"Rough Music" by Simon Kurt Unsworth

Rough Music

(Spectral Press Chapbook Series #5)

Simon Kurt Unsworth

Spectral Press (2012)

28 pages

I've had the good fortune to read and review the first four chapbooks from Spectral Press, so when I received a review copy of their fifth I was really looking forward to seeing what they were offering to readers this time around. As it turns out, Simon Kurt Unsworth brings a literary horror romp that acts almost like a prelude to his impending collection of stories that will be coming out through Spectral Press next year. The guy already has quite a few collections and anthology contributions to his credit, and after reading this story it's pretty clear that I need to find more of Simon's work.

This story, clocking in a little over twenty pages long, involves a married man named Cornish who wakes up in the middle of the night to sound of wood banging on metal somewhere outside his townhouse. He looks out his window to the street below and sees a man wearing a bulbous-shaped mask over his head, dancing a little jig, and banging a wooden spoon on a pot. The guy does this for a while then takes a bow and disappears into the darkness. Imagine seeing that outside your window. Strange shit, right? Well, it escalates.

As the nights press on and the racket outside becomes louder and louder, Cornish learns that his wife doesn't hear a thing, in fact it seems like he's the only guy on the block who can hear the cacophonous concert in the middle of the street. Each night, the strange man in the mask is joined by more and more masked performers until it winds up there is a play of sorts that is playing out each night, and Cornish realizes that it echoes facets of his own life, and the masks resemble those of his neighbors and friends. At the same time, his relationship with his wife is reinvigorated and more passionate after months of a wedge between them, in the wake of a transgression on his part. But the disturbing music and dancing outside his house, despite whatever influence it is having on his mood and relationship with his wife, it depriving him of his sleep--and maybe his sanity.

Yet again, Spectral Press finds a gem of subtlety and escalating strangeness to offer readers. I was really impressed with the way Simon used the mirroring of Cornish's life with the mummer performance outside his window. The ending was a bit abrupt, but it definitely achieved the kind of awkward terror I think he was aiming for. I'll definitely have to keep an eye out for more of his work in the future.

"Four Live Rounds" by Blake Crouch

Four Live Rounds

by Blake Crouch

self-published by Blake Crouch (2010)

ASIN B003BEEAD0

Merry Christmas to me, because quite a few authors I had on my watch list offered free e-books on the Kindle Store this past Christmas. Blake Crouch was chief among them, I dare say, as he had several listed as freebies for a week or two. I think I downloaded them all, including this collection of four short stories. Four Live Rounds was my first time reading Blake's work that was not a collaboration with another author, so I was very interested to see how good he did on his own compared to the thrillrides he writers with J.A. Konrath and others.

"*69" starts with an interesting concept: what if someone's cell phone inadvertently called you while that person was committing a murder? Pretty creepy, especially if you've ever gotten one of those odd calls where there's no one on the other line, but you can hear something like breathing or some kind of commotion. In Blake's story, after the initial phone call, there's a quaintness to the married couple pondering who might have called and whether they actually overheard someone's murder. But the story quickly ramps up as their suspicions escalate and their actions to learn the truth cross a couple of lines. A really strong opener for this collection.

"Remaking" is a tragic bit of work strikes a nerve considering the number of times you hear about a child abduction on the six-o-clock news. If I had to pick a runt from this litter of stories, "Remaking" would be it, but it's still one that kept me hooked until the end because the man's torment and how it threatened the safety of the child was chilling.

"On the Good, Red Road" is a western that acts as a prelude of sorts to a novel of Blake's called Abandon. A man tries to make his way to a mining town, but winds up in the couple of a trio of outlaws. Things are tense enough as the guy tries to gauge how best to get away from the villains, but when a sudden blizzard leaves them stranded and starving in the middle of nowhere, that's when it really turns into a nail-biter.

