Paul F. Olson & David Silva - Post Mortem

[dem bones]

Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva Post Mortem: Ghostly Tales Of Terror (Corgi 1990, 0riginally St. Martin’s USA, 1989)

Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva - Introduction: The Phantom Book

Kathryn Ptacek - Each Night, Each Year
Gary Brandner - Mark of the Loser
Charles de Lint - Timeskip
Steve Rasnic & Melanie Tem - Resettling
Janet Fox - The Servitor
Thomas Tessier - Blanca
James Howard Kunstler - Nine Gables
Charles L. Grant - The Last Cowboy Song
Thomas F. Monteleone - The Ring of Truth
Gordon Linzner - Eyes of the Swordmaker
Ramsey Campbell - The Guide
P. W. Sinclair - Getting Back
Donald R. Burleson - Walkie-Talkie
William F. Nolan - Major Prevue Here Tonight
Melissa Mia Hall - The Brush of Soft Wings
David B. Silva - Brothers
Robert R. McCammon - Haunted World

Dean R. Koontz - Afterword
About the Authors

Blurb:


This important collection features original stories from seventeen masters of modern horror and brings with it the fear, the exhilaration, the dark humour and the darker horror of visitations from the dead. Powerful and stylish, haunting and terrifying, POST MORTEM is a book to be savoured.

Feb 13, 2011 20:50:51 GMT Johnlprobert said:

I seem to remember that being a fairly decent little anthology - now sadly lost through too many house moves.

On publication, Post Mortem was seemingly unanimously received as an absolute must-have, a "landmark anthology" even, so a surprise to discover very little about it online (or maybe I'm looking in the wrong places?). Being a good little horror fan, i dutifully snapped up a copy at the time and for some inexplicable reason, it's remained unmolested on my bookshelf to this day. Maybe it was the uniform rave reviews. Maybe it was that I read the stories by those authors whose stories most interested me - Campbell, Tessier, McCammon (had yet to experience the genius of Gary The Brain Eaters Brander) - in other collections and figured it was job done. Anyway, it's now been added to my other 387 books on the go, and if anyone would be kind enough to tell me which stories to look out for?

Ramsey Campbell - The Guide: only recently wrote some long-winded synopsis for this gorgeous and, for once, genuinely horrifying M R James/ E F Benson tribute on the Mammoth Book Of Ghost Stories Vol 1 thread and can't find it in me to make you suffer it twice in two days. i will be very surprised if there's anything in Post Mortem can top it.

This next is maybe too SPOILER HEAVY, but in truth you know what's coming from a long way off. doesn't stop it from being a grisly trad horror gem though, and it's miles superior to Carrion!

Gary Brander - Mark Of The Loser: Wildewood, S. California. Len Krager is new to the district and finding it impossible to make a friend. His aching loneliness is such that, when he receives a personalised invite to a party on Willows Road, he suspects a cruel practical joke on the part of someone who's learned of his circumstances. But he's a desperate man and, as an alternative to festering home alone with a bottle, he arrives at the house to find the revelry already underway. Weirdly, all these strangers seem to know who he is and each extend him a warm, obviously genuine greeting. Despite his crippling shyness, Len has soon struck up a friendship with the gorgeous Carol who assures him they'll meet again soon enough. And yet .... he's finding the evening more than a little disconcerting. As the night wears on, he repeatedly catches the vague outline of a woman peering in at them from a window, although a jovial fellow named Henry reassures him, that there's nothing to worry about, it's just the ghost of previous owner "Old Mary" Grauer. "Crazy as a coot. I mean really crazy. Killed people. Nobody knows how many. Bums, hobos, runaways - said she felt sorry for them. Lured them here and Ker-chop.... Old Mary used an ax. They finally clapped her in the booby hatch. Kept her there till she died."

[jamesdoig]

I haven't heard about this one, or even seen it! The mass market anthologies I can remember that got a heap of press before and after publication were Dark Forces, Prime Evil and 666 - the last one was pretty disappointing, though massive.

[goathunter]

The Robert McCammon story can be read for free here: "Haunted World" on RobertMcCammon.com

Here is the Severn House hardcover edition, published in 1991.



And while I'm at it, the U.S. hardcover:



And the US paperback (Dell, 1992):



Hunter

[Will E.]

I'm intrigued that this anthology was reprinted in paperback by the Dell/Abyss line, which was known for its paperback originals. Lots of good authors included... altho' I'm not thrilled to see the Koontz name attached.

