The Lord Came at Twilight

by Daniel Mills

“I know them, these hills.” In the foothills of the Green Mountains, a child grows up in an abandoned village, haunted by memories of his absent parents. In a wayside tavern, a murderous innkeeper raises a young girl among the ghosts of his past victims. Elsewhere the village of Whistler’s Gore is swept up in the tumult of religious fervor, while in rural Falmouth, the souls of the buried dead fall prey to a fungal infestation. This is New England as it was once envisioned by Hawthorne and Lovecraft, a twilit country of wild hills and barren farmland where madness and repression abound. The Lord Came at Twilight presents 14 stories of doubt and despair, haunter and haunted, the deranged and the devout.

Genres: Horror, Short Stories, Weird Fiction, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Fantasy, Anthologies

332 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 1, 2014

About the author

Daniel Mills is the author of Moriah and Among the Lilies and creator of historical crime podcast These Dark Mountains. His nonfiction work has appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books. He lives in Vermont.

Reviews

[Ronald · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ratings for the stories in this book averages to 3.82 stars, thus rounding up my rating to 4 stars.

This book is a collection of weird tales, ranging from Lovecraftian to gothic, and one King in Yellow story.

I think the author's wheelhouse is gothic fiction. I would like to see the author continue writing gothic fiction.

My review of the stories can be found in this thread, posts 311 to 324:

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

[Karl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my first encounter with Mr. Mills. I am sure it will not be my last.

The production values of the book are exceptional. This may be the highest quality Dark Regions Press book I own. Sadly, they only produced one hundred copies of this book in hardcover. The sturdy hard cover boards with quite heavy and high quality paper is what makes this book stand out. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and I found it much more enjoyable when reading a couple or three stories consecutively in one sitting.

If I have any complaint about the book it would be that none of the stories are credited as to their first publication, and no date in the chronology of the stories. Why I need to know this is beyond me, other than putting them in order as the author wrote them.

As stated elsewhere Mr. Mills writing style is reminiscent of Nathaniel Hawthorn, so it may take a moment to get used to the rhythm of the writing. Don't give up as the payoff is well worth the effort.

Highly Recommended.

[J.R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

So I should state at the outset that I consider Daniel Mills a friend of mine, and I generally hate reviewing the work of friends because there’s no real benefit to it: if I like it, I get jealous and angry, and if I dislike it , then I’m put in quite the obviously uncomfortable position, right?

So just so no one suspects I’m writing this as some kind of favor to Daniel, let me start this off with a couple of things I don’t like about him. 1) He’s younger than me; 2) he is far too cheery in person. It’s disconcerting; 3) He has a child. He knows how I feel about that; 4) I also have a bias against rural / rustic-style fiction, what with the “Pa always said don’t go down by the river at night”-type stuff. It always comes off as hackneyed and phony to me.

That all being said, Daniel won me over. His fiction is impeccably well-written. Verisimilitude is the first (pretentious multi-syllable) word that comes to mind. What unites all the stories is that (unless I am misremembering) they all involve 19th / 18th century Americana, mostly rural New England. Think more Nathaniel Hawthorne than Lovecraft. My favorite story was Whistler’s Gore, which is sure to be most peoples’ least favorite, but I love epistolary stories – it’s a “story” of suggestion and adumbration, consisting of the epitaphs off gravestones. To me, it shows that he’s the real deal.

Well-written and impressive.

[Bandit · Rating 3 out of 5]

I love a good scary story. I don’t know if there’s a way to say I don’t care for most of the classic (i.e. old timey) kind, though, without seeming uncouth, purveyor of plebeian tastes at best. And yet…try as I might…M.R. James and so on are way too dense, monotone and tedious for me to enjoy. Nevertheless, one can still hold out some expectations for a well done pastiche, usually those tend to veer toward the cosmic side of things, but this wasn’t the case here. The 14 tales of this anthology were all aged like the proverbial fine wine (probably ok for me to make that comparison since I don’t like wine) to very much echo the voices of the masters. Daniel Mills’ New England is a gloomy, candlelit, thoroughly repressed place of dated mannerisms and mentalities. And, of course, long, long winters. In fact, it is a perfect place to go mad or be driven to that destination by some terrible events. The settings may be antiquated, but the terror is real, more so in fact because of the isolation and backwardness of the surroundings. So yeah, as suspected, while the book stuck to form pretty strictly, it was still infinitely more readable than the tales that inspires and determined the form in the first place. Nevertheless, it took me a while to get into, sometime around The Photographer’s Tale, maybe. And then John Blake and stories after were all uniformly pretty good. In fact, all the way until the end with the exception of the very last story, my interest was maintained. Mainly because the quality was there, Mills did a good job with plotting, yes, but he really exceled with the settings, it’s creepy, eerie, desolate. It’s dark, relentlessly dark, especially the places the candlelight doesn’t reach and it is there, of course, that the nightmares wait. Would electric light dispel some of the terrors within these pages? Well, considering how much genre nowadays is set in New England and especially Maine, that is debatable. But if you’re looking to be disturbed and terrified by stories set specifically before the advent of modern conveniences, this’ll certainly do the trick. It’s definitely not for me as such, not the first (or second) preference, but all the same an interesting selection. Interesting to contemplate why authors return to that specific era to emulate those specific authors. For me, classics have always mostly meant old. Few things are genuinely timeless. Mostly there’s just a certain kind of esteemed affection for books/movies from the past, despite their potential lack of relevance, laughable datedness and antiquated attitudes. Something about temporarily rejection of modernity that’s also very trendy as one puts down their smartphone to pontificate on the relevance of a popular relic. Of course, this doesn’t apply to all that’s considered classics, but a fair amount. But the world goes on, the movies have dialogue and technicolor, clothes change, mentalities (albeit slower) also change. Writing pastiches is an interesting exercise, but it also seems like something of an affectation. Although when done right as is the case here, less so. Anyway, I’m sure there’s a fan base just for this sort of thing who’ll love this book. And even new fans who might discover and enjoy these well crafted tales of terror, so read them if you dare. By candlelight if you can.