"Shining Rock" struck me as a story with a really strong start and finish, but there was a piece in the middle that strained my credulity. A married couple are on a romantic excursion in the bucolic fields of a park called Shining Rock, and are approached by a lone man from a neighboring campsite who at first seems off-putting with his large knife, but ultimately charms them with smalltalk and pricey booze. But there's something about the lone man and his brief tale of tragedy during drunken chatter that sets the husband on edge and has him wanting to flee the park as soon as possible. I really liked the story overall, but there was one aspect of the wife's reaction to her husband's revelation that didn't feel believable to me. Aside from that, it was probably my favorite story of the four.

It's a nice, quick hodgepodge for anyone who'd care to check out Blake's work for the first time. A little bit of everything, from western to psychological thriller, to horror. There's a larger collection on the Kindle Store called Fully Loaded, which includes these four stories and a bunch more (his collaboration with J.A. Konrath, Serial, among them), so I'll have to check that out sometime, too.

'Red Penny Papers' (Fall 2011)

I can't remember exactly when it was I discovered Red Penny Papers, but I can tell you it's been a welcome source for short fiction from day one. Stories by Aaron Polson, Camille Alexa, Natalie Sin, and others have provided me with no shortage of creepy, fun stories--and all of them for free.

The Red Penny Papers fall edition presented five short stories from authors who are all brand new to me. "Arkady's Apprentice" by S.J. Hirrons was a rather stirring tale of magic and legacy with a magician, his apprentice, and his son. The side-note at the end of this story, where Hirrons writing instructors apparently dismissed this story as unpublishable. Whoops. That's some writing school.

Next was "So Long, Warren" by Ash Krafton, a devilish mix of noir and the supernatural, which is one of my favorite combinations these days. "Iron Jack" by Mark Rossmore was interesting with its decomposing marriage and the automated servant tearing the couple apart.

"Oni wa Soto" by Sara Kate Ellis would probably be classified as my favorite of the bunch. A story about a devil with a crisis at the workplace. The Japanese setting, along with the undercurrent of dark humor, really resonated with me. Good stuff. And then "Janitors of the Cosmos" by William Vitka finished off the collection. This one could be classified as the strangest of all five stories, bordering on the surreal, as a "god" exterminator roams the universe hunting down various incarnations of deities who still cling to their would-be worshippers.

If you'd like to check these stories out, you find them all on Red Penny Papers' website. I managed to get this in November when Katey the editor pointing me towards an e-book edition--for free! It might still be available, so if you prefer e-books over reading from your web browser, I highly recommend going that route.

Just checked on Smashwords and it's still available free of charge: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/85230

"King Death" by Paul Finch (Spectral Press Chapbook Vol. 4)

It's pretty hard to imagine the rampant disease and death and quite literally plagued Europe, even the world, during the 14th century. Perhaps the centuries have mythologized the Black Death to a point that it's simply hard to comprehend. Hell, judging by the degree to which the public at large loses their damn minds when the evening news mentions a flu outbreak, a bonified pandemic wouldn't have to hit us physically--the world would be crippled on a psychological level. So think back to a time when our modern medical marvels didn't exist, but an engrained acceptance of the supernatural did. What would that world really look like?

Well, Paul Finch shines a spotlight on one patch of England, as a con man roams the country side exploiting death and superstition by parading himself as King Death himself. Rodric is out to plunder a devastated territory for whatever meager gain he can get. After all, who's going to stop them when everyone is too busy dying?

That's kind of a simplistic summary of Rodric and his motives, and when he encounters and orphaned lad with a chip on his shoulder, Rodric's motives are given a real test.

The story itself weighs in around twenty pages, but that's plenty of time to set the stage and the stakes. Some of the language is a bit of a chore to get through for a dullard like me who doesn't read historical fiction that stretches much further beyond the 18th century. Fortunately, there's a glossary at the end of the book, so a quick glance at that and I was off to the races.

This is the first time I've read Paul Finch's work and walked away impressed, showing Spectral Press has a good eye for picking out short fiction to feature in their chapbook series. Paul apparently has a helluva lot more work out there, so I'm going to have to look up some more of his work down the road.

"Last Dance of the Black Widow" by Bradley Convissar

A while back I hada chance to read Brad's novella, Dogs of War, and while I wasn't wowed by it I thought it showed the guy had something going for him, and I wanted to keep his work in mind for later down the road, like the litany of names on my watch list. Then, last week, I stumbled across a free short story by him up on the Kindle Store. I figured I could make some time for a 3,000 word story to check out another piece of his work.

