[Bob’s Note: The Bell Witch by John F.D. Taff will be released by Books of the Dead Press in July 2013.] John F.D. Taff takes us to Adams, Tennessee circa 1820 to tell the all-American ghost story of The Bell Witch. Taff extracts elements of real Southern folklore to build the structure of his story,… Continue reading The Bell Witch by John F.D. Taff
Jason Ridler takes a bite out of the vampire genre with his action-packed, fast-paced novel, Blood and Sawdust. B&S reads like a backroom MMA bout with vampires, or Fight Club with a supernatural twist. B&S has its origins in movies like Bloodsport and Street Fighter as much as it does the novels of Raymond Chandler… Continue reading Blood & Sawdust by Jason Ridler
Sifting through old computer files, I found this November 1996 review of Stephen King’s Desperation and Richard Bachman’s The Regulators. Enjoy! — R Stephen King’s Desperation, and The Regulators — penned by King’s alter ego, Richard Bachman — feature the same cast of characters in polar opposite roles. In Desperation, the Carver family of Wentworth, Ohio… Continue reading Desperation by Stephen King and The Regulators by Richard Bachman
Veteran editor Paula Guran has put together a comprehensive “year’s best” collection that includes some true gems. All eyes will be drawn to Stephen King’s entry, “The Dune,” and Big Steve delivers a satisfying—if quaint—E.C comics-style chiller. But King’s story is far from the best in this collection. My vote would be for Stephen Graham… Continue reading The Best Dark Fantasy and Horror 2012, edited by Paula Guran
One of the drawbacks of the ebook revolution is the lack of used bookstores. What was better than searching the shelves for second-hand bargain reads? You could walk out with a big bag of books for twenty bucks. Awesome! Fortunately, Brian James Freeman has made the hunt for ebook bargains a breeze. Check out these… Continue reading Horror! Mystery! Cheap! Free!
While Garton and Lansdale bring lighthearted EC-style chills to their Halloween tales, Stewart O’Nan takes it to a deeper and darker place in his coming-of-age tale, Monsters. O’Nan gives us some meat to chew on in this short tale—the lost of innocence, the power of guilt, the purpose and function of religion and prayer, and… Continue reading Monsters: A Halloween Short Story by Stewart O’Nan
‘Tis the season for Halloween tales, and Cemetery Dance Publications has got you covered with its 13 Days of Halloween: Halloween singles collection. CD will release a different $.99 short story each day until Halloween. Joe Lansdale’s A Little Halloween Talk is a short tale told in the first person, present tense. Lansdale’s prose goes down as… Continue reading A Little Halloween Talk by Joe Lansdale
Brian Keene fans have seen these characters and situations before—a blue-collar family struggling to survive in the face of a monstrous supernatural presence. Those elements, combined with Keene’s patented action-packed pacing, and B horror movie thrills, blend pleasantly in Scratch. This is a brief but engaging novella, similar in style and theme to Keene’s The Conqueror… Continue reading Scratch by Brian Keene
I love Edward Lee’s work. His extreme horror fiction is a little “wet” for some readers, but when Lee gets too “dry” and academic that’s when the trouble starts. Unfortunately the first tale in The Quest for Sex, Truth & Reality, “The Goddess of the New Dark Age ,” falls into Lee’s bone dry category.… Continue reading The Quest For Sex, Truth & Reality by Edward Lee
Brian Keene’s novella Alone reads like a long lost Twilight Zone episode. You can almost hear Rod Serling’s narration; “Submitted for your approval, Mr. Dan Miller, who wakes up one day and finds that everyone he knows and loves–in fact, everyone on earth–has disappeared…” Keene gets this strange tale up and running quickly, and continues… Continue reading Alone by Briane Keene
