Ed Gorman & Martin Greenberg - Stalkers

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Ed Gorman & Martin H. Greenberg (eds) - Stalkers (Penguin/Roc, 1992: originally Dark Harvest, 1989)

Ed Gorman - Introduction

Dean R. Koontz - Trapped
John Coyne - Flight
F. Paul Wilson - A Day in the Life
Robert R. McCammon - Lizardman
Joe R. Lansdale & Dan Lowry - Pilots
Ed Gorman - Stalker
Rick Hautala - Getting the Job Done
Al Sarrantonio - Children of Cain
Max Allan Collins - A Matter of Principal
Rex Miller - Miss December
John Maclay - A Matter of Firing
Charles de Lint - The Sacred Fire
Edward D. Hoch - The Stalker of Souls
Barry N. Malzberg - Darwinian Facts
Richard Laymon - The Hunt
James Kisner - Mother Tucker
J. N. Williamson - Jezebel
Michael Seidman - What Chelsea Said
Trish Janeshutz - Rivereños


Blurb:
Darkness falls quickly when you're being stalked ... but it is always dark when you are a stalker. In this compelling, all-original anthology, the masters of suspense take you into the darkest depths of terror as they explore both sides of the human hunt. These 19 chilling tales of horror and suspense will leave pulses pounding long after the last page has been turned.

First read this as a library loan sometime last century, so rematch long overdue. Incredibly, the James Kisner and Max Allen Collins stories have stuck in my mind, though the rest - bar Laymon's - are a blur.

Richard Laymon - The Hunt: Red gym shorts girl visits the all-nite launderette. Uh-oh, who's the creep hanging around outside? Think this was the story awakened me to the strong possibility that the author had a big fetish thing going on.

James Kisner - Mother Tucker: Great title, if not quite up there with Fag Truckers In Denial, and her taunting jingle over the CB is pretty catchy, too.

"My name is Mother Tucker, I'm a mean motherf**k*r, and I hate truckers"

Six months after sustaining a broken leg in the "accident," Randy Taggart, 38, is back behind the wheel. In his absence, several of his buddies have been murdered and dismembered by a vengeful widow with a down on truckers. Given the circumstances, it wouldn't be too smart if Randy were to pick up a scrawny hooker at the truck stop, so lets hope he does.

John Maclay - A Matter of Firing : As vice-president of a Manhattan banking concern, occasionally Bill Amis is called upon to dismiss a member of staff. Sometimes he feels genuinely a little bit bad about this, especially if the soon to be ex-employee is undeserving of the push. Like that bright kid who took it badly. Hit the bottle, apparently. "A mere ghost of his former self ....." Bill has the uneasy feeling he is being stalked - by an armed shadow.

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This next pair have a Men Of Violence vibe about 'em.

Ed Gorman - Stalker: "You start hunting people - even when you've got a personal stake in it - and it changes you." The wise words of Slocum, professional bounty hunter and Hank Williams fan, to latest client as they stalk the elusive William K. Dexter, the man who raped and killed Robert's daughter eleven years ago. Robert doesn't heed the warning. He's a decent minded, right-on liberal, and all he wants is for the monster to be punished in a court of law. At last they locate the pathetic Dexter to his squalid rooms. Slocum is for torturing the bastard to death on the spot, but Robert hasn't endured all this to become an animal. Or so he thinks .... Another winner.

Max Allan Collins - A Matter of Principal: This one stuck in my head due to it's gloriously obnoxious protagonist - a Vietnam vet turned assassin whose name probably isn't Ryan. Anyhow, Ryan (or whoever) overhears a Mobster asking for Kotex in a convenience store. Harry and his partner, Louis, are homosexual, so what would they be doing picking up sanitary towels unless they'd kidnapped an heiress? Ever the opportunist, Ryan sets out to rescue the poor little rich girl from the queens of crime. Politically incorrect hi-jinks and banter ensue.

Very pleased to be re-united with this book!