[dem bones]

Paul F. Olson & David B. Silva - Introduction: The Phantom Book: Does the paperback you now hold in your hands actually exist?

Janet Fox - The Servitor: To escape abusive husband, Dyann returns to Sawtelle, and the abandoned "old Wrede place," once home to her uncle Simon, the official 'town wacko' and domestic pet sacrificing Black Magician. Simon Wrede may be gone, but his servitor remains to do the vengeful Dyann's bidding. At a price.

William F. Nolan - Major Prevue Here Tonight: Connecticut. Hubbard Rockwell, driving in heavy rain, can't believe his luck when, on passing Edgefield village, he spots a cinema, Styx, all lit up and ready for tonight's screening. Hub duly pulls into the car park. Man, the publicity team on this movie need firing! Apart from the lugubrious guy in the ticket stall, he's the only person bothered to turn up. What's the movie, anyhow? "We don't give a title. Not for our sneak previews." Supernatural snuff.

James Howard Kunstler - Nine Gables: In a last ditch attempt to save their marriage, Carey and Marion Otis sell up, invest in a ski hotel in the Adirondacks. Their love for one another is dead, but affairs with a string of sexy phantom guests keep both parties content. As jolly as Mark of the Loser and The Servitor are dark.

[dem bones]

Donald R. Burleson - Walkie-Talkie: The ghost of Judy, his first almost-girlfriend, returns during a snowstorm, seeking the proper kiss he was too timed to give her when she lived. Judy has not aged well.

Thomas F. Monteleone - The Ring of Truth: Denny Reitmann, ex-High School jock and college drop out, astounds his roommates by joining the marines out of boredom. Packed off to El Salvador to fight the Sandinista, Denny is fast transformed from happy-go-lucky class clown to murder junkie who brags of gunning down a pregnant woman. Reitmann is a sniper with the Black Aces, so named because they leave a playing card pinned to the corpses of those they kill. The eight man team also wear a brass ring on their belt from which to hang the right ears of the enemy. Barbaric for sure, but then, should the rebels kill a Black Ace, "They always cut off his dick and stuff it in his mouth."

Reitmann survives his stint in the jungle, only to return voluntarily to settle a score. This time he's less fortunate. A landmine destroys his lower body and his guilty mind gives out in fear that the ghosts of his victims will return to claim what's rightfully theirs.

Jack Marchetti, an old college friend turned army surgeon, provides an account of what happened on Denny's last night.

Kathryn Ptacek - Each Night, Each Year: Two years in the grave, and still Becky's father won't rest. "Every night since his funeral I see him crawling up the floor of the hallway, just the way he did that one time right before he died. It's awful." A carer's guilt that, for all they did their best for a loved one, it could never be enough. Risky decision to open with this one; had I read it first, I'd have been too miserable to continue.

[andydecker]

It even made the way across the pond.

I think I didn't read a story, must picked it up years after it was published in 1992.

Just browsed the afterword by Koontz. It is one of these pre-nerd culture rants about how much better this genre is than those evil publishers with their bloody monster covers establish this wrong impression. He didn't read a story. Absolutely interchangable. The German cover in this case is hilariously unsuited, though.

[dem bones]

Aug 22, 2020 12:40:04 GMT andydecker said:

Just browsed the afterword by Koontz. It is one of these pre-nerd culture rants about how much better this genre is than those evil publishers with their bloody monster covers establish this wrong impression. He didn't read a story. Absolutely interchangable.

Tremendous stuff! My particular favourites are "fans of [horror and ghost] fiction are more articulate than the public at large" and "Good heavens, what's wrong with people who don't like stories of the supernatural?"

Robert R. McCammon - Haunted World: Just when we thought things couldn't get any worse, a series of tornadoes scatter millions of ghosts from all ages across the globe. Narrator Ben holes up with wife Vera, son Ben jnr. and various locals in the Concordia Cafe hoping it will all pass over. It doesn't. Everyone who ever lived and died returns, and their phantoms gradually take on physical form. Ghosts sighted include William Shakespeare, Thomas Edison, and Abraham Lincoln, though this last unconfirmed (might only be a lookalike). I've a huge fondness for much of McCammon's Blue World collection, but this story just didn't do it for me at all.

A contemporary reviews:

John Gilbert, Fear #25, Jan 1991