[Orrin Grey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Full review here: http://www.innsmouthfreepress.com/blo...

Short version: Buy this book!

[Seregil of Rhiminee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Originally published at Risingshadow.

Do you want to read beautifully written weird fiction that is reminiscent of classic weird fiction? Are you looking for horror stories that are genuinely frightening and unsettling? If you answered "yes" to these two questions, you have found what you're looking for, because the stories in Daniel Mill's The Lord Came at Twilight are old school weird fiction. They're brilliantly unsettling and sophisticated stories that stay true to their roots that lie deep in classic weird fiction.

These past couple of years have been exceptionally good years for weird fiction, because many excellent short story collections have been published to critical acclaim. The Lord Came at Twilight joins the canon of these excellent collections and makes its way all the way to the top. It's one of the best weird fiction collections of the year, and it's right up there at the top with Clint Smith's Ghouljaw & Other Stories and Simon Strantzas' Burnt Black Suns. I dare say that if H. P. Lovecraft were alive today, he would be tempted to call this collection his own and would be very proud of these stories.

Daniel Mills' The Lord Came at Twilight is almost like a short story collection out of the past, because the author writes evocatively about the historical past of New England and what goes on in the remote areas. When you read these stories, you are instantly reminded of old gothic and haunting stories that have fascinated and terrified readers for many decades. These stories instantly transport the reader to the ancient (and not-too-distant) past of New England when the world was a different place, because the author beautifully evokes a proper sense of time and place with his sentences. You can easily believe that everything that happens in these stories truly takes place in the past.

I'm glad I had the opportunity to read and review Daniel Mills' The Lord Came at Twilight. Because I've been fascinated by Lovecraftian horror and weird fiction for a long time, it makes me glad to see that new and talented authors have followed in Lovecraft's footsteps and have written similar kind of stunningly weird stories. Daniel Mills is definitely one of these talented authors, because he writes excellent Lovecraftian weird fiction that pays homage to the old master's tales and the terrifying atmosphere in them. He is a gifted storyteller and a remarkable new talent who has the ability to evoke vivid and realistic images of an age gone by. He's able to write old-fashioned weird fiction without being too old-fashioned, because there's a modern edge to these stories.

The Lord Came at Twilight contains the following stories:

- The Hollow
- MS Found in a Chicago Hotel Room
- Dust from a Dark Flower
- The Photographer's Tale
- Whistler's Gore
- The Wayside Voices
- John Blake (original to this collection)
- The Falling Dark
- Louisa
- The Tempest Glass
- House of the Caryatids (original to this collection)
- Whisperers
- The Naked Goddess
- The Lord Came at Twilight

This collection also contains an introduction written by Simon Strantzas. It's a good and well written introduction, because Simon Strantzas tells of how he found Daniel Mills and describes what kind of weird fiction the author writes.

Here's a bit of information about the stories and my thoughts and comments about them:

The Hollow:
- The protagonist of this story visits a hollow and sees an enormous and ominous oak tree.
- This memorable story contains atmospheric descriptions of the protagonist's tragic life and his survival.
- This is a powerful opening story that sets the mood for the other stories.

MS Found in a Chicago Hotel Room:
- A story about a man who visits a brothel and gets into trouble because of a woman.
- A beautifully written, imaginative and atmospheric King in Yellow story.
- I won't the name of the protagonist, but I'm sure that it will be a pleasant surprise for all readers who have read weird stories and are familiar with classic weird fiction.

Dust from a Dark Flower:
- In this story a physician writes down his macabre tale before being sentenced to death by hanging so that people shall know the truth about what has happened.
- Dust from a Dark Flower is a chilling and memorable story in the vein of H. P. Lovecraft's The Colour Out of Space and John Carpenter's The Thing about a mysterious rot found in the graveyard.
- This is definitely one of the best and most memorable stories in this collection.

The Photographer's Tale:
- A chilling story about a photographer who sees strange things through the camera's viewfinder.
- An atmospheric tale that is told in a thrilling way.

Whistler's Gore:
- This is an interesting story that consists of epitaphs on the gravestones in the old churchyard.
- This is a bit different kind of a story, but it works well.

