karl Edward Wagner (DAW 1980) ‘The Dead Line’ – Dennis Etchison ‘To Wake The Dead’ – Ramsey Campbell ‘In The Fourth Year of the War’ – Harlan Ellison ‘From The Lower Deep’ – Hugh B. Cave ‘The Baby Sitter’ – Davis Grubb ‘The Well at the Half Cat’ – John Tibbetts ‘My Beautiful Darkling’ – Eddy C. Bertin ‘A Serious Call’ – George Hay ‘Sheets’ – Alan Ryan ‘Billy Wolfe’s Riding Spirit’ – Kevin A. Lyons ‘Lex Talionis’ – Russell Kirk ‘Entombed’ – Robert Keefe ‘A Fly One’ – Steve Sneyd ‘Needle Song’ – Charles L. Grant ‘All The Birds Come Home To Roost’ – Harlan Ellison ‘The Devil Behind You’ – Richard A. Moore
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Post by nightreader on Mar 18, 2008 8:25:38 GMT
Cover art: Les Edwards 'The Year's Best Horror Stories 19' Ed. by Karl Edward Wagner (DAW 1991)Introduction: 'How'd We Get Here?' - Karl Edward Wagner 'Speed Demons' - Andrew J. Williamson 'The Grief Condition' - Conrad Hill 'Firebird' - J.L' Comeau 'Life Sentences' - Nina Kiriki Hoffman 'Trophies' - Richard McMahan 'Lord Of The Creepies' - Sean Brodrick 'Mongrel' - Steve Vernon 'The Man Who Collected Barker' - Kim Newman 'Hide And Seek' - D.F. Lewis 'Walking After Midnight' - C.S. Fuqua 'The Hermit' - Joey Froelich 'The Soldier' - Roger Johnson 'Books Of Blurbs, Vol.1' - Mike Newland 'You're A Sick Man Mr. Antwhistle' - Robert Hood 'Elfin Pipes Of Northworld' - David Drake 'A Bar Called Charley's' - Charles Ardai 'Great Expectations' - Kim Antieau 'Custer At The Wheel' - James B. Hemesath 'Identity Crisis' - Patrick McLeod 'Negatives' - Nicholas Royle 'A Candle In The Sun' - David Niall 'The Worst Fog Of The Year' - Ramsey Campbell 'I'll Give You Half-Scairt' - Wayne Allen Sallee 'Different Kinds Of Dead' - Ed Gorman 'Full Throttle' - Philip Nutman Lifted from the old board... And Demonik gave us: Kim Newman - The Man Who Collected Barker: Private detective Sally Rhodes' investigation into the disappearance of Clive Barker leads her to an obsessive book collector, Wringham, whose prize possession is a special edition of The Books Of Blood bound in human skin. It's obvious what's going on from very early on in the story but works well as both a ghastly tribute to both Barker and Robert Bloch.
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Post by nightreader on Mar 18, 2008 8:15:51 GMT
Cover art: Michael Whelan The Years Best Horror Stories 10 - Ed. by Karl Edward Wagner (DAW 1982) ‘Through the Walls’ – Ramsey Campbell ‘Touring’ – Gardner Dozois, Jack Dann & Michael Swanwick ‘Every Time I Say I Love You’ – Charles L. Grant ‘Wyntours’ – David G. Rowlands ‘The Dark Country’ – Dennis Etchison ‘Homecoming’ – Howard Goldsmith ‘Old Hobby Horse’ – A.F. Kidd ‘Firstborn’ – David Campton ‘Luna’ – G.W. Perriwills ‘Mind’ – Les Freeman ‘Competition’ – David Clayton Carrad ‘Engaro’ – M. John Harrison ‘On 202’ – Jeff Hecht ‘The Trick’ – Ramsey Campbell ‘Broken Glass’ – Harlan Ellison
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Post by nightreader on Dec 24, 2007 16:27:58 GMT
Gate of Fear by Lewis Mallory (Hamlyn 1981)
The story opens in New York with a British business man Martin Sorrel leaving a party. Foolishly he decides to walk back to his hotel but is soon attacked by a gang of leather clad bikers. Something else happens to Martin that night, a connection is made – Martin senses a formless, evil presence. Hoping to escape Martin returns to England the next day thinking he can put his fears behind him.
