Short Stories – Volume Two In his second serving of short stories, Neal James dishes up tales of crime, horror and science fiction as well as a fair bit of humour. Of the twenty-six tales, I can truly say there is something for everyone. As always in any collection of stories, the author takes the…
Category: Short Stories
‘Dark Visions’ Edited by Dan Alatorre
Dark Visions Compiled and edited by Dan Alatorre, this is another gathering of spooky stories that will appeal to horror fans, with tales from 27 different authors, including Alatorre himself. What I like about collections of horror stories is that there’s usually something for everyone – whether you enjoy being scared witless or prefer to…
‘Radar Road: the Best of On Impulse’ by Nath Jones
Radar Road: the Best of On Impulse In the On Impulse series readers are invited to contemplate how we use language. In this collection by Nath Jones, Morgan Kiger has selected thoughtful and witty stories that have a sense of the familiar and the unusual. With any collection of short stories, it’s rare for readers…
‘ ‘Salem’s Lot’ by Stephen King
’Salem’s Lot When writer Ben Mears returns to the town of ‘Salem’s Lot, he hopes to rid himself of a bad experience from his childhood by writing a book about the old Marsten house. But these days things aren’t quite what they seem in the Lot, and Mears learns that the old house has been…
‘Meat Bubbles and other stories’ by Tom Leins
Meat Bubbles and other stories Private investigator Joe Rey gets down and dirty in the not-so-picturesque seaside-town of Paignton. Tracking down a disturbed plastic surgeon, he encounters a variety of low-life scumbags, prostitutes, hitmen and bent coppers. If he’s lucky, he might wake up with all his body parts intact, but when almost everyone seems…
‘The Magic Vodka Wardrobe’ by Sheila Patel
The Magic Vodka Wardrobe Sisters Shaz and Trace work in the family corner shop by day but spend their nights glugging vodka and disco-dancing with Aunt Sheila in a magical wardrobe. With characters including Tattoo Tony and Dammit Janet, this is a surreal story that could rival any TV soap-opera, apart from the lack of…
‘Four American Tales’ by Jack Messenger
Four American Tales Jack Messenger’s first collection of stories throws up an eclectic mix of characters and situations, binding the tales together with themes of love and loss, struggle and ambition. The possibilities of starting again feature in the first two stories: ‘Wichega’ finds a classic automobile prodding a child into imagining what might be…
‘The Order of Actaeon’ by Tam May
The Order of Actaeon Heir to the fortune and name of the Alderdice family, Jake struggles with a passion for art that is despised by his mother. Along with sister Vivian, the young man is taken to the fashionable resort of Waxwood, where beady-eyed matriarch Larissa hopes to instil in him some of the values…
‘The Third Man’ and ‘The Fallen Idol’ by Graham Greene
The Third Man and The Fallen Idol In post-war Vienna, Graham Greene’s struggling novelist Rollo Martins, arrives to visit old friend Harry Lime. But something has happened to Harry, and Martins is soon drawn into a web of intrigue and drug-dealing as he tries to uncover the truth. The Fallen Idol is the tale of…
‘The Rats’ by James Herbert
The Rats A race of unusually large black rats creep out from their lair looking for food. But when the creatures get a taste for human flesh, the corpses quickly pile up. Discovering the rats also carry a fatal virus, it becomes apparent to the authorities that a new and very dangerous challenge faces humanity.…