The Wayside Voices:
- A complex and compelling story that has an interesting structure. This ghost story is told by multiple characters.
- One of the best and most memorable stories in this collection.

John Blake:
- An intriguing story about a young man called John Blake who meets a mysterious stranger and learns new things from him.
- I liked this story very much.

The Falling Dark:
- A powerful story about a man's isolation and fascination with a woman.
- One of the best stories in this collection.

Louisa:
- An interesting story of a man meets a mysterious woman and spends a night with her only to find her gone the next morning.
- A well written and atmospherical story that is definitely one of the best stories in this collection.

The Tempest Glass:
- In this chilling story a reverend sees a terrifying vision in a haunted mirror.
- I don't remember when I've read as good a story as this one, because it's perfect and unsettling weird fiction.

House of the Caryatids:
- A fantastic story about three soldiers and a mysterious plantation in the South during the US Civil War.
- This story is one of my favourite stories, because I've always loved stories about persons who wander where they shouldn't go and find themselves in trouble.

Whisperers:
- An excellent and well written story that will please fans of H. P. Lovecraft.

The Naked Goddess:
- In this unforgettable story the protagonist wanders into an odd and hostile village where people are blind and finds trouble there.
- This story is one of the best "a person wanders into a strange town" stories I've ever read, because the author creates a wonderfully menacing atmosphere.

The Lord Came at Twilight:
- This brilliant and well-told story is related to Thomas Ligotti's The Mystics of Muelenberg.
- The Lord Came at Twilight is a perfect choice for the last story in this collection.
- I'm sure that readers who are familiar with Thomas Ligotti's stories will enjoy reading this story.

I enjoyed reading all of these stories, because there weren't any filler stories in this collection. Each story is excellent and worth reading.

Daniel Mills is undisputedly one of the strongest and most gifted Lovecraftian authors who have emerged during the last couple of years. These stories are marked by the same kind of sense of style, feel of unease, despair and gradually building terror that can be found in Lovecraft's stories. Although there are many similarities to Lovecraft's stories, the author doesn't imitate his works, but writes wholly original fiction.

I think that many readers who have read weird fiction have noticed that weird fiction is at its best amazingly beautiful and atmospheric horror fiction. The classic stories written in the late 19th century and early 20th century are especially terrifyingly beautiful in their gloomy and bleak atmosphere, because the protagonists find themselves at the mercy of happenings that make shake them both mentally and physically. Daniel Mills manages to do the same to his protagonists in these stories.

To be honest, it's been a long time since I've read anything this good and atmospheric when it comes to weird fiction. I have read lots of Lovecraftian weird fiction and also other kind of weird fiction, but these stories are some of the few stories in which the old and historical New England serves as a background for the terrifying and macabre happenings. This New England setting is something that I love very much, because ever since I first read H. P. Lovecraft, I've been fascinated by weird stories that take place in New England.

As much as I love modern horror, I have to mention that there's nothing quite like reading beautifully written classic weird fiction and new stories that have been written in similar fashion. This kind of weird fiction is the best kind of horror for readers who want quality, atmosphere and good prose from their stories, because there's no substitute for good weird fiction and Lovecraftian cosmic terror.

The author's most imporant influences have most likely been H. P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, William Hope Hodgson, Algernon Blackwood, Arthur Machen and other similar classic authors, because there's a deep gothic, supernatural and frightening feel to these stories that can only be found in classic weird fiction. All experienced readers will notice that the roots of these stories lie deep in classic weird fiction and the author owes a debt to the old masters, but he writes his own kind of weird fiction. In my opinion Daniel Mills understands what classic weird fiction means to readers and is extremely talented at creating a threatening and strange atmosphere that reminds readers of classic weird fiction. He boldly uses his own voice to tell weird stories and has plenty of imagination. No matter what he writes about - whether it be Lovecraftian weird fiction or other kind of weird fiction - he does it amazingly well and memorably.

Daniel Mills beautifully - and addictively - manages to infuse his stories with the same kind of despair and terror that readers have come to love in Lovecraft's stories. The prose in these stories is exceptionally beautiful, evocative and nuanced. The author's hauntingly literary writing style deepens the effect these sophisticated stories have on the reader and grabs the reader's attention and pulls him/her momentarily into a world gone by where people had different lives, values and habits. The eloquent prose and the descriptive sentences make these stories stand out among other similar stories and make for an excellent and unforgettable read. This kind of literary prose is one of the reasons why I consider weird fiction to be the one of best sub-genres of speculative fiction.

The characterization is excellent in these stories. The characters are surprisingly realistic and well-created characters, because there's nothing annoying or artificial about them. I was amazed by how genuine the characters and their feelings felt when I read these stories.

Many authors have written excellent weird fiction stories, but there's something about these stories that sets them apart from other stories. In my opinion, there's a wealth of emotional depth in a few of these stories that only Laird Barron and Richard Gavin have been able to match in some of their stories. This kind of weird fiction is rare or rather it feels like it's rare, because only a few modern authors are capable of writing this kind of stories.

