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Post by slesarfan on May 16, 2012 21:51:04 GMT
Hi all
I come from a mystery / crime collecting background. I love all the old US digests particularly those around in the 1950s 1960s e.g. Manhunt, Alfred Hitchcock, Trapped, etc.
My specific interest is short stories with dark, ironic, downbeat, shock endings. Quite a few authors specialised in this sort of fiction in the crime digests e.g. Robert Bloch, Henry Slesar, Jack Ritchie, Fredric Brown,etc.
I wondered if anyone could please recommend some horror authors or short story collections which cater for this sort of thing. I'm really after clever twisty stories that have savagely ironic conclusions.
Thank you.
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Post by slesarfan on May 16, 2012 21:57:19 GMT
Hi all I should have added that the I'm not just looking for stories with surprise endings of which there are no doubt plenty ! It's more those with a strong sense of poetic justice, cunning and black humour. Thank you. I come from a mystery / crime collecting background. I love all the old US digests particularly those around in the 1950s 1960s e.g. Manhunt, Alfred Hitchcock, Trapped, etc. My specific interest is short stories with dark, ironic, downbeat, shock endings. Quite a few authors specialised in this sort of fiction in the crime digests e.g. Robert Bloch, Henry Slesar, Jack Ritchie, Fredric Brown,etc. I wondered if anyone could please recommend some horror authors or short story collections which cater for this sort of thing. I'm really after clever twisty stories that have savagely ironic conclusions. Thank you. |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 17, 2012 0:04:16 GMT
Hi all I come from a mystery / crime collecting background. I love all the old US digests particularly those around in the 1950s 1960s e.g. Manhunt, Alfred Hitchcock, Trapped, etc. My specific interest is short stories with dark, ironic, downbeat, shock endings. Quite a few authors specialised in this sort of fiction in the crime digests e.g. Robert Bloch, Henry Slesar, Jack Ritchie, Fredric Brown,etc. I wondered if anyone could please recommend some horror authors or short story collections which cater for this sort of thing. I'm really after clever twisty stories that have savagely ironic conclusions. Thank you. Great question! You could start with three of the authors you mentioned: Bloch, Slesar, and Brown. Bloch wrote numerous horror stories with nasty endings--some tongue-in-cheek, others less so. Some personal favorites along these lines: "The Cloak" "The Bogey Man Will Get You" "Catnip" "The Sorcerer's Apprentice" "A Home Away From Home" "The Animal Fair" In terms of Bloch's collections, these might be good starting places (along with the three-volume Collected Stories, which mixes his horror and crime fiction): Tales in a Jugular Vein Cold Chills The Early Fears As for the other two authors, each wrote a horror classic with a dark twist ending: "The Candidate" (Slesar) and "Come and Go Mad" (Brown). Both have been anthologized numerous times. Other writers who have mastered the art of the snap ending, with notable examples: Ray Bradbury ("The October Game") Margaret St. Clair ("The Counter-Charm," "The Family") Anthony Boucher ("Mr. Lepescu") Ramsey Campbell ("Call First," "The Pattern") Alison Prince ("The Loony") Finally, one anthology that might be worth checking into (I've been meaning to buy it myself) is The Young Oxford Book of Nasty Endings. It's packaged as a young adult book but includes many fine examples of the form (among which are some of the ones listed above). I'm sure that more will come to mind as I think about it . . . |
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Post by cauldronbrewer on May 18, 2012 11:57:34 GMT
Hi all I should have added that the I'm not just looking for stories with surprise endings of which there are no doubt plenty ! It's more those with a strong sense of poetic justice, cunning and black humour. Thank you. A few more horror or horror-related authors who specialize in "poetic justice, cunning and black humour": Ambrose Bierce Saki John Collier Roald Dahl Taken together, those four cover a broad range of time periods and styles. Also, if you like Fredric Brown and haven't already read Nightmares and Geezenstacks, then I strongly recommend it. |
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