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Post by dem on Dec 19, 2014 18:22:59 GMT
Paul Finch - In A Deep, Dark December (2014)  Neil Williams
Midnight Service
The Faerie
The Mummers
The Killing GroundAnother kindle-only epublication (UK, £1.99), as the title suggests, a compilation of five of Mr. Finch's Christmas tales (he's written more). The following synopses have been purloined direct from the author's Walking In The Dark blogspot. Believe me when I tell you, the opening story alone is worth the asking price! The Christmas Toys: ( The Screaming Book Of Horror, 2012). Two Christmas Eve burglars discover the dark side of the festive spirit … Midnight Service ( Killer Reads, 2012). A stranded traveller in a desolate town one snowy Christmas Eve. Where can he find shelter? The former workhouse, of course. The Faerie - Enemies At The Door (Gray Friars, Sept. 2012). Timid husband Arthur flees his angry wife across the wintry moors, finally seeking sanctuary in a mysterious snowbound house. The Mummers: (Barbara Roden & Christopher Roden [eds.], Shadows and Silence, 2000). Two men plot an elaborate Christmas Eve revenge by summoning a pantomime from Hell. The Killing Ground: During an atmospheric English Christmas, man and wife security experts are hired to protect a film star's family from the cannibal woman said to haunt their new country estate.
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Post by ripper on Dec 20, 2014 20:29:55 GMT
Thanks for the recommendation, Dem. I downloaded a sample a few days ago though haven't gotten round to reading it yet, but you make it sound very tempting.
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spooky
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 11 
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Post by spooky on Aug 25, 2016 9:09:56 GMT
How did you like the book?
I'm just asking because it will get translated into German and will be published as a regular paperback just in right time for Christmas. Wondering if it's worth buying?
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Post by ripper on Aug 25, 2016 12:46:33 GMT
Hi Spooky. I enjoyed the collection very much and would say that it is definitely worth a read. Paul is imo a consistently good writer of enjoyable supernatural stories.
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spooky
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 11
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Post by spooky on Aug 25, 2016 12:58:19 GMT
Thanks for sharing your opinion. So I'll have a try on them… by the way: I like Christmas Horror stories really much… So I'll be looking foreward to them
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Post by ripper on Aug 26, 2016 7:12:55 GMT
I would also recommend Paul's 'Terror Tales of...' series which he has edited over the last few years. As for Christmas stories, if you haven't already tried them, there is a series edited by Richard Dalby in the early 90s: 'Ghosts for Christmas', 'Horror for Christmas', 'Chillers for Christmas', 'Shivers for Christmas', 'Mystery for Christmas' and 'Crime for Christmas', all of which are good and contain a mixture of classic and modern tales. Finally, Chris Priestley's 'Christmas Tales of Terror', although written for children, is nicely grim and can be enjoyed by adults.
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spooky
Crab On The Rampage
Posts: 11
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Post by spooky on Aug 26, 2016 13:29:34 GMT
The "Terror Tales…" aren't translated up to now, but I know most of the other Christmas anthologies by Richard Dalby you mentioned quite well since some of them were translated:
„Chillers for Christmas“ as "Eiskalte Weihnachten"
„Ghosts for Christmas“ as "Geister zum Fest"
„Mystery for Christmas as "Kein Friede auf Erden"
„Crime for Christmas“ as "Stille Zeit und schrille Morde"
„Shivers for Christmas“ as "O du grausame Weihnachtszeit"
I had a look for Chris Priestley's 'Christmas Tales of Terror' – they, too, were translated but only as a audiobook.
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Post by ripper on Dec 5, 2019 13:13:38 GMT
In a Deep, Dark December by Paul Finch (Brentwood, 2019)
As far as I am aware, this collection is available only on Kindle. There are 5 stories, all set in December, around the festive period.
The Christmas Toys: Two teenage burglars break into a house during a snowstorm and while the family is at church. They can't believe the amount of gifts and other goodies they will be able to steal. The outside and interior of the house are extravagantly decorated for Christmas, with a full-size inflatable polar bear in the garden, a pair of booted legs coming down the chimney, a large Christmas tree with a model Santa moving up and down it, and a model of Bethlehem complete with moving figures. They prepare to strip the place and move everything to their van parked in the next street, but they reckon without the decorations and gifts doing a 'Home Alone'.
