Dark Reflections: Stories Influenced by the Masters of Dark Literature

by Paul Kane, Kim Newman (introduction)

STORIES INFLUENCED BY THE MASTERS OF DARK LITERATURE

What was the real story behind Jekyll and Hyde? How do you cheat the most notorious curse of all time? Why are people getting sick with a strange malady that makes them bleed to death, and how are they being brought back to life in a futuristic nightmare? What happens when the world’s most famous vampire falls in love, or the world’s greatest detective takes on his most dangerous foe? How will a deadly serial killer be caught, and how will a certain paranormal investigator deal with his most unusual case to date? These and many more questions will be answered in Dark Reflections, a collection of spine-tingling tales by award-winning and #1 bestselling author Paul Kane (the British Fantasy Award-Nominated Monsters, Sherlock Holmes and the Servants of Hell, Before, The Storm), which pay homage to the masters of dark fiction, including M.R. James, Charles Dickens, William Hope Hodgson, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, Bram Stoker, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Edgar Allan Poe. With an introduction by the legendary Kim Newman (Anno Dracula, An English Ghost Story) and cover by Greg Chapman, you’ll find a lot to reflect on in here…

In Hyding
Signals
Life Sentence
Humbuggered
The Greatest Mystery
Dracula in Love
Heartless
Masques
Paw People
Thicker Than Water
The Grey Room

“These are love stories – in the sense that they were written by someone in love with the material… someone who recognises the sparks in stories that make us want to read and re-read them.”

From the Introduction by Kim Newman

“Paul Kane is a first-rate storyteller, never failing to marry his insights into the world and its anguish with the pleasures of phrases eloquently turned.”

Clive Barker – Bestselling author of The Hellbound Heart, Abarat, Mr B. Gone & The Scarlet Gospels

“Paul Kane’s lean, stripped-back prose is a tool that’s very much fit for purpose. He knows how to make you want to avoid the shadows and the cracks in the pavement.”

Mike Carey – Bestselling author of the Felix Castor series of novels and The Girl With All the Gifts, Fellside, The Boy on the Bridge and The Book of Koli as M.R. Carey

“A master of the delightfully dark and mysterious, Kane marries deft plotting with closely observed characters and storytelling heart.”

Alison Littlewood – Bestselling author of Richard & Judy Book Club choice A Cold Season, Mistletoe and The Other Lives of Miss Emily White as A.J. Elwood

“Paul Kane is a name to watch. His work is disturbing and very creepy.”

Tim Lebbon – New York Times bestselling author of The Cabin in the Woods, The Silence and The Last Storm

“His stories not only, at his best, put him neck and neck with Ramsey Campbell and Clive Barker, but also in the company of greats like Machen and MR James. You don’t rest easily after reading a Paul Kane story, but strangely your eyes have been somewhat opened.”

Stephen Volk – BAFTA winning screenwriter of Gothic, Ghostwatch, Afterlife, The Awakening and Midwinter of the Spirit; author of The Parts We Play, The Dark Masters Trilogy and Lies of Tenderness

Genres: Horror, Fiction

237 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 15, 2023

About the author

Paul Kane has been writing professionally for almost fifteen years. His genre journalism has appeared in such magazines as Fangoria, SFX and Rue Morgue, and his non-fiction books are the critically acclaimed The Hellraiser Films and Their Legacy and Voices in the Dark. His award-winning short fiction has appeared in magazines and anthologies on both sides of the Atlantic (as well as being broadcast on BBC Radio 2), and has been collected in Alone (In the Dark), Touching the Flame, FunnyBones, Peripheral Visions, Shadow Writer, The Butterfly Man and Other Stories, The Spaces Between and GHOSTS. His novella Signs of Life reached the shortlist of the British Fantasy Awards 2006, The Lazarus Condition was introduced by Mick Garris - creator of Masters of Horror - RED featured artwork from Dave (The Graveyard Book) McKean and Pain Cages was introduced by Stephen Volk (The Awakening).

As Special Publications Editor of the British Fantasy Society he worked with authors like Brian Aldiss, Ramsey Campbell, Muriel Gray and Robert Silverberg, he is the co-editor of Hellbound Hearts for Pocket Books (Simon and Schuster), an anthology of original stories inspired by Clive Barker's mythos - featuring contributions from the likes of Christopher Golden and Mike Mignola, Kelley Armstrong and Richard Christian Matheson - The Mammoth Book of Body Horror (Constable & Robinson) - featuring Stephen King, James Herbert and Robert Bloch - and the Poe-inspired Beyond Rue Morgue (for Titan).