The narrative then shifts back to 30th June 1934, the Night of the Long Knives in Hitler’s Germany. An ambitious young man Hans Klemperer is sleeping his way to the top. After a wild party and bedding an influential General in the SA Hans observes Hitler’s arrival at their hotel, he also hears the Fuhrer’s command to kill them all. Hans tries to make his escape but SS Stormtroopers shoot him down and he falls into a lake.
Back in ‘present day’ London Martin is met at the airport by his closest friend and business partner Jack. Martin soon realises the presence he’d felt in New York has followed him and he’s horrified when Jack is killed in a freak car accident. Martin sees a figure, indistinct but somehow very familiar. In shock Martin returns to his London apartment where he is coldly welcomed by the usually friendly porter Tom. In his apartment Martin feels there is something wrong, things have been moved, as if someone else had been there just a short time before. Later, as he’s about to leave the building he sees Tom being attacked and killed by a man who looks just like him…
Somehow the fates of Martin and Hans are linked, but Hans does not want to die and he knows that with Martin dead he can return to the living world. The story of how Hans uses his sexuality to gain favour among Hitler’s generals is interesting but only leads him up to that fateful night in 1934, it doesn’t explain how he becomes attached to Martin years later. Martin’s struggle to find his murderous double is a bit less interesting and confusing at times, the story starts in New York, then to London, then to Switzerland and finally to Germany. There are however some well staged deaths – Martin confides his troubles to a priest, who then spontaneously combusts!
“Martin saw the priest open his mouth to scream but only flames issued from between his teeth, eating the flesh of his face until the white bone of his skull showed through.”
This isn’t a bad story, but it seems to me there were some missed opportunities here. I liked the link between the twentieth century and 1930’s Germany, it would have really hit the mark if some Nazi occultism had been included, and Hans has potential as a satisfyingly dark character but is only portrayed as an ambitious pretty boy with a penchant for high heels and make up. The rapid shift in locations seemed a bit unnecessary also, although it does have that element of a chase story, Martin persuing his murderous double.
As I say it's not a bad, but I prefer Mallory's 'Nightmare' (Hamlyn 1984).
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Post by nightreader on Nov 17, 2007 13:52:30 GMT
The Tribe - Glenn Chandler (Hamlyn 1981) On the back cover there is “WARNING! This is a taste of horror not for the squeamish…” How right they are. This is bloody and gory and nasty and massively entertaining. Our hero, detective Chief Superintendent Graham ‘Chubby’ Holroyd is called out to a particularly nasty murder, described in full Technicolor goriness: “The vilely mutilated corpse of a young girl was stretched on its back, the head had been hacked off and the brains removed with a drill, great folds of flesh had been cut away from the thighs so that the whiteness of the bones was exposed, and there had been extensive disembowelling.”It’s the first of four horrific cannibal killings. Chubby learns that the four different suspects were all social anthropology students at the same University, all taught by Professor Allen Braithwaite. At the same time Maggie and Herbert Gubert decide to visit Braithwaite, Herbert had once worked in Papua New Guinea where he met the Professor. Braithwaite had been on an expedition to study a tribe in one of the remotest parts of the world, a tribe never before visited by the modern world. Braithwaite is a charming and handsome villain, intelligent and predatory. He captures Maggie and Herbert, kills the woman and forces her husband to eat his wife’s flesh. But Maggie and Herbert’s daughter realises they are missing when they don’t turn up for a birthday party and soon start to track them down, following the trail to Braithwaite’s remote country mansion. Chubby learns that the students were linked to Braithwaite in a very special way. They had all been hand picked to go with the Professor to see the tribe he’d discovered in Papua New Guinea. The students are horrified to see their Professor taking part in cannibalistic sacrifices, eating human flesh. They fear for their lives and leave him, only narrowly surviving their ordeal. Braithwaite is furious they abandoned him and takes his revenge slowly and terribly. While with the tribe Braithwaite collects shrunken heads possessed by the malevolent spirits of powerful cannibal tribesmen - he uses the heads to turn the students into subservient flesh eaters, his revenge for being left by them in the jungle and part of his own mad dream of re-creating the tribe in England... Apologies for the spoiler. This is a true nasty. However it’s also a really good read, fast paced, thoroughly blood splattered but with enough plot to be interesting too, with a great climactic ending that doesn’t drag on forever.
