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Post by andydecker on May 30, 2020 12:11:00 GMT
Dennis Etchison - The Death Artist (Leisure Books, 2002, 282 P., original Dream Haven, 2000) Collected here for the first time in paperback are the twelve of Etchson's finest stories, tales of horror and suspense guaranteed to quicken the heart and chill the blood. The places he describes may seen normal at first, but in his hands they are transformed quickly into dark nightmare realms - cities of the cursed and the damned. Allow Dennis Etchison to show you what lurks behind the veil of familiarity - but prepare yourself for what you will find.Content: A Wind from the South (1994) Call Home (1991) Deadtime Story 1986) Inside the Cackle Factory (1998) No One You Know (1997) On Call (1980) The Dead Cop (1996) The Detailer (2000) The Dog Park (1993) The Last Reel 1997) The Scar (1987) When They Gave Us Memory (1991) At least all stories appeared elsewhere first, mostly in anthologies like Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Leisure published a lot of second rate books, but also tried to do more (supposedly) refined stuff. I read a few of Etchison's stories which left me scratching my head. Every time I can't follow a narrative, I ask myself first if it is me or if the writer couldn't do better, has written himself into a corner or if his ideas just doesn't work. Etchison has a high mark of those WTF moments at the end of his tales. Etchison has been praised for his California Gothics, especially by his peers, but often I had the impression that writers like Ross McDonald - who isn't even a horror writer - or other of the Golden Age of the P.I. genre did a much better job with this.
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