Oh, dear listener, we are so buried under review copies and books of interest that we resort to the tactics of madness. Rather than wait, we’re going to highlight four new publications before we’ve even finished reading them. Ugly Little Things, by Todd Keisling; the Sherlock Holmes special from Mystery Weekly; the Weirdbook Annual, and The Dollkeeper by Rob Martin.
We picked these four for the variety they offer, and have started all of them, with high hopes. Here’s the information you might want to ponder if you’re looking for something to read, and there are Amazon UK and US links at the end of each section. No lurcher room today, sadly…
1) FOR THE DARK AND HORROR FANS
Ugly Little Things: Collected Horrors
By Todd Keisling
A new one on us, but the reviews so far have been good – a collection of dark tales.
“The eleven stories in Ugly Little Things explore the depths of human suffering and ugliness, charting a course to the dark, horrific heart of the human condition. The terrors of everyday existence are laid bare in this eerie collection of short fiction from the twisted mind of Todd Keisling, author of the critically-acclaimed novels A Life Transparent and The Liminal Man.
“Travel between the highways of America in ‘The Otherland Express,’ where a tribe of the forsaken and forlorn meet to exchange identities. Witness the cold vacuum of space manifest in the flesh in ‘The Darkness Between Dead Stars.’ Step into the scrub of rural Arizona and join Karen Singleton’s struggle to save her husband from a cult of religious fanatics in ‘When Karen Met Her Mountain.’ Visit the small town of Dalton in ‘The Harbinger’ and join Felix Proust as he uncovers the vile secrets rooted at the heart of Dalton Dollworks. And in the critically-acclaimed novella ‘The Final Reconciliation,’ learn the horrifying truth behind the demise of the rock band The Yellow Kings.
“With an introduction by Bram Stoker Award-winner Mercedes M. Yardley and illustrations by Luke Spooner, Ugly Little Things will be your atlas, guiding you along a lonely road of sorrow, loss, and regret. This is going to hurt—and you’re going to like it.”
“Todd Keisling is a born storyteller, drawing the reader into artfully constructed narratives that scout the darker end of the literary spectrum with skill and bravado. A pleasure to read, his stories linger well after the last page has been turned. Excellent stuff.”
John Langan, Bram Stoker award-winning author of The Fisherman
From Crystal Lake
http://amzn.eu/2ZuOIPW2) FOR THE CLASSIC & DETECTIVE FANS
Mystery Weekly October 2017
Edited by K Carter
C F Carter’s Mystery Weekly, which produces weekly updates and a monthly print/Kindle issue, came to our attention last year with its special Sherlock Holmes edition, which was most enjoyable. So we are fortunate enough to have a copy of this year’s similarly Holmesian double-issue October special, and so far it looks good. We may report in more depth later, but here’s the round-up:
Contents
Vincent W. Wright “The Pastiche: A Sherlockian Necessity” Ever considered writing Sherlockian pastiche? Here are some thoughts to ponder.
Michael Mallory “The Adventure of the Lyceum Theatre Curse” At the request of Bram Stoker, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson investigate the deadly occurrences plaguing a production of Macbeth.
Ralph E. Vaughan “London After Midnight” Roger Sherrington replaces Dr John H Watson to provide invaluable assistance to Sherlock Holmes in a monster-god investigation.
David Gibb “Hercule Poirot’s Birthday” In this Agatha Christie pastiche, Hercule Poirot’s birthday dinner is interrupted by an inconvenient homicide.
Eric Cline “The Adventure of the Very Quiet American” Sherlock Holmes must discover who murdered a man. But first, he must discover who murdered a pig.
John Hearn “The So-Called Yoga Instructor” The part-time yoga instructor at an active retirement community is murdered in a fellow resident’s apartment.
John Longenbaugh “The Mechanical Detective” In a Victorian London substantially different from the one we know, no consulting sleuth is as extraordinary as Ponder Wright, the mechanical detective. Yet even his wits are tested by a murder where the suspects are all automatons.
Bruce Harris “Who Made Sherlock’s Clay Pipe?” At long last, the maker of Sherlock Holmes’s clay pipe is revealed.
From Mystery Weekly
http://amzn.eu/haBw0kx3) FOR THE WITCH, WEIRD AND FOLK HORROR FANS
Weirdbook Annual #1
Edited by Douglas Draa
Another special to grab. Weirdbook the quarterly magazine of weird fiction edited by Douglas Draa, is upping its game, as they say, with its first annual, entirely themes around witches. 250 pages of witchery, with twenty one stories within, plus eleven poems on the theme.
As greydog has one of his Mamma Lucy hoodoo stories in the Weirdbook Annual, here’s a quick taster of the conjure-woman as she walks the strange world of 1920 Eastern America, and faces some very human problems as well as some witchery ones:
“A long night coming,” said the Dark Man. He stood easy on the edge of a field, red earth between his toes as he sucked on a piece of sugarcane.
