Joe R. Lansdale is a treasure. His writing in and out of the horror field is a delight to read. He is quite a chameleon, not only in his ability to shift from genre to genre, but in terms of style and literary voice. His abundant talent is on full display in In the Mad Mountains: Stories Inspired by H.P. Lovecraft, published by Tachyon. The handsome trade paperback features eye-catching cover art by Mike Mignola and cover design by Elizabeth Story, along with interior design by John Coulthart that has a nice geometric Lovecraftian feel. All eight stories in the collection were previously published, the oldest in 2009 and the…

I’ll Be Waiting (St. Martin’s Press) by Kelley Armstrong is problematic. Like many other novels I’ve recently read, it rivets in its first half. Then comes the inevitable letdown. Labored twists and turns of plot. Characters whose actions become contrived. A protagonist, who veers from appearing shrewdly analytical and self-aware, to being a possibly unreliable first-person narrator whose evolving paranoia may have merit. Sigh. To accentuate the positives, the protagonist has a warped sense of humor that most horror readers will find accessible. Nicola Laughton is a 38-year-old survivor. She’s lived beyond the predicted lifespan of someone who was diagnosed at a young age with cystic fibrosis. She had adapted to…

The supernatural is a mainstay of horror fiction. Yet in the reality of the darkest recesses of our hearts, we know that lots of fears stem from the potential of human perpetrated horrors. Be it the concern of our chances of being gunned down by an anonymous shooter at a public venue or awareness of horrific genocides, fear of dangerous human beings quietly lurks in our subconscious. Editor Ellen Datlow explores this in the aptly named Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror. The anthology contains 21 previously published stories that focus on deadly aberrations of character. Serial killers are well represented, and revenge is a thematic staple in some of the yarns. The…

Craft: Stories I Wrote for the Devil is a crafty collection. It is a tapestry of tales that have subliminal links to each other while gleefully playing with meta and the metaphysical. Even before opening the unconventionally structured book, there’s a thematic hint of what’s inside. The brilliant jacket design by Jamie Stafford-Hill informs the reader that author Ananda Lima’s stories which await within are part of a larger whole. Lima incorporates her Brazilian background and time spent in New York City into the into the narratives, often fusing the experiences with phantasmagoria. Any attempt to categorize this holistic amalgamation of yarns is futile. With adroit precision, the volume presents a…

“French Provincial” and “Southern Gothic” are well known geographically inspired terms. “Toxic Tuscan” will no doubt be added to the list by those who read Diavola. Jennifer Thorne’s gripping horror novel is predominantly set in Tuscany but the toxicity in the relationships between the protagonist, her parents and two siblings has no borders. Central character Anna Pace is in her mid-thirties. An underachiever who suppresses her obvious talent as an artist, Anna opts instead for the steady but uninspiring security of creating visuals for a New York city ad agency. She is acerbically observant regarding ambience and demeanor, and therefore has no illusions about the prospect of sharing a rental…

There comes a time in a reviewer’s life to rectify some wrongs. Gaps in one’s readings and viewings abound and should be addressed. One of my gaps concerns the writings of Gene Wolfe (1921-2019.) I was aware of the author’s respect within the community. Renowned speculative fiction author Ursula K. Le Guin famously pronounced, “Wolfe is our Melville.” He has also been compared to other icons of literature and the arts. Therefore, when the opportunity arose to score the recent Tor publication The Wolfe at the Door I jumped at the chance. The bulk of the stories can be classified as fantasy and/or speculative fiction; Wolfe was best known for…

Knock Knock, Open Wide by Neil Sharpson is set in Ireland. A beguiling backdrop, to be sure. ‘Tis a place filled with folklore galore and accents that melt the heart. Though author Sharpson reminds the reader that the brogue may not always be appealing: “The voice had a Dublin accent as thick as tar, deep as a well filled with old plastic bags and empty cans. It sounded like cigarette smoke and varnish and stout the color of old rivers. Phlegm and gravel.” With a narrative that features an abundance of such evocative descriptions, I thought at the outset that this novel would rank as one of the best I’ve recently…

Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein begs the question: Is it a horror or a science fiction novel? The second question is why it should be an either/or? Genre hybrids are a part of the history of horror fiction, and it’s grand when a melding does justice to the genres that are embraced. In the novel Red Rabbit, author Alex Grecian seamlessly stiches together a fable that incorporates supernatural horror with established elements of the Western genre. Demons coexist with dust devils in this hugely engaging narrative. Set in Kansas in the years following the Civil War, the story begins with a burial. There is speculation that the young woman who died was cursed by Sadie Grace,…

The allure of reading a first novel is irresistible. There’s the possibility of discovering a blazing new talent. Scott Leeds, the author of Schrader’s Chord, displays a facility for understanding complex family dynamics. Indeed, Leeds’s narrative seizes on a “sins of the fathers” motif. The suicide of a father reunites his progeny, which consists of two daughters and an estranged son. Dad owned a lionized record store that he bequeathed to the son. Supernatural horror comes home to roost as part of the inheritance. The father had pursued an urban legend concerning a set of recordings that purportedly open a gateway between the living and the dead. He unearthed the four…

In my review of Little Eve, I dubbed author Catriona Ward “The Mistress of Marvelous Misdirection” based on the one-two punch of that novel and The Last House on Needless Street. Both feature unreliable narrators and the device is again applied in Looking Glass Sound, a Nightfire publication. Looking Glass Sound further tweaks conventional notions of perception and reality and reaffirms Ward’s talent for keeping the reader intrigued and off base. However, the extremely far-fetched (albeit possibly allegorical) plot and an assemblage of largely unsympathetic characters weaken the narrative. Creating effective ambiguity is akin to walking a tightrope. And even the most accomplished writers can lose their balance. The plot begins with a portion of…