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Dean R. Koontz - Trapped: A snow blizzard hits rural Connecticut. Eight hyper-intelligent, genetically modified rats with enormous heads tunnel their way out of the laboratory at Biolomech and head for the nearest shelter. Cascade farm is home to Meg Lassiter, attractive widow, ten-year-old Bobby of the broken leg, and Doofus the doggie, and they're in for an explosive evening. The brainy rodents are skilled saboteurs - redistributing the Warfarin pellets to a packet of All-Bran is just for starters - and way too cunning for the puny humans they despise. Will Bill Parnell's extermination squad reach the farm before its too late? It's a Dean R. Koontz story, so I think we know the answer to that one! As with Shattered, I liked everything about this novella except the ending.

J. N. Williamson - Jezebel: Alexis McCammon has been sleeping with a married man, and the Hell-fire phone pest doesn't approve. "I'm afeered you're Billy's now," he gloats, and she is, too. But "Billy" looks all of ten years old, and his accomplices no older. What harm can they do two adults?

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Rick Hautala - Getting the Job Done: When Annie narrowly escapes becoming the sixth victim of the killer rapist dubbed "the Alley Cat," Captain Richards pulls her boyfriend, Detective Phil Sausouci, from the case. "Too emotionally involved" is the official excuse, but could Richards have an ulterior motive? Phil can't let the matter be, and sets to stalking the stalker with devastating consequences for all. What would have been a competent if routine story steps up a notch when Sausouci disarms the beast of his demoniacally possessed knife.

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John Coyne - Flight: A surreal circular nightmare. On the day he's made redundant from the Solar Energy research centre, Nelson learns that his wife is pregnant with their first child. His subsequent period of unemployment and heavy drinking sends their fragile marriage into meltdown. Mrs. N. files for divorce and is granted sole custody of tiny Timmy.

Nelson can't come to terms with the unfairness of it all. There's only one thing for it: he'll abduct his son and start over!

Making off in the car with Timmy is the easy bit. Driving from Maryland to the Blue Ridge Mountains in a snow blizzard presents a formidable challenge. Exhausted and woefully inexperienced in childcare, Nelson loses control of the car and upends it. A lonesome old-timer helps them back to his cabin, but, by his own admission, he "ain't been right in the head" since WWII when his wife left him, taking his son with her, and his rampant paranoia is contagious. It's not like Nelson was a model of mental stability to begin with, so when the Good Samaritan informs him that he's had electrodes planted up his nose by the Government, and little Timmy is one of their spies ("He ain't human, that little one"), what is he to do but follow the old man's instructions and prick baby's thumb to see if he bleeds? Which is when the novella takes a turn for the really strange.

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Robert R. McCammon - Lizardman: A hunter who makes his living trading alligator skins, stalks the biggest, most dangerous man-eater in the swamp. The Seminole injuns believe that 'Old Pope' ain't no ordinary 'gator but a creature from beyond the stars. Turns out they are not wrong.

Joe R. Lansdale & Dan Lowry - Pilots: Four young airmen with brilliant futures before them are horribly mutilated when a drunken trucker ploughs into their car on the highway. The invalids rig up an old black Thunderbird as a war machine and take to attacking freight liners. Tramp, a mentally scarred Viet vet , witnesses their latest massacre, finds himself in a dicey Duel situation.

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Al Sarrantonio - Children of Cain: A serial killer has to start somewhere, and, under the expert tutorship of a weird and sadistic school-chum, Rudy is coming along just fine. Reptiles, pets, people - it is all the same to Hank and Rudy, who between them tot up a better than respectable tally of confirmed kills in the space of a few months. A powerful story but if animal cruelty turns your stomach then best give it a swerve. The graphic accounts of these guys antics are, of necessity, unpleasant.

J. N. Williamson - Jezebel: "I seee you ... I'll know everything you do. I'm judging you, Alex - from now on". Alexis Cameron has been carrying on with Judd, a married father of two. The heavy breather on the other end of the line knows all about it, and threatens punishment in God's name. He's not fooling.