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Post by dem bones on Aug 5, 2020 16:42:50 GMT
Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett [eds.] - Crimes of Passion: Hot Blood #9 (Pinnacle/ Kensington, 2005; originally Pocket, Oct. 1997) Jeff Gelb & Michael Garrett - Introduction
Ramsey Campbell - The Limits of Fantasy (Gauntlet #3, 1992)
John Edward Ames - Threshold
Greg Kihn - The Great White Light
Lawrence Block - Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes (Gallery, 1978)
Mike W. Barr - A Real Woman
Brian Hodge - Madame Babylon
Stephen Solomita - Sexual Predator
Melanie Tem - Loving Delia
Brian Lumley - Necros (Amy Myers [ed.] The Second Book of After Midnight Stories, 1986)
Jeff Gelb - Tricks or Treat
Tom Piccirilli - Curs
Robert J. Randisi & Marthayn Pelegrimas - Quick
Michael Garrett - The Trouble with Hitchhikers
Joyce Carol Oates - Starr Bright Will Be with You Soon!
The Contributors Blurb: Some crimes go beyond the laws of nature ....
There is a line most people do not dare cross; an unseen border between reason and passion, logic and lust. But for some, the boundary is merely a doorway into a realm of unbridled ecstasies and uncontrollable urges, where you can get away with anything - if you're willing to pay the price ....
Be consumed by wicked fascination as a young woman exploring the human soul learns the horrifying lesson that some answers are not meant to be revealed. Witness an unfaithful husband who discovers the ultimate object of desire - and plays the ultimate game of seduction. Follow a beautiful predator as she captures her unwitting prey, only to play with it before the bitter end. And be mesmerized as a temptress with a sadistic streak goes to extremes to make sure all eyes are on her.
Turn the pages, and enter an underworld of provocative delights and painful demises, But remember, no matter how clean the getaway, crime doesn't pay - you do.A fresh cover design, and the editors opted to drop the "series" from the title but otherwise, pretty much business as usual: bloody hippies, a raunchy car-jacker, a Mediterranean vampire, spank fetishist in denial, black sorcery, etc. Ramsey Campbell - The Limits of Fantasy: (Barry Hoffman [ed.], Gauntlet #3, 1992). "He almost started after her, She'd reacted as if he was one of those men who needed those magazines, but he was one of the people who created them. He'd only stopped at the window to see how his work shaped up, and there it was, between a book about Nazi war crimes and an Enid Stone romance."Press photographer Sid Pym supplements his income by moonlighting as a lens-man on Pretty Hot spanking magazine. Sid is way less distanced from his subject matter than he allows himself to believe, and his flagellation fantasies ultimately get the better of him. Black magic, voyeurism and BDSM make for a powerful mix. A creepy opener. Greg Kihn - The Great White Light: "Ride the beast, see the light, and know God." Jake and Weasel, sexually naive 19-year old wannabe hippies, arrive on Haight-Ashbury from Baltimore during the summer of 1967, having wangled a job painting the Avalon Ballroom. The boys fall in with Sebastian, a renegade chemist famed for manufacturing the Mist, the most mind-blowing LSD on the West Coast. Weasel, under the spell of Sebastian's sexy sidekick, Cassandra, is prevailed upon to sample the drug via his eyeballs. The experience reduces him to a vegetable for the remainder of his life. Jake fares little better, exposure to the great white light driving him to re-enact the gory climax of The Man with X-Ray Eyes. Free love and acid on tap are all very well until you realise, too late, you're way out of your depth. The orgy on Filbert Street culminates in a police raid. Sebastian and Cass escape to the Spann Ranch to hook up with a strange guy named Charlie and his drop out "Family." Brian Lumley - Necros: (Amy Myers [ed.] The Second Book of After Midnight Stories, 1986) "You grow old, Spook grows young ... what he wants is your youth. Except he uses it up very quick and needs more. All the time."Peter Collins, holidaying in Italy, is captivated by the beauty of Adrienne, youthful Armenian wife of an ancient-looking gent by the name of Nichos Karpethes. Collins can't believe his luck when Adrienne slips him the key to her room and informs him when she'll be alone. The prospect of becoming her lover doesn't hold quite the same appeal when he realises what is to become of him ... Michael Garrett - The Trouble with Hitchhikers: Max Jennings, middle-aged pharmaceutical salesman, is on a down. He's been happily married to Margaret for 25 years plus, but can't help mourning their once perky sex life. His career is likewise in decline as he finds it impossible to relate to a new breed of client. "It was difficult to complete in a world orientated toward the younger generation." And then, driving along the highway, he spots her. A blonde fantasy hitcher in tight t-shirt and tiny cut-offs. Dare he stop and offer her a ride? High on suspense, but I'm not sure it's a "horror" story.
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Post by andydecker on Aug 6, 2020 13:12:24 GMT
Interesting line-up, much more wider range of writers.
But the cover is horrible. Not that the Pocket one was brillant, but this just screams: we don't want art, we want it cheap. Looks like the "work" of Shutterstock.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 6, 2020 16:28:43 GMT
Interesting line-up, much more wider range of writers. But the cover is horrible. Not that the Pocket one was brillant, but this just screams: we don't want art, we want it cheap. Looks like the "work" of Shutterstock.