"Last Dance of the Black Widow" is about a widow Abbey Whistler waiting in her hospital room, waiting for her judgment to arrive in the wake of her death. Time is at a standstill, seemingly frozen until its decided whether she's headed upstairs or down. When someone joins her in the room finally, it's her long-dead father and the news isn't good.

The story essentially takes place entirely in the hospital room with the revelations and action occurring through their conversation. Abbey pleads for admittance to Heaven, but as the story progresses it becomes clear that it's unlikely she'll get her wish, and even she understand why deep down.

Some of the dialogue feels a bit stiff, a tad theatrical, but it's a story I found interesting for the fact that I my sympathy for Abbey eroded with each page. And I thought the end worked quite well.

It's worth a look if you want to take a chance on an independent author.

The Spectral Press Chapbooks Volumes 1-3

Spectral Press started out this year as a new imprint dedicated to short works of horror fiction, inspired by the classic tales of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, while still looking forward for today's brightest writers with new ideas and new approaches to instilling terror in readers. But, with three issues now out, how close have they come to backing up their claims of providing high quality stories?

What They Hear in the Dark by Gary McMahon

I've got a brand new Gary McMahon novel sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read, but for some reason I haven't put it at the top of the heap. After reading this story, maybe I ought to reconsider. A married couple buy a big ol' house in the wake of their young son's death. It's a fixer-upper, it'll keep them busy, help them get some closure. But we all know closure is hard to come by, especially when the house you move into has a room that shouldn't exist. The Quiet Room.

I am a sucker for a haunted house story, and this was is one of the best I've read in the last year or more. Rob and Becky, the couple living in the house, offer two stark views of the room and what it means to each of them. Rob hears absolutely nothing, barely his own thoughts, but feels a sinister force somewhere inside the room whenever he is inside it. While Becky has convinced herself the spirit of their dead son is in there. Whether there is something in the room or whether Rob and Becky are projecting pieces of themselves into its void, that's one of the questions that lingers.

The Abolisher of Roses by Gary Fry

I'm unfamiliar with Gary Fry's work, this being my first chance to read his stuff, and it seems I will have to make it a point to find more. His story revolves around Peter, a stodgy businessman, who winds up being dragged by his wife Patricia to an outdoor art exhibit. He'd rather be off cavorting with his mistress, but entertaining his wife's interests from time to time seems to keep the marriage together. But, Peter strays from his wife and the lone path in the gardens out of frustration and discovers artwork that feels too macabre and too personal to belong with the rest of the exhibit.

This was easily the creepiest of the three volumes, as Fry's story gives a bit of the ol' down-the-rabbit-hole vibe, as Peter wanders further into the woods. The guy has such an alienated reaction to the mediocre art he is used to seeing, that when he sees the grotesque and uncomfortably intimate artwork he finds off the beaten path, poor old Peter's sanity has trouble maintaining a foothold. For the mere idea of liberal arts driving a stuffed-shirt conservative to the brink is enough to make me enjoy this one, but Fry goes a wee bit further in scope with this story.

Nowhere Hall by Cate Gardner

The men in pinstripe suits aren't the only strange things populating Cate Gardner's imagination. With Nowhere Hall she offers up a building as unsettling and unraveling as Stephen King's Overlook Hotel--The Vestibule.

Ron is having an off day. So off, in fact, he's contemplating a slow walk through busy traffic. But instead of stepping off the curb, he turns back towards the gleaming white hotel at his back, the Vestibule. Drawn to it, both by a want for shelter and the allure of a beautiful woman who steps inside, Ron goes inside after catching a mysterious umbrella that fell into his waiting hand. Inside, the surreal goes up another notch, with the hotel appearing abandoned and brand new at the same time, mannequins seem to come to life, and the hotel's concierge knows more than he's letting on.

