by Christopher Golden

Haverhill Press, out now

A collection of often unsettling short stories…

There are times where I feel like I was an “early adopter” of Christopher Golden’s work, finding him through his Buffy novels and eagerly snapping up his original books – if you’ve not read them, then find the Peter Octavian series, as well as his many standalone novels. His recent books have linked through the character of Ben Walker, but this collection takes him back to his roots.

Some of the stories in here you may have read in other collections – the opener, The Abduction Door, was in Mark Morris’ New Fears, and as soon as I started rereading it, the feeling of dread that I got from my first encounter with it returned. That feeling is one that lurks in the background of all these stories, no matter whether they’re set in the “real” world (or as real as such tales can get) or in  a future where night-time brings death – and it’s there because Golden has the knack of making you care about the characters and the situations they’re in with just a few words.

In his story notes – which are well worth reading as you go along – Golden says he thinks editors who include stories in their own collections are being self-indulgent, but the tales that fit the bill here merited their place. In the same way, reviews that give away the pacing of an anthology, or warn you that “you need to watch for the twist in the tale at the end of xxx” spoil the experience for the reader.

All you need to know is that Golden is going to scare you, he’s going to make you think… and put the lights back on.

Verdict: A powerful horror collection from one of the best writers in the field. 9/10

Paul Simpson