Seems more crime-oriented than before (I guess the clue is in the title). We're in total agreement over the cover. If anything was designed to have me pining for the sometimes bang average Gerber studio designs of previous volumes, this dreary stock photo is it. Lawrence Block - Hot Eyes, Cold Eyes: ( Gallery, 1978: Stephen Jones [ed.], Psycho Mania!, 2013). All through the day she feels them ogling her, thinking their disgusting thoughts. Nights she turns the tables. Moral. Guys should keep their eyes to themselves. Robert J. Randisi & Marthayn Pelegrimas - Quick: Showering in the blood of the homeless as you ball is, apparently, a huge turn on. Wasn't too disappointed when this one lived up to its title. Mike W. Barr - A Real Woman: When the sexiest woman he's ever set eyes upon volunteers to having never been with a man, our amorous narrator resolves to steal her from her lesbian lovers for at least one night. One of the girls tries to warn him - "You ought to stay away from her, take it from me " - but she just wants Marissa all to herself! The Circe legend given a gender-bending twist. Stephen Solomita - Sexual Predator: Good ol' creep Eddie thinks he has it made when a sassy good looker hits on him in a Nebraska bar. They go back to his place where she insists on tying him to the bedposts with silk scarves. 'Carmen' preys upon pathetic "real men," exploits any weakness. Eddie's big mouth lands him in bigger trouble. For this reader, Lawrence Block's is probably 'best,' Ramsey Campbell's is kinkiest, and Michael Garrett's hitchhiker outing is a neat ride let down a little by pat ending. |
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Post by dem bones on Aug 7, 2020 17:24:47 GMT
John Edward Ames - Threshold: Brilliant scientist Dr. Shareen Carroll explores the boundaries of "space, time and the nature of consciousness" through auto-eroticism with disastrous personal consequence.
Jeff Gelb - Tricks or Treat : Homicide detectives Dan 'Smokey' Chesterfield and partner, Jake, hunting the mystery girlfriend of the late Jerry Kramer, celebrity comedian. Kramer was brutally murdered in his own apartment, one Emmy statuette impaling his brain, a second rammed up his arse. Culprit evidently a tough audience.
Acting on a lead in Kramer's diary, the dicks infiltrate a masked Halloween party at a nudist colony. All they have to go on is that their suspect wears a piercing in a most intimate place.
Brian Hodge - Madame Babylon: "Life is a lot richer when you get past the rational." University Professor Kraaft is a voyeur who gets off watching wife Shawn having sex with a procession of other men. Shawn, concerned that she has developed an insatiable appetite the game, walks out on him without a word. Kraaft places ads in the Chicago press seeking information as to her whereabouts, eventually locating her to a bed in a cavern deep below La Salle Street Station. Lovers of both sexes eagerly await their turn. Shawn's continuous fucking feeds the city above, enabling it to function. Or something.
Melanie Tem - Loving Delia: He has lived inside Delia since childhood, pleasuring her while longing for freedom. Now a cancerous tumour threatens their existence. You're right. I haven't a clue.
With two stories to go, seems to me that this volume is not so generous on cheap thrills as previous selections. Could be the editors made a conscious effort at something geared toward readers who regard themselves highly intelligent individuals of rare taste, etc. In other words, 'Horror' for people who wouldn't dream of reading anything so base as horror.
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Post by dem bones on Aug 8, 2020 18:37:31 GMT
Tom Piccirilli - Curs: A blizzard hits the North Woods. Collins is snowed inside his cabin with Lynn, his vile ex-wife, Zack, her latest muscle-bound, lunk-headed surrogate vibrator and, Amanda, his sympathetic once-sister-in-law. And three dogs who intensely dislike one another. As rations exhaust and old hatreds simmer, Lynn's wilfully antagonistic bedroom antics bring matters to a head.
Joyce Carol Oates - Starr Bright Will Be with You Soon!: Every quarter, Deputy Sheriff Erneste Fenke, books into a Vegas hotel under an assumed name, 'Earl Turney,' treats himself to a well-deserved three-day weekend of gambling and rough sex. Lynette, downtrodden wife of eighteen years, has learned to accept that it's just his way of letting off steam.
A day on from the 'ritual execution' of a 47 year old Californian man in a Sparks, Nevada hotel room - the killer daubed "DIE PIG FILTH" and "DIE SATAN" on the wall in the victim's blood - off-duty cabaret dance and Old Testament casualty Starr Bright dons a red wig, books into a cheap motel as 'Sherrill Dwyer.'
Earl approaches Sherrill at a roulette table in the Casino Americano ...
Fair to say I've found the Hot Bloods addictive, even if this particular volume didn't work for me quite as consistently as previous selections. Law of diminishing returns or over-reliance on serial killer thrillers? That said, Crimes of Passion kept me interested for the most part, particularly the stories by Ramsey Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates and Lawrence Block.
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Post by Jojo Lapin X on Aug 8, 2020 18:47:07 GMT
That said, Crimes of Passion kept me interested for the most part, particularly the stories by Ramsey Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates and Lawrence Block. The usual suspects! I can now reveal that they are subliminally highlighted on the cover. |
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Post by dem bones on Aug 9, 2020 10:05:11 GMT
That said, Crimes of Passion kept me interested for the most part, particularly the stories by Ramsey Campbell, Joyce Carol Oates and Lawrence Block. The usual suspects! I can now reveal that they are subliminally highlighted on the cover. #mind control #Stanford Prison Experiment #who are the cabbage patch dolls #knights templar #it's the Illuminati #etc. |
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