Daniel Mills pays homage to Lovecraft's stories by writing about horrors and isolation in the New England countryside and towns. He reveals what kind of terrors lurk beneath a lush yet bleak and barren landscape. The New England that Lovecraft wrote about in his stories gets a fresh new look in this collection as Daniel Mills writes about the weird happenings that plague the countryside and evoke terrifying fear in the local inhabitants or in the visitors who wander to wrong places. He demonstrates that the New England countryside may look peaceful, but something horrifying may be born in the desolate and isolated areas. His respect and admiration of Lovecraft's stories and writing style can be found on every page of this collection.

In my opinion, Daniel Mills is one of the new masters of the weird and the supernatural. He may - for the time being - be an unknown author to many readers, but not for long, because he belongs to the small group of authors who genuinely know how to frighten and impress their readers with atmospheric weird stories. (I'm sure that all readers agree with me on this when I say that it's thrilling to find a new author who is capable of writing sophisticated weird fiction that is reminiscent of classic stories, because most new authors tend to focus mostly on modern weird fiction.)

Because I enjoyed reading this collection, I will definitely revisit it soon, and I look forward to reading more stories written by Daniel Mills. I haven't had a chance to read his debut novel, Revenants (Chômu Press, 2011), which he wrote a couple of years ago, but I've heard good things about it, so I intend to read it as soon as possible.

Before I write the final paragraphs of this review, I'll mention that the interior illustrations by M. Wayne Miller are beautiful. The cover art by Daniele Serra is also beautiful and impressively artistic.

Daniel Mills' stories are beautiful, dark, rich and disturbing, and he has a fantastic way of writing about New England and characters who find themselves allured and frightened by the supernatural happenings. The old and historical New England is broughtly vividly and terrifyingly to life in these stories. All the farmlands, cottages, derelict houses, meadows, fields and hollows are described in such a realistic and vivid way that it's impossible not to be fascinated by the rural atmosphere. These stories are just as good and memorable as all the classic weird fiction stories by Lovecraft, Blackwood, Machen and Hodgson, so do yourself a favour and read this collection as soon as possible. The Lord Came at Twilight is a short story collection that every Lovecraft fan should buy and read immediately without hesitation.

Daniel Mills' The Lord Came at Twilight is a stunning short story collection that boldly follows in the footsteps of H. P. Lovecraft and other writers of weird fiction, but stands proudly on its own feet and competes with the best stories in the field and even surpasses many of them. Dark Renessaince Books have done a huge favour for all readers of the weird by publishing this collection.

Very highly recommended - especially to all readers who love weird fiction and Lovecraftian eldritch horror!

[Bryan Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Lord Came at Twilight is a superb collection, announcing the voice of a rising young author who could easily become a major player in the horror field. Keep an eye on Daniel Mills, my fellow Goths.

The stories here cover a good diversity of territory, which speaks well to Mills' range as a writer. There's a creepy King in Yellow universe story, a technological horror, and above all historical horror. The Lord Came at Twilight succeeds most in the latter sub genre, combining a rich period sense, psychological depth, an aura of mystery, melancholy, and a potent sense of dread. Most are set in New England, and Mills does a fine job of evoking that territory.

Let me pick out some representative tales and introduce them without spoilage.

"The Hollow": literally backwoods horror, about a young man, his disintegrating family, and a fearsome tree. In a few pages the story changes tack several times, races ahead in time, and achieves an effect somewhere in the land of Hawthorne and Charles Brockden Brown.

"MS Found in a Chicago Hotel Room" takes place in the universe of Robert Chambers' The King in Yellow. This is urban fantasy, as the title suggests, and builds its fear steadily. There's a strong sense of dreamlike surrealism.

"Dust From a Dark Flower" takes us back to the pre-Revolutionary 18th century and a remote New England village, where creepy things are happening around a cemetery and new priest. Mills places us securely in the period with touches of contemporary phrasing, science, and piety. This story does into greater detail for body horror than most in the book.

"The Photographer's Tale" turns on an unusual camera, what it pictures, and the impact on its wielder. The setting feels like circa 1900, with photography being an exciting yet established new technology.

"Whistler's Gore" is the collection's most formally inventive tale, as it consists entirely of gravestone epitaphs from "[t]he old churchyard./ Two miles north of Plymouth, VT" (65). Across these accounts of lives all ending in 1798 stretches a story of violence, religion, and perhaps cosmic terror.

"The Wayside Voices" is also inventive, consisting of short speeches by the dead, overheard in a New England ruin. The story accretes from statement to statement, building into an account of quiet horror and intimate violence.

"John Blake" is a Revolutionary War story, concerning the advent of a scoundrel who takes the war's promise of freedom in a... unique way. Like a Hawthorne tale, "John Blake" sets up social pieties in order to undermine them, cruelly.

"The Falling Dark" takes place in the 20th century and focuses on a young man studying folklore. His studies do not reveal what he expected, neither in terms of content, a romantic interest, nor the structure of the universe.

"Louisa" is the most Poe-like story, concerning a love affair mediated by spiritualism.

"The Tempest Glass" revolves around a magical artifact and teases us with apocalypse. Good use of the Millerite movement and the 1927 Vermont flood.

