Chapbooks and Limited Editions
Humpty’s Bones by Simon Clark (Telos) includes the title novella and a short story. The novella is about a young woman forced to stay with nasty relatives in the Yorkshires, where her aunt has begun to dig up what they believe are Roman bones. Turns out, the bones are way older than that. Nicholas Royle’s Nightjar imprint brought out four chapbooks: Black Country by Joel Lane about a policeman sent to investigate a mysterious outbreak of violence perpetrated by young people near where he grew up in the west midlands of England. Subtle and dark. When the Door Closed, It Was Dark by Alison Moore is about an English au pair stuck in a foreign country with an unpleasant and rather scary family. The Beautiful Room by R. B. Russell is a chiller about a house-hunting couple in an unfamiliar land. A Revelation of Cormorants by Mark Valentine follows a compiler of quotations about birds on his journey to encounter the real thing. Bleed by Peter M. Ball (Twelfth Planet) is a hard-boiled detective story in which the private eye is a woman resurrected from death by her former lover, the Queen of Faerie. In this masterful tale, PI Miriam Aster has had far too much contact with the faerie world to want to become involved in yet another case related to it. But when she’s asked to rescue a woman from Faerie by the woman’s twin, she finds herself drawn into sticky, dangerous rivalries among those faeries exiled to earth after an ill-fated insurrection. Temporary Monsters by Ian Rogers (Burning Effigy Press) is a fast-moving dark mystery about actors, murder, and supernatural creatures. The story could use more background about the Black Lands, a dark alternate dimension from which some of the horror comes. Also, the finale lacks urgency. The Ash Angels by Ian Rogers (Burning Effigy Press) is a follow-up to Temporary Monsters with investigator Felix Renn still haunted by his experience in the Black Lands. He Stepped Through by Nate Southard (Bloodletting Press) is a powerful kick of a tale about crooked cops and crazed gangbangers in Los Angeles caught up in a tide of sickening violence when a gang boss makes a play for power. Black Wind by Cody Winchester Goodfellow (Perilous Press) is a fast-moving western/Lovecraftian horror story about a half-breed bounty hunter tracking a missing child in Indian country. Curtain Call, the Rolling Darkness Revue 2010 by Peter Atkins, James K. Moran, and Glen Hirshberg (Earthling) is the annual chapbook created by Atkins and Hirshberg to accompany their reading tour. This year there’s a framing playlet by Atkins and Hirshberg and three terrific stories, the one by Hirshberg, reprinted herein. Invisible Fences by Norman Prentiss (Cemetery Dance) is a novella about a man whose worldview is a product of the “invisible fences” his parents metaphorically created in order to protect him and his sister as children. But he continues to be haunted by the childhood accident caused by his crossing one of those fences. Although a common trope in horror, Prentiss’s writing is strong enough to overcome the feeling that we’ve read this before. The Harm by Gary McMahon (TTA Press) is a novella about the aftermath of the violent abuse suffered by three eight-year-old boys. Twenty-seven years later the harm done to them continues to infect everything they do. Christmas with the Dead by Joe R. Lansdale (PS Holiday chapbook 6) is a charming story about a zombie holocaust survivor who, after losing his beloved wife and daughter, tries to celebrate the holidays. A Special Place: The Heart of A Dark Matter by Peter Straub (Pegasus Books), spinning-off from Straub’s novel A Dark Matter, is a chilling novella about the birth and evolution of a psychopath. Keith Hayward is entranced by his Uncle Till—who is dapper, charming, and has a dark side that twins Keith’s own blossoming one. Pain by Harry Shannon (Dark Regions) is about a mountain town’s hospital emergency room being attacked by zombies and those humans who fight to defend it. Sally Pinup by T. M. Wright (Squid Salad Press) is a surrealist murder mystery. The Corpse King by Tim Curran (Cemetery Dance Publications) is about eighteenth-century “resurrectionists” (aka graverobbers) meeting up with a surprise inhabitant of the graveyards in which they prey. Catching Hell by Greg F. Gifune (Cemetery Dance Publications) is about three young actors and a stagehand stranded and menaced in a small town in Maine. Rewind by Ian Faulkner (Ghostwriter Publications) is a harrowing account of the making of a monster. A young British soldier is severely wounded in Belfast. What happens afterward scars his psyche far more than his body and the repercussions continue to echo seventeen years later. Blockade Billy by Stephen King (Cemetery Dance/Scribner) is a dark novella set in 1957 about an eccentric catcher who joins the N. J. Titan baseball team. The Inner Room by Robert Aickman (Halifax Ghost Story Festival/Tartarus Press) is one story from Sub Rosa, the first of a series of reprint collections of short stories by Aickman. The trade paperback was printed for the festival, in advance of publication of the entire collection. The Samhanach by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books) is about a family curse and a demon appearing on Halloween. Monsters and Victims by Charlie Bondhus (Gothic Press) is about an undergraduate in New Hampshire and his unhealthy obsession with a serial killer. Mischief Night by Paul Melniczek (Bad Moon Books) is about a Halloween visit to a local haunted house. Within His Reach by Steve Gerlach (Tasmaniac Publications) is about a man forced to live out his life in an iron lung during the 1950s polio epidemic. Dreams in Black and White by John R. Little (Morning Star) is about a photographer who suffers from insomnia until one night he sleeps for four hours straight and dreams of a car accident… The Thief of Broken Toys by Tim Lebbon (CZP) is about a man who has lost his son and whose wife then leaves him. Despondent, he wanders with the toys he never fixed for his son until he meets the thief of the title. The Black Sun Set by Lee Thomas (Burning Effigy Press) is about an aging hired muscle for a crime organization who gets in too deep when the boss’s wife seduces him and his boss’s occult activities attract unwanted attention. The Painted Darkness by Brian James Freeman (Cemetery Dance Publications) is about a man who, as a child, was witness to something awful behind his home and has been using his painting to sublimate the trauma ever since.