Midnight Service: A man is stranded in a small town somewhere between Derby and Macclesfield when the bus is held up in bad weather. He disdains the driver's assurances that passengers will be looked after, and wonders off to find somewhere to stay. The town is deserted, but he finds eventually an old building with a light shining. Inside, he meets a clergyman who offers a place to stay in exchange for his participation in the annual miracle play for local orphans. Reluctantly, he agrees and is given a sheep costume and directed to dance around the stage, but perhaps he should have queried the plot of the 'Derby Ram' before agreeing to play the main part.
The Fairy: A man and his young daughter, Arthur and Gabby, are lost on a remote road. The weather is getting worse and it seems the car will not be able to go much further. Gabby sees a house at the side of the road and Arthur stops the car. Gabby is nervous, saying it looks like a fairy house, a house that lures people inside and then vanishes. Inside, they meet an attractive woman who seems to be everything that Arthur's shrewish wife isn't. She gives them food and drink, and is very sympathetic to Arthur's plight with his wife, but is all as it seems and could Gabby be right?
The Mummers: An old country house has a bad local reputation. On a Christmas Eve 200 years before, a group of mummers were robbed and left to die in the woods while on their way to the house. There is a legend that each Christmas Eve the ghosts of the mummers return to the house and anyone who sees them will die. In the present, Phil and Eric, two employees of a local paper which has recently merged with its rival, hire the house for a Christmas Eve party. Both loathe their brash and crude work colleagues, especially Al, who has taken over Eric's job as editor. They invite their colleagues in the hope and expectation that the mummers will make an appearance and lead to their colleagues' deaths, Phil and Eric having quietly withdrawn to avoid the fatal presence of the mummers. Everything is set up, and Phil and Eric believe that as outsiders their colleagues know nothing of the legend surrounding the house. But is Al quite so ignorant of what is going on as Phil and Eric think?
The 4 stories above are fairly short and I thoroughly enjoyed all of them. They are well up to Paul's high standards. My favourite would be The Christmas Toys. It was very satisfying to see the burglars get their just desserts, and that model of Bethlehem had some unique features I am sure wouldn't be seen in any real-life equivalent, such as tiny figures with knives going house to house seeking baby Jesus. Also, I thought Paul did a good job with building sympathy for the downtrodden Arthur in The Fairy.
I have only read a small part of the final story, The Killing Ground, so far. It is much longer than the other tales in the collection and will update when I have completed it.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 5, 2019 13:51:58 GMT
You can depend upon Paul Finch for consistently excellent horror stories! I bought & enjoyed this collection back in 2015 so this must be a re-release, for some reason.
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Post by ripper on Dec 5, 2019 14:16:51 GMT
You can depend upon Paul Finch for consistently excellent horror stories! I bought & enjoyed this collection back in 2015 so this must be a re-release, if that's the right term to use. Yes, my digital copy is also from around 2015, but Amazon has it that it is 2019, so I suppose it must have been re-released. It would be interesting to know if there are any significant differences between the two versions. |
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Post by ripper on Dec 5, 2019 18:46:34 GMT
I finished the last story, The Killing Ground, earlier. It is by far the longest tale in the collection, and is my new favourite.
Killingly Hall has been bought by a major US film star and his wife. The wife hears tales that the grounds of the Hall are haunted by something that abducts children, and is anxious for the safety of their daughter, Claudette. They hire husband and wife private detectives, Alec and Ruth Whitchurch, both ex-police, to look into the tales to prove to the film star's wife that the stories are groundless. However, despite their scepticism, Alec and Ruth discover that children have gone missing in the area and trace the stories back to a former lady owner of the Hall in the 12th century, who legend says made a pact with Satan and is the abductor. At the Hall, after hearing what has been discovered by Alec and Ruth, the film star asks them to stay at the Hall over Christmas to ease his wife's fears. There are many guests expected, and several large parties and other events are scheduled. Gradually, Alec and Ruth become aware that a mysterious prowler is managing to lurk in the grounds, despite very tight security. Alec believes the prowler is a flesh and blood journalist trying to get a scoop on the famous guests, but Ruth suspects that they are up against a genuine supernatural creature.
