Three Dozen Terrifying Tales

by Tony Richards

An old man makes a strange deal with the Devil. A harmless-looking woman proves to be a lot more dangerous than she first appeared. A dark lake holds a devastating secret, as does a dismal housing project and a beautiful secluded beach. Learn the origins of vampire-hunter Abraham van Helsing. Visit a weird circus and face your worst fears. What in heaven's name is a 'lighting dog'? And surely crows can't hurt you ... can they?There’s some gore, murder, and mayhem to be found here, but an awful lot more atmosphere and psychological horror in these stories. And all of them first saw publication in professional magazines, anthologies, and e-zines.The stories ‘The Crows,’ ‘Headlamps,’ ‘Beautiful Stranger,’ ‘The Waiters,’ ‘The Spanish Portrait,’ ‘Birchiam Pier,’ ‘Hamadryad,’ ‘At the Church of St. Jack the Ripper,’ ‘The Cat, the Ladder, & the Man Mo Shrine,’ ‘Mr. Smyth,’ ‘Shadows,’ ‘By a Dark Canal,’ ‘The Black Lake,’ Too Good to be True,’ ‘Lightning Dogs,’ ‘Siafu,’ ‘The Moon Also Rises,’ ‘The Lords of Zero,’ ‘Child of Ice,’ ‘Misdirection,’ ‘Discards,’ ‘Night Game,’ ‘The Cure,’ ‘At the Circus of the Dead,’ ‘The In-Betweeners,’ ‘Non-Existent Cats,’ ‘The Brother,’ ‘Man, You Gotta See This,’ ‘The Sentinels,’ ‘The Irrigators,’ ‘Gone-Away Bay,’ ‘Streets of the City,’ ‘Our Lady of the Shadows,’ ‘After Dark,’ ‘Pages From a Broken Book,’ and ‘A Matter of Avoiding Crowds.’Tony Richards has been shortlisted for both the Bram Stoker and British Fantasy awards, and the Horror World website has called "One of today's masters of dark fiction."

449 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 30, 2014

About the author

My latest book -- from UK publisher Endeavour Media -- is a bit of a departure for me. THE ASTONISHING ADVENTURES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY -- https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4... -- takes the Great Detective all over the world, from the States to Africa to the Far East, taking in locations in Europe and the Caribbean along the way. How did I come to write these 13 new mysteries? It's explained in my blog, below.

I'm a writer mostly of supernatural fiction, author of a series of fantasy thriller novels set in the magic-filled town of Raine's Landing, Massachusetts. Currently, that series is up to #6 -- WITCH HUNTER --.with a seventh on the way.

But I write regular crime fiction too, with numerous tales published in AHMM, and a second novel featuring my ex-FBI agent turned private detective, Matt Barrett, is now out from Cemetery Dance Publications. It's called THE TRIBE. (The first novel was THE DESERT KEEPS ITS DEAD).

I've seen to publication almost 100 short stories, enough to fill 8 collections, the latest being THE UNIVERSAL AND OTHER TERRORS (Dark Renaissance Press), and my work has appeared in Asimov's SF, The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Weird Tales and numerous top anthologies including Year's Best Horror.

Reviews

[Meg Bats and Books · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why, why the horrible, ridiculous cover???
If I had come across this book in a bookshop and saw the cover, I wouldn't touch it. The quality of the cover in this case insinuates a very poor quality of the content, and does a dissservice to this collection. I picked it up on Kindle, tempted by the price for a whole bunch of stories in one of my favourite genres.

The stories in themselves are not bad (and 3 out of the collection are very good!) - all of them really have quite interesting plots, but one does wish they were written better. It just seems like the voice in almost every story is the same person - a middle-aged man with pretty much the same attitude thoroughout the whole set. If the voices were more varied, then - coupled with the plots - this would have been a very solid collection. As it is, however, the book becomes putdownable, because the same voice in every story makes the reading a somewhat tedious experience.

However, it is definitely worth reading till the end - 2 of the best 3 stories are toward the end of the book. Let me list the outstanding ones:

The Sentinels - really good, unexpected ending, the terror comes from a surprising direction. Full of suspense and very enjoyable.

After Dark - aaargh, could it have a less imaginative title??? It tells you nothing with its hopeless genericness. Very angry at this, because the story is great, the pacing is amazing, and the twist at the end - fantastic.

A Matter of Avoiding Crowds - a really nicely constructed story, I liked the atmosphere, and in this case the disillusioned voice of a middle-aged man was a perfect choice for the content of the story. I also liked the paradoxical shift in emotions, which I cannot really explain without spoiling.

All in all, the collection is still worth reaching for - but it is not a book for one sitting. If you like to have a source to go to for 1 or 2 scary stories daily, it is perfect for that.

[Bee Tay · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been turning to short horror story collections lately to get out of that infamous quarantine reading slump. Managed to get halfway through this before I accepted the fact the writing was pretty terrible and had to force myself to finish it :/

I'd definitely recommend David Haynes's books instead!