"House of the Caryatids" is Civil War horror. It begins with soldiers on a looting expedition, introduces southern Gothic, then heads into cosmic terror.

"Whisperers" takes place in Brattleboro, Vermont. Our protagonist visits a friend who seems to have gone somewhat insane. I think Mills reaches here for Melville and Hawthorne, only to pull back at the last moment in the old tradition of not explicitly showing or explaining horror. Lovecraft is also on stage, with characters names Randolph Carter (we only get first or last name, never combined) and Ackley (I hear "Whisperer in Darkness"'s Akeley; don't miss the titular reference, too).

"The Naked Goddess" starts with a problem familiar to many travelers in my state of Vermont: getting lost and a bit disturbed at where you end up. In this story our protagonist stumbles upon a forgotten 19th-century millennial cult. Mills points to a little-known bit of local history, the late 19th-century agricultural collapse of Vermont (191).

"The Lord Came At Twilight" sees Mills tackle perhaps the most innovative horror writer of our time, Thomas Ligotti. This story depicts a mysterious city and its cryptic decline.

Observations of the whole:
Mills is developing into a fine stylist. I've mentioned his ability to place the reader in historical situations. He also offers well turned, well ground, yet often poetic passages:

The snow continued. Nearly an inch had accumulated over the past hour, covering over much and dirtied snow. The clustered roofs and gambrels of the block opposite bore a fine dusting, as iridescent and fine as a poplar's cotton... Soon the city would be covered, first by snow and then by night - all beauty and squalor erased by the whispered sough of white on black. (54)

The ends of the paper curled upward, sloping toward the folds, causing her neat script to circle back upon itself: slouching and coiled, a bathing viper. (178)

I like the way Mills combines classic Gothic with Americana. This is deeply American stuff. For example, a throwaway line: "Placed against the far wall was a rectangular bench that held an assortment of musical instruments. There were guitars and lutes, even a saw." (129)

These are very short stories, with a great deal of content crammed into them. The reader cannot race through them, as there are no extra paragraphs or sentences. Mills is clearly following Poe's model.

Speaking of literary influences, Mills evinces classic dark fantasy and horror writers throughout. Poe, Lovecraft, Ligotti, Chambers are name-checked. I would add Machen and Blackwood, especially for the way many of the stories dwell in nature.

Dark Renaissance did a fine job with this book. The font is really well suited to historical fiction. M. Wayne Miller's art is splendid: moody, dark, and perfectly fitted to each tale.

On a personal note I've had the good fortune to meet Daniel Mills twice, once at a NecronomiCon in Providence, another time at a steampunk gathering in Vermont. Mills is outrageously young-looking, very friendly, and accessible to all comers. His reading of "Whistler's Gore" was a fine performance, combining a steady voice with just enough emotion to get the audience realize what they were hearing.

Strongly recommended to anyone interested in horror or historical fiction. Watch out for Daniel Mills. He should be going places.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I give this book five stars because after the first few stories I REALLY started looking forward to reading more of this. Each story was like opening a present. I was reading four other weird fiction short story collections concurrently with this one and I have to say this is the one that really stuck out to me.

I think a big thing I loved here was that all the stories are set in the past and have that sophisticated, Victorian ghost story flavor. I love that sort of atmosphere and mood but few modern writers set weird fiction in that time period, and even fewer make it convincing. Mills excels at it. Reading a few of these stories which were less in the weird fiction vein and in a more traditional one I felt the same as I did when I first read the stories of M. R. James or E. F. Benson. Some of these are really good ghost stories, but the best stories here have the element of the weird at their core.

The Hollow - An excellent story to start off this collection, I really loved this one. Very original theme and shadowy, Schulz-type imagery and mood. A man recalls how his parents both disappeared, all in connection with a strange tree in a clearing.

Ms Found In A Chicago Hotel Room - A creepy, atmospheric "King in Yellow"-inspired tale, with a good dose of hallucinogenic prose in the middle. A man visits a strange prostitute in late 19th century New York, and receives a vision, and a sinister stalker.

Dust From A Dark Flower - Among the best in this collection and written so convincingly as if it was written in it's time, that was what impressed me most. This story makes an obvious nod to Lovecraft's "The Colour Out of Space," but is perhaps even more horrific. A doctor writes about his attempt to eradicate horrible illness from his small village.

The Photographer’s Tale - Another great one! A sad, lonely story, I admit I wish we had more answers at the end, but it's very effective as it is and leads us to suspect something unmentioned, very sinister indeed. A photographer receives a camera from an apprentice he took in as an orphan, but the camera reveals things in it's lens too horrible to bear.

Whistler’s Gore - Interesting story of a series of sudden tragedies inspired by religious hysteria, told through inscriptions on centuries old gravestones. This story works for what it is, but is a minor entry.

The Wayside Voices - A found this to be a fairly fascinating story, certainly it has an ambiguous eeriness and a subtle extra-dimensional theme, but I didn't think it was among the very best here. The tale of a murderer is told from his and his victim's points of view.

