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Post by dem on Oct 21, 2010 22:39:05 GMT
David Sutton - Clinically Dead & Other Tales of the Supernatural (Crowswing, 2006, Screaming Dreams, 2009)  Harry O. Morris
The Holidaymakers
Changing Tack
Photo-Call
Those of Rhenea
How the Buckie was Saved
Clinically Dead
Tomb of the Janissaries
La Serenissima
In the Land of the Rainbow Snake
Monkey Business
Afterword by Joel Lane He really should have had a collection of short stories published long before this. By my reckoning, Clinically Dead concentrates on his post-millennium work, but David Sutton has been writing horror shorts since the early 'seventies, including at least two hippie students dabble in black magic minor classics, The Fetch and Demonical, the M. R. James influenced Return To The Runes, a tasty little druid sacrifice item ( Lady Megalith: victim, a DSS employees wife) and the creepy kid unpleasantness of Sugar And Spice And All Things Nice. includes: Those Of Rhenea: "The breasts of the queen of ghosts ... are they not compelling? The unwary traveller may succumb to her ways." Elizabeth is touring the Greek Isles with Mike, a young American she's hitched up with along the way. While studying she image of Hecate on a trinket box, she suffers a dizzy spell during the course of which a harsh disembodied voice rasps in her ear, completely unnerving her. The couple take a boat out to the desolate island of Delos. Separating from the main tourist party to explore the ruins, they're overcome by the sweltering heat and fall asleep, missing the boat back to Nexos. At least a nice dark cave offers some shelter from the blazing hot sun. Night falls on the island and with it comes the saliva-dripping, reeking, rotting hag whose breasts are not so attractive in close up .... Clinically Dead: Postal worker Russell Bray's mother lies in a hospital bed, legs gangrenous, dying by inches. The medical staff aren't ones to let the patients go without a fight even if it means merely prolonging their agony. A cocktail of powerful drugs and constant exploratory surgery prove too much for the living dead who, in a genuinely nightmarish climax, take out their tormentors with their own surgical instruments. This, like Those Of Rhenea is excellent, though, as with Lord P.'s similarly angry It Begins At Home in 7th Black Book Of Horror, for those with elderly loved ones enduring similar, it may prove too painful to read. Will attempt to write up La Serenissima once I've finished it, after which that's it as I've not got a copy of the book. Ever the professional!
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 22, 2010 7:00:00 GMT
I'll have to get out my copies and see if I can go through the other tales. It's quite some time since I read them, though I think La Serenissima is by far my favourite, perhaps because it was originally published in Beyond. There was quite a stink over the original publication of the book as, although it was supposed to have a limited print run of so many signed copies, Crowswing books apparently only printed off a few using POD, then went into limbo when the proprietor became more interested in his singing career. Luckily, Steve Upham at Screaming Dreams agreed to republish it, with an improved cover, etc. I have both copies, and the SD version is by far the superior. www.britishfantasysociety.org/forum/index.php?topic=1844.0 |
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Post by dem on Oct 22, 2010 8:08:35 GMT
Sadly, that link won't be of much use to some of us as you now have to register and log-in to read the BFS forum, a development which smacks to me of another "improvement" every bit as welcome as BFS Publications: The PS Hardback years. What's that all in aid of then? boosting the board 'memberships'? They can have the 120+ dormant/ unactivated/ unused/ obvious spam accounts I cleaned out recently when we hit the big 400 if that's any help (sincere apologies to davidw who, I didn't realise, had only just joined!  ). Am halfway through a reread of La Serenissima and have to agree, it's another beauty and, I'm thinking, the period setting is atypical of Sutton's work? Far as i remember, Those others I've read have been rooted firmly in the then here and now? |
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Post by David A. Riley on Oct 22, 2010 8:19:37 GMT
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Post by dem on Oct 25, 2010 7:23:56 GMT
I know. I read your Blog  La Serenissima: For my money, the finest story to make it's debut appearance in Beyond! "The work on which Rudolf was concentrating was a huge canvas, almost totally washed in the morbid shades of night. At once Polyhymnia hated it, but she preferred to concentrate on it than on her repellent sister. The depiction was of some unknown part of the city, during the annual carnival. Everyone in the foreground of the painting was wearing gaudy clothes, and grotesque masks, and their postures suggested pleasure and excess. Polyhymnia thought it horrible that the artist had used the most ill-proportioned, unsightly and unnervingly horrible masks, which somehow nevertheless perfectly fitted the human face beneath them. And not satisfied with the subtle terror engendered by the hedonistic figures, the background was crammed with plague victims. Their faces were also disguised, but this time by the ravages of the pestilence. When not perched in gondolas, they were emerging from the slick waters of the canal. And even in the blackest distance of the painting she could see many vile corpses swimming. It was as if the contaminated dead were intent on joining the festival." Identical twins Polyhymia and Euphrosyne Lethbridge are touring Venice with their guardians, Rudolf and Matilda Fortiscu. Much to her disgust, Poly strongly suspects her flighty sister is sleeping with Rudolf. One morning he doesn't appear for breakfast - a minor illness, explains Matilda who presents the girl with a map and some funds. Today, as a special treat, they shall be allowed to explore Venice unchaperoned! David Sutton's characters have a habit of getting hopelessly lost whenever they venture overseas and it doesn't help that the map Matilda gave them is well rubbish, but eventually they find their way back to via a concealed door in a rotting ruin which, astonishingly, backs on to their hotel - but how did Euphrosyne know it was there? That night, following some scandalous behaviour at the dinner table involving Rudolf's hand and Euphrosyne's knickers, Poly feigns sleep. Sure enough, Euphrosyne sneaks out along the corridor and through the portal to the derelict building where she's arranged a tryst with Rudolf and his wife, both now masked to mimic the plague-ridden undead in the Pietro Longhi painting which so terrified Polyhymia at the gallery. And the resemblance doesn't end there ... |
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