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Publisher: Cemetery Dance |
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And make no mistake, this is a "best-of" anthology the likes of which we haven't seen in many years.
The top tales include Douglas Clegg's "256 and Heaven," an unsettling account of a supernatural force that feeds on guilt and loneliness and drives its victims to psychopathic behavior; Al Sarrantonio's "The Green Face" is a similarly adept blend of psychological and supernatural horror; and in "The Wager," Thomas F. Monteleone spins an old-fashioned revenge tale in the EC comics mode that, for all its creakiness, compels reading until its final ghoulish twist.
But this is just the beginning! There's instant classics such as John Pelan's "The Sailor Home from the Sea," a work steeped in the classic ghost story tradition, and Simon Clark's "The Hand of Glory," which effectively imports a classic horror theme into an incongruous contemporary setting.
The stand out story, however is Graham Masterton's "The Sympathy Society," a bloody gore-fest that stays with you long after you've finished the story.
If it's a Chizmar anthology, it should be on a horror buff's shelf. It's that simple.
Buy it.