In 2008 his zombie story 'Dead Time' was turned into an episode of the Lionsgate/NBC TV series Fear Itself, adapted by Steve Niles (30 Days of Night) and directed by Darren Lynn Bousman (SAW II-IV). He also scripted The Opportunity which premiered at Cannes in 2009, The Weeping Woman - starring Fright Night's Stephen Jeffreys - and Wind Chimes (directed by Brad '7th Dimension' Watson. He is the author of the novels Of Darkness and Light, The Gemini Factor and the bestselling Arrowhead trilogy (Arrowhead, Broken Arrow and Arrowland), a post-apocalyptic reworking of the Robin Hood mythology gathered together as the sell-out Hooded Man omnibus. His latest novels are Lunar (which is set to be turned into a feature film) and the short Y.A. book The Rainbow Man (as P.B. Kane). He currently lives in Derbyshire, UK, with his wife - the author Marie O'Regan - his family, and a black cat called Mina. You can find out more at his website www.shadow-writer.co.uk which has featured Guest Writers such as Neil Gaiman, Charlaine Harris, Dean Koontz, John Connolly and Guillermo del Toro.

Reviews

[Riju Ganguly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a collection of stories written as homage (or 'answer song', as Kim Newman mentions in his erudite yet lucid introduction) to some of the most memorable horror classics. Kane, an award-winning author, does a more than competent job. Some of those 'answers' are darker, crueller, and occasionally overlong. But few are sharp and potent, allowing a chill to creep in one's heart, or cause to chuckle.
My favourites were~
1. The Greatest Mystery;
2. Dracula in Love;
3. Heartless;
4. The Grey Room.
A mostly dark read, with occasional flashes that show why Kane's stuff is so compelling.

[Jim X Dodge · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection Paul Kane takes tales from some of literature's finest and most respected writers and turns them on their heads. Some are sequels, some told from a different viewpoint and all of them are equal to or better than the original stories. For those, like me, who like their fiction darkly delightful, you will absolutely adore Dark Reflections. -Jim X Dodge, author of Theta House and The Bite

[Zane Pinner · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed most of these stories which extend, elaborate or explore some of the classics of horror and suspense. Kane does a great job of mimicking the styles and tones of these well-known works, the majority of which I was familiar with. For the most part, it was fun to revisit these established worlds through a different author's lens.

By far, the stand-out piece for me was Masques, followed by The Grey Room and Signals.

I've never read any Kane before this collection, but he has a long and impressive publishing history. I'm keen to read some of his standalone original novels as his writing is accessible, visual and well paced.

If you're a fan of horror and suspense classics, you'll have fun with these stories!

[Runalong · Rating 4 out of 5]

A well done collection of spooky tales paying homage to the classics but all standing well on their own two feet - highly enjoyable

Full review - https://www.runalongtheshelves.net/bl...

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A solid offering of stories from an accomplished storyteller. Like most anthologies, some stories hit the mark for this reader better than others, but the stories I enjoyed I REALLY enjoyed.

[David O'Mahony · Rating 5 out of 5]

Paul Kane’s collection Dark Reflections is a gem of a book which manages to look forward and backward at the same time. These are not retellings of stories by classic writers, they’re sequels and homages.
Not many authors would take on the works of Dickens, Lovecraft, Stoker, Poe, Shelley, Doyle, and others besides in the first place, let alone generate original adaptations (as opposed to being wholly derivative) of their works.
For instance, it opens with a story from the first-person perspective of the Hyde of Jekyll and Hyde infamy which makes you wonder what sort of darknesses are floating around in all of us.
I went in to this without looking ahead to see what author was coming up next because I didn’t want to colour my readings ahead of time. So it was a particular joy to me, as a Lovecraft fan, to see a piece inspired by the Shadow Over Innsmouth – not a direct sequel but a continuation of the universe. And having somehow only recently discovered that Dickens had written ghost stories, seeing one of his appear in this collection was also great fun.
I liked that while these are clear homages they are by no means deferential (as a writer myself who loves all these writers there is always the fear that you’ll emulate too closely). He writes confidently in a variety of styles which keeps the collection fresh and interesting. There are some really great supernatural pieces like Masques and The Grey Room but also lighter tones such as in Dracula In Love, which is as much a tribute to the Boris Karloff era as it is the source material (and nothing wrong with that).
You don’t need to know the classics to enjoy this and anybody who loves a good ghost story should definitely have this on their shelves.