Well, this was a page turner par excellence. Wonderfully atmospheric with a very likable set of characters, particularly Alec and Ruth. Paul Finch really brings the setting to life and I didn't want the story to end. Does anyone know if there are any more adventures of Alec and Ruth? All-in-all, this is a really fine collection and gets my heartiest recommendation.
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Post by Paul Finch on Dec 15, 2019 21:02:49 GMT
Wow ... thanks for this very kind and enjoyable review, especially at this most appropriate time of year,.
I really didn't expect it and am very grateful.
To answer a couple of the questions raised: Yes, this is the same IN A DEEP, DARK DECEMBER that was first published in 2015, but it had to be re-released in 2019 when there was a glitch on Amazon and we needed to temporarily take it down. Unfortunately, that glitch also wiped out the 30 plus reviews that the collection had accrued. So, though it does seem like a new book, it's the same one as before and there is no new material.
However, I've got plans to bring out a new Christmas collection, hopefully next autumn, to sit alongside this one. I'm also going to be looking to bring out a paperback version of IADDD (and maybe, if possible, an Audible), also in time for next Christmas.
Thanks again for all the kind comments.
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Post by Swampirella on Dec 17, 2019 18:56:23 GMT
Wow ... thanks for this very kind and enjoyable review, especially at this most appropriate time of year,. I really didn't expect it and am very grateful. To answer a couple of the questions raised: Yes, this is the same IN A DEEP, DARK DECEMBER that was first published in 2015, but it had to be re-released in 2019 when there was a glitch on Amazon and we needed to temporarily take it down. Unfortunately, that glitch also wiped out the 30 plus reviews that the collection had accrued. So, though it does seem like a new book, it's the same one as before and there is no new material. However, I've got plans to bring out a new Christmas collection, hopefully next autumn, to sit alongside this one. I'm also going to be looking to bring out a paperback version of IADDD (and maybe, if possible, an Audible), also in time for next Christmas. Thanks again for all the kind comments. I just came across your free Christmas horror story "The Merry Makers":
Thank you, Paul and Merry Christmas!
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Post by Paul Finch on Dec 17, 2019 23:39:57 GMT
Many thanks, Swampirella ... I was hesitant to promote it on here myself, so thanks for drawing attention to it.
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Post by dem on Nov 3, 2020 17:48:33 GMT
Welcome news for paperback dependents. In A Deep, Dark December has now been published in our preferred format - along with a second, new anthology of festive supernatural horrors, The Christmas You Deserve Paul Finch - In A Deep, Dark December: Five Festive Chillers (2020) The Christmas Toys
Midnight Service
The Faerie
The Mummers
The Killing GroundBlurb: Christmastide. A time of feasting and good cheer. Gifts, cards, blazing holly logs. Snow falls while family and friends trim the tree and kiss under the mistletoe.
But it isn't always joyful. It's the coldest time of year. the days are short, the nights are long. Chilling myths lie concealed behind the raucous revelry.
The ghoulish events in the frozen workhouse.
The undead presence at the costumed ball.
The pantomime that became a massacre.
The winter goddess with the heart of ice.
The thieves who awoke the darker side of the Christmas spirit
Five Yuletide nightmares from the pen of best-selling thriller and horror author, Paul FinchAvailable in ebook and paperback Amazon UKPaul Finch - The Christmas You Deserve: Five Festive Terror Tales (2020) The Merry Makers
The Unreal
Krampus
The Tenth Lesson
The StainBlurb: Christmas, the happiest time of year. Plum puddings, candy canes, carols by the fireside.
But outside, the mist lies deep and still. Frost gnaws at your fingertips. Shadowy forms lurk in the evergreens.
It’s the season for ghost stories. For dark warnings. For eerie myths drawing on the blood rites of the past …
The Christmas present that wants to butcher you.
The horned devil in the Santa Claus suit.
The terrifying events at Mistletoe Hall.
The movie makers trapped in a winter nightmare.
The annual puppet show that ends in death.
Five more festive terror tales from the pen of best-selling thriller and horror writer, Paul Finch.Available in ebook and paperback Amazon UK |
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