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Rest in Pieces: Short Stories
A grieving gator-man enacts a terrible revenge on the killer who wronged him. A cab driver struggles to eke out a living in a post-apocalyptic world plagued by sex-crazed zombies. A serial killer’s desires are impeded by his arachnophobia. A would-be thief encounters an unexpected obstacle in a very protective sex doll. A jilted lover finds that black magic ain’t all it’s cracked up to be. A middle-aged bachelor finds his aging mother mysteriously reinvigorated. A young soldier discovers horrors worse than the enemy in Vietnam. Rest in Pieces is the debut collection of short stories from Australian Shadows Award winner Anthony Ferguson. Spanning over fifteen years, this infernal showcase contains the best of Ferguson’s published short fiction and four brand new tales.
232 pages, Paperback
Published August 1, 2023
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About the author
Anthony Ferguson
28 books5 followersAnthony Ferguson is an author and editor living in Perth, Australia. He has published over seventy short stories and non-fiction articles in Australia, Britain and the United States. He wrote the novel Protégé, the non-fiction books, The Sex Doll: A History, and Murder Down Under, edited the short-story collection Devil Dolls and Duplicates in Australian Horror and coedited the award-nominated Midnight Echo #12. He is a committee member of the Australasian Horror Writers Association (AHWA), and a submissions editor for Andromeda Spaceways Magazine (ASM). A four-time nominee, He won the Australian Shadows Award for Short Fiction in 2020. His first short story collection will be published by IFWG in 2023. Visit his website at https://anthonypferguson.wixsite.com/...
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 6, 2023
Anthony Ferguson is known for his rough-and-tumble horror that holds no punches, and the stories in this collection are no exception. While there is a range of settings, characters, and scenarios in Rest in Pieces, the reader has no doubt as to Anthony's preference for the true, gritty Aussie horror tale, taking us on a road trip from the outer suburbs and burying us in a shallow, unmarked grave in the Australian bush. The horrors in this collection are varied, but Anthony really excels in capturing the singular madness of the outback psychopath. There's blood and gore but also plenty of dark humour, and the last line of the closing story had me in stitches.
August 1, 2023
Full disclosure: I offered to give an honest review of this book, in return for an advance PDF copy.
This is a seriously entertaining collection of horror short stories!
Ferguson has published a stack of short stories in his career, and reading through the offerings in his latest release, it's obvious he has a real talent for the format.
The reader is taken through an immense range of locations, characters, time periods and exposed to all manner of horrors, and humors too. From haunted serial killers, to post-apocalyptic cab drivers and vengeful country towns, Ferguson has the ability to open up a whole world, full of atmosphere, within the first few paragraphs, and draw the reader in deep.
Another of the author's strengths is his ability to develop relatable and realistic characters that the reader will find themselves siding with, even if some are more odious then others. The reader rides the characters varying experiences with them. The ability to develop and define the characters in such a short period of time is an admirable skill, and one Ferguson has mastered.
Reader be warned though, while many stories are delivered with a grin and wink, some do not hold back on the darker elements of the horror genre, and there are some very graphic scenes within these pages.
This collection is, by far, one of the best I've read in recent years.
There can be a tendency in anthologies and short story collections to have a bit of filler to...well...FILL the pages. This is far from the case here. All the offerings are unique. Some fun, some creepy and some horribly unsettling.
My particular favorite story was Brumation. A story about the hunt for a serial killer, and quest for revenge, all set in the old South. I really felt like I was sitting in a saloon, in some wild west town, downing whiskey and hearing an old timer tell me his tale.
As someone who has read, watched and listened to A LOT of horror stories in my time, Rest in Pieces is a fresh and varied offering for a jaded horror lover like myself. But, also a great starting place for potential new fans too.
This is a seriously entertaining collection of horror short stories!
Ferguson has published a stack of short stories in his career, and reading through the offerings in his latest release, it's obvious he has a real talent for the format.
The reader is taken through an immense range of locations, characters, time periods and exposed to all manner of horrors, and humors too. From haunted serial killers, to post-apocalyptic cab drivers and vengeful country towns, Ferguson has the ability to open up a whole world, full of atmosphere, within the first few paragraphs, and draw the reader in deep.
Another of the author's strengths is his ability to develop relatable and realistic characters that the reader will find themselves siding with, even if some are more odious then others. The reader rides the characters varying experiences with them. The ability to develop and define the characters in such a short period of time is an admirable skill, and one Ferguson has mastered.
Reader be warned though, while many stories are delivered with a grin and wink, some do not hold back on the darker elements of the horror genre, and there are some very graphic scenes within these pages.
This collection is, by far, one of the best I've read in recent years.
There can be a tendency in anthologies and short story collections to have a bit of filler to...well...FILL the pages. This is far from the case here. All the offerings are unique. Some fun, some creepy and some horribly unsettling.
My particular favorite story was Brumation. A story about the hunt for a serial killer, and quest for revenge, all set in the old South. I really felt like I was sitting in a saloon, in some wild west town, downing whiskey and hearing an old timer tell me his tale.
As someone who has read, watched and listened to A LOT of horror stories in my time, Rest in Pieces is a fresh and varied offering for a jaded horror lover like myself. But, also a great starting place for potential new fans too.
September 1, 2024
This collection was a brilliant read, with stories that give a fresh take on serial killers, zombie apocalypses, body horror, monsters, and more. The style, while not 'extreme', certainly left me feeling extremely unsettled after reading - which is exactly what I want from great horror fiction! I couldn't recommend this collection more highly.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews