Karl E. Wagner - Years Best Horror Stories 22

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Karl Edward Wagner - Year's Best Horror Stories: 22 (DAW Books, 1994, 351 pages)



Cover by Les Edwards

Content:

Introduction: But Is It Horrific by KEW

The Ripper´s Tune – Gregory Nicoll
One Size eats all – T.E.D. Klein
Resurrection – Adam Meyer
I live to wash her – Joey Froehlich
A Little-Known Side of Elivis – Dennis Etchison
Perfect Days – Chet Williamson
See how they run – Ramsey Campbell
Shots downed, Officer fired – Wayne Allen Sallee
David – Sean Doolittle
Portrait of a Pulp Writer – F. A. McMahan
Fish Harbour – Paul Pinn
Ridi Bobo – Robert Devereaux
Adroitly Wrapped – Mark McLaughlin
Thicker Than Water – Joel Lane
Memento Mori – Scott Thomas
The Blitz Spirit – Kim Newman
Companions – Del Stone Jr.
Masquerade – Lillian Csernica
Price of the Flames – Deidra Cox
The Bone Garden – Conrad Williams
Ice Cream and Tombstones – Nina Kiriki Hoffman
Salt Snake – Simon Clark
Lady´s Portrait, Executed in archaic Colors – Charles M. Saplak
Lost Alleys – Jeffrey Thomas
Salustrade – D. F. Lewis
The Power of One – Nancy Kilpatrick
The Lions in the Desert – David Langford
Turning Thirty – Lisa Tuttle
Bloodletting – Kim Antieau
Flying into Naples – Nicholas Royle
Under the Crust – Terry Lamsley

This is the last one. DAW cancelled the series after Wagner´s death.

[droogie]

If the owner of the original painting for this book cover reads this & might be interested in selling, please contact me. I know Les sold it a while ago. Thank you.

[humgoo]

Terry Lamsley – Under the Crust: "And you can't believe tales of men and women turning into something else, can you?; into tall, thin, spidery things, overnight?" After surviving a road accident on A6 near Buxton, Maurice, who is on the brink of bankruptcy and whose wife has run away, finds himself in an abandoned quarry, which now serves as a rubbish tip.

Certainly a weird place to find yourself in, where ostrich egg-like stuff falls on you (WARNING: Don't break them!), and a family of scavengers speaking with a strange accent try to sell you useless, filthy stuff. Scared, Maurice flees back home, where he finds no consolation, as one of those scavengers has apparently followed him all the way, and managed to foist one of those eggs on him.

Curious and having nothing better to do, Maurice returns to the quarry and pumps the caretaker for information. Local legend has it that a long, long time ago, some miners in the area dug into something horrible and brought back those eggs which, facing famine, they ate. Something bad then happened to them: they changed into something nasty, and so would their offspring. A new race was eventually born, who formed their own community in Dove Holes (OF COURSE it comes from "Devil's Holes") and became a nuisance. One day the locals decided that enough was enough and carried out a massacre.

These creatures are apparently not resting in peace, their bones having been dug up recently by the tip workers. Maurice decides to set things right, and perhaps end his own misery in the process.

One of those very sad tales.