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Post by nightreader on Mar 1, 2008 13:03:42 GMT
Just finished this one and I have to say I really enjoyed it. It's been on the shelf for a while but after reading the brilliant 'Bugged' piece in the excellent Paperback Fanatic 5 I had to give it a go. I preferred it to Lewis' 'Parasite' but the eco-horror still works with worrying relevance, Lewis' mutated beetles are almost possible and you almost end up wondering why this hasn't happened already... Thanks to the nudge from PF5 I've now got 'Spiders' (Lewis), and 'Maggots' (Edward Jarvis) to look forward to
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Post by nightreader on Mar 25, 2008 14:17:33 GMT
The Third Ghost Book Ed. by Lady Cynthia Asquith (PAN 1957) No idea of the artist but you've gotta love this cover. It's the campest thing I've ever seen on a horror/ghost book... Unless you know better....? It's almost crying out for a caption don't you think?
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Post by nightreader on Jan 26, 2008 13:29:52 GMT
Thanks for the info Justin - and thats a great link to Headpress...if only I had some money now...
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Post by nightreader on Jan 26, 2008 9:06:43 GMT
Have to say I don't go in for comics that much, but these strangely lurid efforts drew me in. I know absolutley nothing about them, but I'm sure someone on here will
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Post by nightreader on Mar 24, 2008 10:46:51 GMT
Sex pops up again in the jokey The Love-Master, as revived by Michel Parry for his Devil's Kisses anthology. Cubbison consults Salvadori, the aged Love-Master, for his assistance in defeating wife Beatrice's frigidity. When every infallible technique fails, there is nothing else for it - the ultra-wrinkly sex-God must come out of retirement, something no woman has managed to lure him into doing for decades. Just dipped into a couple of the Beaumonts from The Edge collection. Quite a strange mixture but 'The Love-Master' was amusing - presumably he's the guy on the cover - with his catalogue of fool proof love positions, like the Chinese Flip and the Australian Hop or Method No. 26 the The Drunken Reptile !! Also read 'The Neighbours' which seems to me to be a straightforward story condemning racism in 60's America. 'The New Sound' is a darker tale, of a man colecting the death sounds of animals, he's a necroaudiophile. Soon animals aren't good enough of course and he moves on to the death cries of humans, until that isn't enough either. He eventually gets the ultimate new sound...
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Post by nightreader on Nov 11, 2007 10:27:49 GMT
Cover by Les Edwards City Jitters - Christopher Fowler (Sphere 1986) From the intro: “Welcome to the scariest place on earth.
A place of back alleys and strip joints, suburbs and slums. A place where the new fears live. The city.
The new fears are not of dungeons and vampires. They are fears of modern living. These days we are more scared of muggers than of monsters.
Within these pages you’ll find no werewolves or zombies, but ordinary events which take unpleasant and surprising turns.
Ten linked together tales of modern malevolence which could happen to you, today. Tales set in the most commonplace, most disturbing place of all.
There is nowhere more jittery than the city!”
COUNCIL REPORT: Car Parks Left Hand Drive COUNCIL REPORT: Night Clubs Perry in Seraglio COUNCIL REPORT: Taxi cabs Any Minute Now COUNCIL REPORT: Video Arcades Change for the Sky Master COUNCIL REPORT: Burglaries Tigertooth COUNCIL REPORT: Strip Clubs Vanishing Acts COUNCIL REPORT: Slums Her Finest Hour COUNCIL REPORT: Hotels The Cleansing COUNCIL REPORT: Suburbs What is wrong with this picture? COUNCIL REPORT: Total City Breakdown Loaded Blanks Epilogue Members of the city council meet to discuss proposals for a new development area, complete with models and biscuits and plans. Talk turns to car parks, and one of the council members says “I don’t like car parks. They’re not natural”… ‘Left Hand Drive’Packham is delivering a summons to a business in the city of Los Angeles. He parks in the underground car park. His business done he follows the exit signs. Strange how they seem to be leading him downward, deeper into the darkness, where the ceiling is lower and cars look like they’ve been there for years. Packham starts to feel very afraid … This is a very taut and claustrophobic story, Packham isn’t particularly pleasant but you get a good sense of his sweaty panic rising. I would be too. Next on the council agenda is a new entertainment complex… ‘Perry in Seraglio’Perry is Mr. Popular. He has the best cars, drugs and women; he is handsome, charming and witty. He has it all. So it’s no surprise when he gets an invite to the opening of a new nightclub called ‘Seraglio’. Of course he’ll be there, with his friends, he always is. He doesn’t realise his perfect life is about to take a distinctly messy turn... At the council meeting talk turns to transport. The planners realise they’ve not accounted for night buses in their scheme. A councillor assures the others that people would rather take a mini cab at night anyway... ‘Any Minute Now’A simple but effective story. Angela leaves her boyfriend’s house late in the evening, the unmarked and unremarkable mini cab has pulled up at the door as requested. The driver is talkative and seems to be taking an odd route. Angela suspects he might be trying to bump up the fare. She’s right to be worried. Back at the boyfriend’s house the phone rings, it’s the mini cab company...