John Blake - A story that reminds me very much of Hawthorne's tales, it has a sinister, Gothic, New England flavor. Unfortunately this was probably my least favorite. John Blake plans to marry a girl he meets at his mother's funeral, but is intercepted by a spectral visitor.

The Falling Dark - Another stellar tale after a couple that were more middling. This has the atmosphere of a good, traditional ghost story, but most impressive are it's weird elements and psychological depth of the lonely main character. A man has felt out of place in the world ever since he miraculously survived a train accident as a child.

Louisa - This is a somewhat more conventional ghost story I suppose, but Mills makes it entirely his own. I thought I knew where it was going many times, but it continued to surprise me throughout. A man becomes obsessed with a woman he meets at a ball and cannot find again.

The Tempest Glass - This is another more conventional story, it brought to mind the stories of M. R. James even though it's not a ghost story and has weird underpinnings. A mirror gives visions of horrific future events, seemingly too mind-shattering to behold for some.

House Of The Caryatids - This is a masterpiece of setting and mood, full of grisly suggestive, but intriguingly ambiguous details and a pretty horrific conclusion. A group of Yankee soldiers raid a southern plantation of horrors.

Whisperers - This story was a bit confusing at first, but then you review all the little hinting details and you can see it's a very effective entry here. There are Lovecraft characters and themes of "The Whisperer in Darkness," but the few, scant and eerie details make us fill in the rest. I will say though, if someone hasn't read that story this one probably would likely fly over their head. Randolph Carter travels to visit a farmer who is became unnerved after reading one of Carter's stories which revealed something to him.

The Naked Goddess - I liked this one, but it wasn't among my tip-top favorites. Still it's got a great, atmospheric set up, a chase/action ending and a foreboding afterword. A man looking to secure the sale of rural land for a railroad finds himself in a strange, decrepit village full of the blind.

The Lord Came At Twilight - I first read this in the Thomas Ligotti tribute collection, "The Grimscribe's Puppets," but coming in at a mere 4,000 words, and being so good, it's completely worth a second look. I liked it even more this time around, and the powerful themes of disillusionment really struck me. After a sacred tree in the garden of a monastery burns down the town becomes a place of sin, preparing for an unholy competition.

[Timothy Jarvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

The weird tales that make up The Lord Came at Twilight are powerful and strange. As in his haunting novel, Revenants, Mills evokes the storied past of the north east of the United States. But his prose is never mere historical pastiche, never antique or fustian, but clear, sharp. Some of these tales, as Revenants is, are ghost stories, but others, for me the best, are darkling ecstasies.

[Rodney · Rating 3 out of 5]

While I was truly impressed with how well the author conveyed the atmosphere and setting of the stories, flawlessly utilizing classic prose, some of the stories just failed to engage me. Others felt as though they ended before really finishing up. This is not to say I didn't like the book. There is something unique here pointing me to longer works from Daniel Mills and I will be reading Revenants soon.

[Malum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The description of this short story collection mentions Lovecraft and Hawthorne, and the style of horror here is very reminiscent of those authors. The tales are all carefully paced and the horror factor is in what is not said or shown rather than what is. Many of the stories end without a definite resolution, leaving you to wonder exactly what happened.

And while the "creepy-yet-subdued New England horror" vibe is one of the strengths of this collection, it is also its main flaw. All of the stories felt very repetitive after a while. We meet a normal-seeming person, something creepy happens to them, and then the story ends while we try to fill in the blanks that were carefully left out. It's true that the things we imagine are usually a lot scarier than what a book or movie can actually show us, but this collection tries to beat you over the head with that idea until "the horror in your imagination" stops being scary, too.

[Phillip Smith · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptional. I loved this so very much. Daniel Mills reinvigorated modern horror with a strong nod to the past masters. Though written in the old New England style, the stories never felt pastiche or as if Mr. Mills was trying too hard. If you liked the movie "The Witch," I think you will appreciate Daniel Mill's mastery of setting, tone, and broiling atmosphere that builds and builds like an inbound storm.

[Adriane · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book slowly so that I could better savor the exquisite lyrical style of Daniel Mills and relish the feeling of looming dread brought about by these stories. The simple fact that Mills, a young author, can skillfully evoke the spirit of an old America and transport us there is good enough of a reason to acknowledge his talents; but it is not just his impeccable writing skills that make this book such a treat, each one of these stories possesses an eerie quality to them that slowly and gently leads to a dreadful encounter with numinous terror, even if only by suggestion. If you are attracted to the kind of horror that slowly seeps into you and does not offer easy solutions, instead haunting you with the myriad possibilities contained within each story, then you should definitely read this book.

[Spencer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a beautifully written collection of short stories; Daniel writes in a classically gothic way, but without the stuffiness of some writers and with much more effective precision. His prose is skilfully executed and subtly induces a creeping unease in the reader whilst also maintaining a remarkable elegance. Each story is surprisingly accessible and the setting of pre-modern America comes to life on the pages, usually I tend to prefer more modern settings but Daniel really won me over here with his fantastic writing. In other words read this, it’s awesome!