Mamma Lucy didn’t hold much with visions. And as visions went, this wasn’t greatly encouraging her. She didn’t recognize the place her left eye was seeing. A great field spread across the valley bottom, and that field was sown with fingers, knuckle-end in the deep soil. Most were black fingers, waving without a breeze, though here and there a white one grew. Some had cracked, hard-worked nails, and some had none at all. Near to where she stood, one finger had died where it was planted; a crow was tearing strips of rancid flesh from the small, pale bones.
“How long?”
The Dark Man pushed back his straw hat.
“Long as a mule kicks; long as cane is sweet.”
She reached across the floor of the lean-to shack and took up the largest candle, her grip marking the soft wax.
“Don’t you game me now, boy,” she said, a husky rattle in her throat. “This ain’t New Orleans, and I ain’t one of your mamaloi, Sant-eria ladies, liftin’ their skirts when you come callin’.”
“Maybe I forget, sometimes. Long time since we talked.”
She loosened her grip on the candle.
“True enough. Ain’t been need to find you, is all. Lord knows, don’t rightly ’member askin’ for you this time.”
“Pender County,” he said. “They’ll be needing you there, by and by.”
She ran memories across the candle flame, through the scorch of hyssop burning in the bowl at her side. The name would come.
“Might’ve just said that.”
“I might.” He leaned on the sugarcane, now a bent stick with a silver head. His crumpled suit was brown, red, or maybe neither, and though he was taller than oaks, it fitted him well enough. “But I don’t get to speaking with so many folk these days. It’s all kerosene, steel and burned rubber at the crossroads. Every soul in a hurry, always in a hurry.”
He tipped his red straw hat, and her milk-and-honey eye twitched in its socket.
The vision was gone, and she was where she’d been. Four plank walls and a broken roof. A place for the night, and straw to rest her bones on. She licked finger and thumb to snuff the candle, and then it came to her.
North Carolina. That was the place…
The Witch of Pender, John Linwood Grant
Contents
Thou Shalt Not Suffer, by Matt Neil Hill
No Holds Bard, by Adrian Cole
Laying The Hairy Book, by Josh Reynolds
Here Is Where Your Proud Waves Halt, by Erica Ruppert
Vicious Circles, by Paul Dale Anderson
Assorted Shades of Red, by Franklyn Searight
Strange Days in Old Yandrissa, by John R. Fultz
Fertility Rites, by Glynn Own Barrass
The Witch’s Heart, by Rachel Bolton
Hag Race, by Andre E. Harewood
Best Friend Becky, by Wayne Faust
The Rat in the Rabbit Cage, by Ashley Dioses
Two Spells, by Neva Bryan
Pulled Over, by Paul Spears
The Witch of Skur, by L.F. Falconer
Cat and Mouse, by Duane Pesice
Last of the Ashiptu, by Paul Lubaczewski
Firestorm, by Richard H. Durisen
The Witch of Pender, by John Linwood Grant
The Nora Witch, by Brandon Jimmison
The Broken Witch, by Scott Hutchison
We’re not very clued up on recent weird poetry, so don’t usually cover that. And Ashley Dioses, better known as a weird and dark poet, has cheated by submitting short fiction. Shocking! For enthusiasts, here’s the line-up:
The Desert Rose Inn, by Maurits Zwankhuizen
The Ballad of Blighted Marsh, by David F. Daumit
The Witch-Queen, By S. L. Edwards
A Witch’s Work is Never Done, by Lori R. Lopez
Oracle Bone Script, by Frederick J Mayer
Halloween Witch, By K.A. Opperman
Remembering the Peculiar Effects from the Sugar Witch’s Goblin-Brew,
by Clay F. Johnson
Sea Witch, by Vonnie Winslow Crist
Little Youkai at the Witch House, by Chad Hensley
Mother Persephone, by Oliver Smith
A Warlock Slips Into My Dreams, by Darla Klein
From Wildside Press (the regular quarterly Weirdbook is now also available).
4) FOR THE WEIRD AND LITERARY FANS
The Dollkeeper
By Rob Martin
This is a fascinating novella, which we have now finished, but will be reading again before we make any more detailed comments. Containing elements of magical realism, fable and personal tragedy, it is both an easy and a difficult read – the prose flows between vivid imagery and moving, intimate emotion.
After her autistic daughter chases a butterfly over the mountainside, young Annaka exiles herself to a wilderness of guilt and shame. But when it returns a year later, the butterfly draws her from her solitude and into the shadows of her past. There she meets The DollKeeper—the mysterious guardian of a nursery deep beneath the earth, where the children are beginning to gather their crayons and colour in the void.
80% of the profits earned from The DollKeeper will be donated to the Easter Seals* charity. Art by Russell Smeaton.
*Easter Seals is a US non-profit disability organisation which addresses the needs of individuals and families throughout the lifespan – from inclusive child care to respite care – in order to help people “reach for their full potential.”
From Electric Pentacle Press
http://amzn.eu/8GYMwX3We hope you find something of interest in there, and look forward to seeing you in a couple of days…