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Post by nightreader on Oct 31, 2007 20:33:13 GMT
Horror - 7 by Robert Bloch (Belmont Feb 1963) Enoch The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton The Opener of the Way Return to the Sabbath The Mandarin’s Canaries The Shambler from the Stars The Secret of Sebek ‘Enoch’ Seth lives in the hut on the edge of the swamp, alone since his witch mother died years ago. Though not entirely alone, for he has Enoch – a demon living on the top of his head, talking to him, telling him to kill the unwary who pass through the swamp, to cut off their heads and give them to him. Then the Shefiff arrives and it’s off to jail for Seth and Enoch. No one believes when he tells them about Enoch, not even the District Attorney who encourages Seth to give the demon over to him, still not believing – he soon regrets it. ‘The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton’ I was quite reluctant to start this one, it seemed way too sci-fi for me but it’s worth sticking with. The story begins with Richard Clayton poised to take off in his spaceship ‘Future’ on a solo flight to Mars, taking ten years to get there and the same to return. This is no NASA mission, it seems more like a rocket in the back garden job, but the pilot ignites the atomic discharge propulsion engines anyway. There is a problem, the ‘Future’ shakes and vibrates so badly the instrument panel is shattered and useless, he has no idea how far he’s travelled or where he’s heading. Nevertheless Clayton begins his voyage, losing all track of time and becoming subject to all manner of nightmares and vividly horrifying dreams of aliens capturing him and devouring him. The worst shock he gets is when he wakes to find he’s ageing rapidly. Then he realises the ‘Future’ has landed… ‘The Opener of the Way’ The story of Sir Ronald Barton and his son Peter as they find the tomb guarded by the immense statue of the Egyptian god Anubis, the Opener of the Way. Sir Ronald had nicked an ancient scroll from an earlier dig which gave the location of the fantastic tomb, hinting at great treasure and promising limitless power. Sir Ronald’s obsession leads him to Anubis… ‘Return to the Sabbath’ Set in Hollywood, this begins with a PR man and an assistant producer going out in LA talent spotting. They accidentally catch a European horror movie in a sleazy theatre and are stunned by the lead actor’s performance. They discover the movie is called ‘Return to the Sabbath’ and the actor a man called Karl Jorla. They contact Jorla in Europe who signs a contract to make a similar film in America. It turns out Jorla was very keen to flee Europe, for the devil worshipping scenes in the film were all real and the cult blame him for betraying their secret rituals. The cult soon close in on Jorla… ‘The Mandarin’s Canaries’ This is all about the thoroughly evil Mandarin Quong, a powerful nobleman wicked and twisted in his tastes since childhood. The Mandarin delights in the agony of others, proclaiming himself Executioner so he can torture and kill as he pleases. He creates a terrible Garden of Pain, with vines growing on iron racks and creepers climbing the scaffolds. For Mandarin Quong has an unexpected love of Nature, but no bird will sing in his garden. When two missionaries arrive with a cage full of canaries he soon kills the missionaries and keeps the birds. In his Garden of Pain the birds breed in huge numbers and develop a taste for human flesh, cleaning up after the Mandarin has had his pleasure then rewarding him with beautiful birdsong. Quong hires an expert bowman to inflict the Death of a Thousand Arrows, the man brings to the palace his beautiful bride who the Mandarin uses then kills. The anguished bowman waits for his opportunity to get his revenge… ‘The Shambler from the Stars’ Bloch’s homage to H.P. Lovecraft has a writer of ‘weird fiction’ seek out rare and forbidden texts to further his knowledge and feed his imagination. He is delighted with his latest prize ‘The Mysteries of the Worm’ by Ludvig Prinn, a man exectued at the stake during witchcraft trials in Brussels. The book is written in latin however but a like minded friend agrees to translate. The writer watches in horror as the spoken words from the book summon a creature from the stars that is invisible at first, until it has drunk the blood of the invoker, then he sees the beast in all its glory… ‘The Secret of Sebek’ A lonely young writer of occult tales accepts an invitation to a party at the height of the New Orleans Mardi Gras. It