Where Gary Fry's story had a bit of the Alice in Wonderland, Cate's story had it by the bowlful. Nowhere Hall felt like the kind of story Rod Serling would have written if he had a poet's heart--and a hit of LSD. It's a sad song sung slightly off-key, which manages to make it all the more haunting.

"Serial" by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch

Serial

by Jack Kilborn (aka J.A. Konrath) and Blake Crouch (aka Blake Crouch)

Norwood Press signed limited edition (2009)

64 pages

I had a free PDF copy of this novella from J.A. Konrath's website, but I never got around to reading it until I won a physical copy from The Man Eating Bookworm. As it stands, I really should have read it as soon as I had that PDF--but I hate reading books in that format.

The story is dead simple: what if two incredibly efficient, undeniably psychopathic serial killers crossed paths, and targeted each other without realizing they were cut from the same cloth?

The answer: mayhem.

Donaldson is a killer whose preferred prey is any hitchhiker on a lonely stretch of highway that catches his eye. He doesn't fuss with knives or guns, though. Nope, he's got a customized kill wagon with reinforced steel behind the plush dashboard that a lot of damage. If you've ever seen Deathproof, and the car Kurt Russell drives, just imagine a family friendly version of that. Then, there's Lucy, who is just the sweetest little thing you ever did see--and she knows it. She winds up being Donaldson next hitchhiker, since she's the kind of killer who gets off on luring men to pick her up from the side of the road, so she can take them somewhere secluded and torture the holy hell out of them.

Donaldson and Lucy were born to meet.

The collaboration worked really well between Konrath and Crouch, with Joe creating Donaldson and Blake creating Lucy, then pitting the two characters against each other. Kind of like a demented literary form of playing Mortal Kombat. It's a tautly woven novella with nothing extra to clutter up the carnage. Definitely a fun, fast read for horror and thriller fans alike.

Since it was originally published, there's been a sequel put out, as well as an "uncut" version of each, even put together in an omnibus e-book on the Kindle Store and other places. If the extended version is as good as this, I'll definitely have to look out for it.

A Couple Free Short Stories

Back in March, Iread and reviewed John Brinling's novel, The Watcher. While it didn't resonate with me all that much, there were pieces of it I did like, so John offered me the chance to read and review a short story, "His First Kill," released this year through Smashwords.

It's a thriller, like The Watcher in some regards, though it avoids any supernatural trappings and sticks strictly to the tension of a teenage would-be assassin's first attempted kill.

The boy whose name is not known--"better you don't know"--is a bit frazzled in the brain, from what I took from the story, but I suppose that's to be expected when the kid is looking to take up killing people for a living. He's not a terribly mature killer, enamored momentarily by a brand new bicycle while scouting for his mark.

The real tension of the story comes in the latter half as the boy lurks through the small town during their Fourth of July parade, only to discover the mark is someone he knows, and he has to decide if he's going to go through with it and get his first big score, or if he'll spare the life of someone he cares about.

It's an okay story, bolstered by what I thought was an entertaining second half with a tense will-he-or-won't-he scenario.

I think it was Harry Shannon who announced on his Twitter page that he was offering up this short story, "Jailbreak", for free via Smashwords. Now, if you know me, you know it's pretty damned hard for me to resist free stories.

As it stands, it's a gritty, southern-fried zombie tale about a sheriff, her deputies, and her prisoners holed up in the jail while zombies have risen up all around town and ravaged the place. If you're into zombies at all, then this is some pretty easy stuff to hop into, even if it is--at least to me--fairly familiar territory.

The characters are portrayed through some good dialogue and tense action, but the story itself didn't seem to have anything terribly unique going for it, and it felt like a run-of-the-mill zombie fest with some colorfully drawn characters to prevent it from feeling utterly mundane.

It actually felt like a precursor to a larger story wanting to be told involving Sheriff Penny Miller. If it is, I'd certainly like to read that, because this is a decent teaser.

"Dead Spell" by Belinda Frisch

Dead Spell

by Belinda Frisch

published in 2011

In Frisch's debut novel, she offers a paranormal mystery/suspense involving two teenage girls, both with their own troubles at home--one far worse off than the other, though. Brea is shy, insecure, and under the thumb of a rather snobbish and intrusive mother. Harmony, on the other hand, is tormented by what she describes as a spirit named Tom, and has wound up with a reputation as a crazy bad-girl. Her schizophrenic mother and long-running depression don't help matters, either.

