Available from Greenwich Exchange, Amazon, bookshops etc. A major collection of 24 elegantly sinister tales of the paranormal by Roger F. Dunkley, the author who's made readers of TWILIGHT ZONE, PAN and FONTANA Horror and Ghost and many other haunting anthologies shiver and chuckle over the years. (Editors include Herbert Van Thal, Richard Dalby, Mary Danby, R Chetwynd-Hayes, James Hale.) In tales light of touch but dark of purpose, Dunkley entertainingly explores mysteries and nightmares of the unseen universe - reincarnation and survival, stone circles and alien visitation, witchcraft and exorcism, time-slips, ghost machines and Armageddon. Many stories here emerge blinking from the blackness of the crypt for the first time, but all are chillingly tainted with the writer's trademark mix of stylish black humour and inventive and sinister storytelling. See www.rogerfdunkley.com and Amazon reviews for more info. A definite must-buy for me, it sounds stupendous!
It arrived the other day and I finally got started a few days ago. Basically enjoyable, although many of the early stories now feel dated.
Index:
A Problem Called Albert
(Pan #15 ed. H. Van Thal)
Miss Brood's Speciality
(Fontana Horror 9, ed. Mary Danby)
The Immortal Longings of Geoffrey Wortle
Geoffrey irritates his wife Henrietta with talk of reincarnation. Too bad she only starts paying attention when it's too late....
The Man Who Sold Ghosts
(Fontana Ghost #11)
Myth Understood
subtitled "Into how many stories can I insert couples with the surname Wortle before people catch on?" This is the third one so far, they or their kin are in "A Problem Called Albert" and "The Immortal Longings...." obviously.
Anyhow, the story itself. Doctor Eugens runs the World Centre of Extaterrestrial Communications. After many dreary years, a message may be coming through. But what do Alice and Henry Wortle, followers of an American religious group called "The Sect". Professor Chalford and his nubile assistant Miss Seameirs are "deep in the hinterlands of Mesopotamia" digging up the Garden of Eden site (funded by The Sect) where they find mysterious walls in the shape of the Greek letter Alpha, moulded out of diamond.
Despite the end being nigh, this scores a zeon on the scare-o-metre.
The Method and Madness of George Strode
(Frighteners 2, ed. Mary Danby)
Virgin Territory
(Pan 16)
A Question of Taste
Another tale of marital discord. Dennis Snipe is quite happy for his wife to go on holiday with her mother and leave him (and his girlfriend, the widow Peabody) to their own devices. A letter arrives saying his wife has been kidnapped and demanding 50,000 pounds for her safe return. Not happy at having his freedom jeopordized, Dennis hesitates....
Twisted Shadow
(Fontana Ghosts #12)
Neurotic Isobel Hurse finds gardening therapeutic. Until she starts digging up small human bone fragments where her rockery is to be placed. Her husband Bernard, newly made assistant director of a nuclear power station, becomes concerned when her nightmares of mass panic return.
The Ghost Machine
(Fontana Ghosts #13,ed. R. Chetwynd-Hayes)
Zazine Forsyth's Resurrection Affair
(The Twilight Book, ed. James Hale)
Second Coming
Rev. Clearwater and his family have been experiencing paranormal phenomena. He blames his young daughter Mary's "wilful disobediance and adolescent hysteria". Add Miss Friend, a medium, and her goat, as well as Xar and Zartek on a reconnaissance mission, and you've got a party. Standing stones play a minor but important part as well.
Typing Error
The unnamed narrator has a typewriter that generates ominous messages. Is it a practical joke? Is the typewriter haunted? Or is he going crazy? A short but effective story.
Hot-Pot For Hubert
Abbie Darkthorn is cooking up a nice hot-pot for hubbie Hubert, of the "eye of newt and toe of frog" variety. Well, eye of toad and liver of rat, to start with. It's an old medieval recipe, to bring relief from a 'booring husbande" who has his wife's daily chores organized to a t. The end result is not only unexpected but for me, somewhat disappointing.
Eye To Eye
(Fontana Ghost #18, ed. R. Chetwynd-Hayes)
Cross-Talk
(Frighteners 2 (again) ed. Mary Danby)
The Man Called James
(Pan #17)
Landscape
Interstellar travel connected to the Garden of Eden. That's all I got.
Remote Control
Gerald Bland tried to use psychic remote control to cause the death of his wife's lover. His glaring lack of common sense near the end telegraphs at least part of the ending.
The Reluctant Murderer
(Mystery for Christmas ed. Richard Dalby)
The Great Antonio and Midge are brothers and a magic act. Midge forsees death for his younger bro, and does what he thinks he must to forestall it.
Ashes To Dust
The best story of the book for me. Mark Somerton has nightmares of smothering darkness every year beginning in June & culminating in blackouts in August, causing successive girlfriends to take flight. His analyst suggests he "excavate his traumas", then tries hypnotic age regression, which leaves them (more) puzzled. For the sake of his mental health, he goes on holiday to Naples and it's surroundings where events "take a dramatic turn".
Future Tense
Joanna, Mark and James, all university students with final exams upcoming, laughingly try "future regression" at a party, not believing it in the least. Mark goes under and reveals a possible helpful clue. Well, it is, and it isn't....
Surprise! Surprise!
(Fontana Horror #11 ed. Mary Danby)
Mea Tulpa
(Strange Tales II ed. Rosalie Parker)
I was hoping for a lot more from this. It seems to be the author talking to his readers, interspersed with what look like quotes from Gothic literature. He fears he's created a tulpa who's begun using his typewriter to print a series of letters. Underwhelming, I have to say.
Read more:
vaultofevil.proboards.com/thread/6883/sold-ghosts-light-tales-dark?page=1&scrollTo=59542#ixzz60lM00xCM