turns out this was no chance meeting, as wealthy occultist Henricus Vanning has invited the writer to his masqued ball for a purpose. Vanning and four other men have persued their esoteric interests vigorously, resulting in the purchase of the famed book ‘The Mysteries of the Worm’ by Ludvig Prinn and a priceless Egyptian mummy, that of Sebek – the Crocodile God of the Nile, said to be half man and half crocodile. But now Vanning’s inner circle are getting cold feet, scared of what they may have already done in desecrating Sebek’s resting place. Vanning wants the writer’s advice, to proceed further or call it a day – but the writer is distracted, he’s sure he’s seen someone in a strange crocodile mask at Vanning’s party… I really enjoyed this collection, they all work well to some degree but the highlight for me was the ‘Mandarin’s Canaries’, very nasty at times. ‘The Strange Flight of Richard Clayton’ almost disappointed but Bloch wisely reigned in the sci-fi for the ending. The weakest of the bunch for me was ‘The Opener of the Way’ and although I liked the Egyptian theme it didn’t really float my boat. I’m pretty sure this collection has been mentioned elsewhere, and I’ve certainly seen an alternative cover for it, but can’t locate it naturally.
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Post by nightreader on Oct 27, 2007 7:15:29 GMT
'Feelings Of Fear' - Graham Masterton (Severn House 2000) Out of Her Depth Road Kill Lolicia Friend In Need Heroine Saving Grace Jack Be Quick Anais Cold Turkey Picnic At Lac du Sang The Ballyhooly Boy The Sympathy Society 'Road Kill' - although it's not spelled out this is clearly a story about Dracula himself. He recalls Lucy and once had a portrait of Mina hanging in his house, before it was stolen while he slept in his coffin in the cellar of his old house in England. In his casket he dreams of blood and battles, and men hoisted high on stakes and watching their slow agonizing deaths. The ending is a little weak perhaps but still enjoyable. 'Heroine' - an intruiging wartime (WW2) story of a romance between an American pilot and an English girl. Needless to say it gets quite strange. A story of sacrifice, loss and heroism... 'Saving Grace' - in some ways this is another wartime story, this time the First World War. A present day schoolboy becomes fascinated with the story of his great-Uncle Bartram - pilloried for cowardice while in the trenches and shot. Much like himself in a school football match (though not shot, obviously). Only great-Uncle Bartram wasn't what history claimed him to be, really he was a hero. A gentle ghost story, not much fear here but a nice story all the same. 'Jack Be Quick' - a fresh spin on the death of US President John F. Kennedy. In this tale he actually died having sex (using poppers) in a hotel room (not with Marilyn this time). The shocker is that when JFK was shot in Dallas he'd been revived from the dead by a Caribbean doctor - the President was a zombie! But you don't get anything for nothing, there is always a price to be paid...and Baron Samedi charges interest. Hows that for a conspiracy theory? 'Cold Turkey' - a Christmas tale this one, which seems to be Masterton's homage to Agatha Christie: there's a family gathering where all the members seem to dislike each other, they all have money problems, there's an inheritance up for grabs, and murder - poor Tarquin the cat gets nobbled after nibbling at the cold turkey of the title. He's been poisoned, but it's clear that the intended victim was really miserly old Uncle Philip who is worth millions... I really enjoyed this story, I'm fond of Agatha Christie anyway and this was a bit of silly Christmas malarky. Though not horror I'd have said, and few feelings of fear here... 'Ballyhooly Boy' - An effective and creepy ghost story. Jerry Flynn inherits a run down terraced house in Ballyhooly from a woman he can't remember ever knowing. Inside the house he sees a white faced boy, who then disappears. And the neighbours talk of the screaming in the night, mostly around the anniversary of the time when the boy killed the whole of his family and then himself... 'The Sympathy Society' - When Martin's girlfriend dies suddenly on holiday in a freak jet-ski accident, he is devastated. Unable to cope with life without her he attempts suicide but fails, and his misery increases. The he sees an ad in the paper for 'The Sympathy Society'. These are not the Samaritans... A weird and disturbing story, quite thought-provoking.
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