The focus of the first half of the story is on Harmony and her escalating encounters with Tom. Her mother is too out of touch to really care or even know what Harmony is going through, as her mind continues to get worse through refusing to take her medication. Her psychiatrist suspects "Tom" is an early warning sign that she could wind up like her mother, especially with previous suicide attempts, cutting, and other self-destructive behavior. And her relationships with boys isn't exactly healthy, with an abusive pseudo-boyfriend named Lance, and an unconditional consort with a fellow broken wing named Adam.

Harmony at times comes across as a very amped up emo girl, with a fascination with her Ouija board, as she tries to find out the secrets behind who Tom really is. But there is something about how tragic she is portrayed that makes her a sympathetic sort despite her constant lashing out at those who care about her. And the abuse she endures from Tom, who appears in mirrors and as an invisible force in the room with her, are some genuinely tense scenes.

But halfway through the novel, the focus shifts to Brea and how she acts as a linchpin to everything going on in the novel. Her mother is supposedly helping a land developer commit a land grab and take Harmony's mother's property away from her, a lone house in a rundown neighborhood on the outskirts of a small town. Brea also has a suitor who is the son of the land developer and the ex-boyfriend of her school bully, which leads Harmony to insist that the guy only spends time with Brea to help with the land grab by isolating the two friends from each other.

Bits of the novel come off as convoluted with the whole background conspiracies and haunting phenomena, and the sudden shift at the midway point was a bit jarring for me. The mystery behind Tom and the subplot of Brea's love life did offer some intrigue, though. A lot of the dialogue between the two girls feels real enough, and it's easy to imagine them behaving in such a way. And Harmony comes across as the most intriguing character of the bunch.

Hardly a flawless effort, but this novel shows some real promise from Frisch and I'll be curious to see how she steps it up in her second novel. Where I had the preconceived notion of this being a more straight-up horror novel, it would up being something closer to a YA paranormal mystery. Kind of like Dawson's Creek meets The Ring. In that regard, I thought it worked okay and was certainly as pleasurable a read as some other books I've read from that sub-genre. If you enjoy reading about teenagers and their weighty issues, mixed with a stark supernatural element, you might want to give this book a try.

The Bottom Feeders and Other Stories

The Bottom Feeders and Other Stories -- By Aaron Polson

This review comes with a couple of disclaimers: this collection is authored by the host of Skull Salad Reviews, horror writer Aaron Polson. The second disclaimer is that I only review work that I enjoy. My aim in reviewing is to point readers to good stories in the small press.

So it's no surprise that I enjoyed this collection of dark tales. This is a collection of fourteen stories where dark things lurk under the surface of normality. Aaron is adept at creating the tales of quiet horror that I am fond of: creepy tales of escalating tension

Readers may recall that I'm a fan of flash (stories under a thousand words). 'Everything in Its place' is a weird flash story, showing who things can so easily go awry in the world of Aaron's imagination. Flash doesn't owe the reader any explanations. I like that. I enjoyed this slither of strange horror.

A young couple, Zach and Courtney, come to the town of Broughton's Hollow fields to claim their inheritance. I enjoyed the vivid description of the inhabitants with their waxy grey skin, their unreasonable love of the desolate land, and their tendency to express the unspoken. Zach slips easily into the ethos of the community, but pregnant Courtney is determined to fight for herself and her unborn child.  

One thing that I enjoy about horror is that it doesn't have to be fair. You never quite know where you're going to end up when you read it. I keep thinking about the unfairness of 'Brian Cullen's Confessional."  When Mark returns to Black Mountain to attend the funeral of an old friend, the events of childhood rise up and overwhelm him.  

Fourteen fine tales, of hidden horrors, mutant creatures, and strange pasts. Read the free version of The Bottom Feeders and Other Stories at Smashwords or shell out a mere 99 cents to get the full fourteen tales in the bonus edition. Recommended.