[Jose Cruz · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you fancy yourself an old soul, someone born several centuries too late, and you are of a dark and rainy disposition, Daniel Mills' debut collection is likely to be your bag, and it should fit as snugly on you as the hangman's rope from the creaking gibbet. Mills transports us back to a time when America was still in its infancy and all the woods bordering New England were pregnant with infernal strangers and shadows that bore physical weight. He writes in the refined style and manner of all the old, dead masters, and he does it so wholly and so thoroughly that you might be convinced that this isn't some homage published three short years ago but a dusty, mold-eaten omnibus of fevered confessions and whispered prayers from the long-ago days of Puritans and putrefaction. His talent is best exemplified in strange and quietly unsettling tales like "John Blake," "MS Found in a Chicago Hotel Room," and "The Wayside Voices," but for this reader the pinnacle of his form comes through in "Whistlers' Gore," a tale told entirely through the cryptic epigraphs chiseled on the faces of gravestones in a crumbling cemetery. It perfectly encapsulates the feeling of reading this book: walking among the bones of the dead, leaning close, and hearing what they have to say.

[Nunia_l · Rating 2 out of 5]

I'm not one for reviewing books and this is the first, so it might not be the best written, but I'll give it a try.
This is the first book I ever read from this author and I really wasn't that impressed. The stories that I read, (I didn't get to the last few, I lost interest in finishing the book) were well written, but felt incomplete. Some stories finished nicely, but the one that sticks out to me had an interesting character; and was building up to the climax, then, well that's it. It ended. And I wanted to know what happened next. I know these are short stories, but I still would've liked a little more from a few of them.
I gave this two stars, because there were a few stories which ended nicely and there's a good chance I will revisit this book in the future. It also made me interested in the author's other books and when I have a chance, I will check them out.

I had received this book through a giveaway.

[Adam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I've been looking forward to reading this for a long time. Mills has staked out a wide territory for himself as an author of historical horror, particularly American colonial and frontier horror, and that's one of my favorite combinations of things. I'd read a couple of these stories in other anthologies and enjoyed them, and expected more of the same.

And that's exactly what I got, almost to a fault. These stories are varied in the kind of horror they include, from an almost Stranger-Things esque town rot to a cult to a devil to some more Romantic era oddity, and they're varied in voice--some more Hawthorne, some Hoffman, others a bit Poe. Some of them are really excellent. Dust from a Dark Flower has a very nice focus on texture and some unusual variations on its demon rot idea. My favorite by far was the Young Goodman Brown analogue John Blake, a story that goes hard on a fiendish and depraved figure who isn't the devil exactly but has the air of something that shouldn't exist in the world. I was really impressed with that one. Honestly, though, the rest were kind of underwhelming. Some too ambiguous, others too experimental, many using a trope I'm not particularly fond of (the photographer's story, for instance, or Louisa), but mostly flawed in that they all feel like they were written in the past.

I guess I can see the appeal of this at times--how better to capture the voice of a historical person than to write like historical people wrote? And yet it comes up repeatedly against this issue that people back then couldn't write well. All the characters sound the same--anonymous middle class white men writing in a shared style that leaves little room for personality. It's just a bit disappointing to see an author finally try to write an anthology full of one of my favorite neglected story types, only to find they're writing under a handicap that keeps them from making anything truly interesting. It makes me appreciate Jesse Bullington's novels all the more, finding human experience that would not or maybe could not have been put down in the fictional or memoir techniques of the time and bringing them out with modern prose and characterization. Mills presumably sees it differently, but for me the point of his stories is that they take place in the past, not that they mimic the fiction of the past. Meh.

[Alaina]

rtc

[Irene Well Worth A Read]

DNF
I gave up at 95 pages.

[Douglas Beagley · Rating 5 out of 5]

(I just realized that since I've read most of the stories in this volume, I'm qualified to write a review before the release. Woo hoo!)

In my opinion, there is nothing quite like this being written, anywhere, in literature today. It can't be classified, so it will not be appearing on end-caps at your local bookstore or be optioned for film. It is not horror, it is not historical fiction, it is not fantasy or science fiction. It is not "weird fiction".

It is not easy to read, either. It is literature that encases one.

Reading the works of Dan Mills is like being wrapped in a cocoon, almost against your will. While inside you are transformed through a wet, claustrophobic process. You'd rather not think about what is happening to your torso, your abdomen, your feet, as the inexorable progress of nature mulches what you were and creates something different. Whether moth or butterfly, you can't help but fly after putting the book down.

If you hate opera, country music, or bagpipe music even though you've never actually listened to more than a couple of minutes of any of them, then you may be unable to read Dan Mills.

If you step into the dark corners of your own mind, if you can breath musty, uncomfortable scents that you have never encountered before and perhaps smear a bit of them on your cheek and walk away with a burning sensation, scarred but better for it, then this book is for you.

[Doug · Rating 5 out of 5]

I learned of this collection after reading the eponymous tale in "The Grimscribe's Puppets." Although that story bears a rather unique atmosphere compared with the vast majority of the stories here, I was entranced from cover to cover. Horror may not be the right categorization, yet Weird Fiction certainly seem to match. Mills is a genuine talent with a real eye for little, yet profound, touches of the human spirit and how any given human being interacts with others and the world. Most of these tales take place in the foggy yesteryear of the nineteenth century United States, however the lessons, phenomena, and general atmosphere therein can be found just as easily today. It is difficult to think of a writer who can so deftly paint interesting pictures of the painful and sometimes downright awkward ways of people. Some elements really are timeless.

