Deep Into That Darkness Peering

by Tom Piccirilli

Collection of 40 horror and mystery short stories, most infused with occult trappings, including all the Self stories, featuring a modern- day necromancer and his demonic alter-ego. His stories are commonly exceptionally dark and full of sardonic humor, disturbing, stunning and just plain weird. Introduction by Poppy Z Brite, and Ken Abner (for the Self stories), interview by Richard Laymon.

Genres: Horror, Fiction

559 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 1999

About the author

Thomas Piccirilli (May 27, 1965 – July 11, 2015) was an American novelist and short story writer.

Piccirilli sold over 150 stories in the mystery, thriller, horror, erotica, and science fiction fields. He was a two-time winner of the International Thriller Writers Award for "Best Paperback Original" (2008, 2010). He was a four-time winner of the Bram Stoker Award. He was also a finalist for the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award given by the Mystery Writers of America, a final nominee for the Fantasy Award, and the winner of the first Bram Stoker Award given in the category of "Best Poetry Collection".

Reviews

[Karl]

This is copy number 901 of 1000 signed and numbered copies printed and are signed by:

Tom Piccirilli
Poppy Z. Brite
Richard Laymon
Chad Savage
Ken Abner

[Joel Hacker · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you've come across any of Tom Piccirilli's work over the years and enjoyed it, I heartily recommend tracking down a copy of this collection. As far as I am aware, it is a complete omnibus collection of his published work. And despite these being limited, signed (by artist, author, editor, intro writer, etc.) editions they are still out there for a relatively reasonable price. I ended up with #55 of of 1000 and it did not cost me an arm and a leg.
Like most of the collections Ken Abner put out through Terminal Frights, this is well laid out, well edited, well organized, and with some great interior art. And by the way, if anyone knows how to reach Ken Abner Jr. or knows what he's doing these days, send me a message.
The collection is rougly divided along the same lines that Tom Piccirilli thought of his work being divided, per an exerpt from a personal letter to Poppy Z. Brite included in her introduction. Sometimes this 'official' in that its labeled, other times its obvious that we have transitioned into another sub-set of Piccirilli's work. The final section may perhaps be the one the bulk of fans are here looking for, where the 'Self' stories are gathered. I will freely admit that those are the stories, featured in Terminal Frights, that got me hooked on Piccirilli, and its nice to have them all in one place. The only thing past the Self stories is a rather interesting interview with Piccirilli by Richard Laymon. The self stories are preceeded by 'The Devil's Wine', and while I am not the biggest fan of 'genre' poetry, several of these feel more like portraits of the real world horror of lives empty of anything save despair, regret, and perhaps booze. Regardless, it serves as a good transition and pallete cleanser to the more internally consistent Self stories from what I can best describe as the Gonzo or Bizzaro (though I'm not sure these terms were in common use when Piccirilli wrote them) stories before them. This is presumably what Piccirilli describes as '...all that gray area left to whatever doesn't fall into those other three categories.' I am not the biggest fan of Gonzo/Bizarro, and so for me this was by far the weakest part of the collection. The beginning of the collection is devoted to a combination of the dark fantasy/weird fiction and the erotic horror (though I feel the latter overlaps with all his other work).
Overall a very solid collection, though as all completionist readers know there are bound to be high and low points. Come for the Self stories, stay for what are some notable high points sprinkled throughout.