Highly recommended for anyone seeking out Weird Fiction, contemporary tales of olde, or just a captivating book.

[Michele · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Lord Came at Twilight by Daniel Mills is a compilation of fourteen darkly delicious tales of human suffering, despair, and depravity. Tales written to draw you in and make you question your awareness of reality.

Mr. Mills’ utilized a format similar to Poe’s, in that each story is designed to make you believe in the possibility of its existence. No vampires or werewolves haunt these pages but man’s own diseased psyche.

I would like to thank Dark Renaissance Books and Daniel Mills for the opportunity to read his work. I thoroughly enjoyed the stories contained within.

I received the book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

[Neal Hock]

Pleasantly surprised

I picked this book up on a whim when it showed up in my recommendations and I saw that it was Kindle Unlimited eligible. Once I started reading, I couldn't stop. This collection is atmospheric, with a sense of dread looming over each page. The stories are loosely connected, and all explore what it means to be human, peering into the darkest corners of our existence. I would recommend this collection to fans of cosmic horror, and I look forward to reading more of Mills's work.

[Jeremy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a haunting collection of stories heralding a major talent of the American northern gothic, a writer who channels another time of American letters with writers like Hawthorne, Bierce, and Poe. Based on a micro, sentence-to-sentence level, Mills should be well known in English literary critic circles, and he walks a fine line between historical and the weird/horror genres. I for one am glad he's his own man, and maybe he's destined for a cult following, a probable shadowy, mysterious cult that will meet in an abandoned church in Salem...

[Eric · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stunning collection of horror stories that straddles the line between the weird tale and classic New England-based Americana. Reading this book, I had a sense that I was just skimming the surface of a much greater, darker, unknown and unknowable beast. Cryptic and challenging, with echoes of E.F. Benson and Algernon Blackwood bouncing up against more contemporary authors like Richard Gavin and Reggie Oliver.

[Tammy Schisler · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book of brooding/atmospheric short story horror. I was very surprised to learn that Daniel Mills is a contemporary writer.... His style is reminiscent of another era, not this one. Truly enjoyed it. This book can be read free by Kindle Unlimited members... regardless, it's worth the price. I am considering buying a copy to put in my collection of horror short stories.

[Kat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Premature vague endings are balanced out by the atmospheric writing. I'm someone who tolerates a fair amount of ambiguity, but it was jarring and frustrating to reach some of the conclusions that came seemingly mid-sentence during lead up.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was interesting.

I got this book because I liked a Daniel Mills story in a "Best New Horror" anthology years ago. I liked the idea of a horror author using New England as a realm of shadow and horror.

I stalled out on my first attempt to read "The Lord Came at Twilight." This time, I gave it a better attempt.

As with any collection, some of the stories are better than others. The best story in the book for me was "Louisa," which is well-structured and has compelling characterizations in it. I also liked "The Falling Dark" a lot. That one had an interesting structure, a hint of romance, and a surprising inclusion of Slavic fantasy. Finally, "John Blake" is a winner that has a real Hawthorne-esque feel to it.

"Dust from a Dark Flower" and "The Photographer's Tale" were both good, but I felt they needed something more that would have made them better.

"The Tempest Glass" started strong but then seemed willfully determined to be unpredictable, so much so that I found the ending unsatisfying.

These stories were written before the story in "Best New Horror" that made me aware of Daniel Mills, so I might read a later collection of his work. These are early pieces, and he has the potential to develop into a powerful horror writer.

[Chrystal Hays · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was on my to read list for a long time.

It's taken me a long time to finish.

Some of these stories work in an old-fashioned, fantasy meets myth kind of way, and as classic ghost stories...things heard or told 2nd hand, moody, etc.

I always admire working artists but felt that the artwork was heavy-handed, lacking the subtlety that was called for in the writing. This created a dissonance for me. Without spoilers, one illustration should be of images a person slowly becomes aware of after looking into the natural setting for a while, like a Highlights magazine, only creepy. It's not. So it might have been better not to have had them.

I also always want to caution people about writing cloak and dagger without the help of people who are actually familiar with real horses. It's hard to read about a thing that falls somewhere between a dog and a car without losing whatever the forward motion of the plot is supposed to be.

This wasn't written recently, and perhaps some isn't truly representative of the writer's current work. I don't regret this, but it feels like an uneven collection.

[Donald Armfield · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mills short stories move like calm waters, with an absolute, impeccable experience. His prose is breathtaking as much as the haunting memories that is etched in his ink squalls. Voices that are heard from afar, a photographer’s grim discovery and pure naked beauty looking for a sacrifice of sorts. Mills calls from the crisp twilight landscapes and does not let a reader down.

Favorites:
-The Hollow
-The Photographer’s Tale
-The Wayside Voice’s
-The Naked Goddess