The highly anticipated sequel to Part 1, this collection of stories are sure to scare at Halloween and indeed all year long. Curl up by the fire and prepare for a journey through ten more tales of terror, suspense, and dread.
Evan Camby is the award-winning author of "Walking After Midnight: Tales for Halloween" series and the forthcoming "Midnight Frost: Chilling Tales for Winter Nights."
Camby's works are rooted in the gothic literary tradition and have elements of horror, thriller, mystery, and suspense.
Wow, this follow up to the first volume of short stories was even better! There are 9 great stories within waiting to be read before Halloween. In the first we return to Cabin Creek and learn more about the mysterious man in the brown suit. In 'The Devil You Know' a doctor feels the impact of the pills he prescribes. 'Flashing Lights' sees Hank, a truck driver, gets in contact with a girl member of the Canopy of Light Cult. 'Pumpkin Patch' is a great Halloween treat. 'Loup Garo' hints at what Leon's wife and children abduced. 'Wraith of West End Woods' tries to explain an old curse. Will Eric let the 'Black Eyed Children' in? What you have to look for when meeting a skin walker you'll read in 'Wendigo'. In 'Run Away' John escapes prison and works as a farm hand. But he isn't allowed to go up into the attic. 'Ritual' closes the collection with an insight view into Heaven's Victory Church, dead people come to life and a mysterious book. I absolutely liked this fantastic collection. No misses, just darn good and eerie stories with the right twist inside. Highly recommended for the Halloween season!
This kindle ebook novella is from my Kindle Unlimited account book two of three
A number of fantasy world 🌐 Halloween horror haunting stories each one different with interesting characters lots of action, misdirection, and some violence leading to each conclusion. 🏡😕
I would recommend this series and author to readers of horror stories adventure thriller novels 😮🎶 2025 🤗🙃
After reading the first collection of Halloween tales, I was eager to dive into these and they didn't disappoint! This is a great and diverse collection of stories that will suck you in and leave you with the heebie jeebies.
Cabin Creek This is an origin story for Cabin Creek -a small town introduced in Walking After Midnight from the first Tales of Halloween installment. Many years ago, two residents unknowingly summoned an evil curse on the town. This evil lurks in the cemetery and it demands retribution. The sheriff is tied to the curse and is desperate to keep the secret at any cost.
The Devil You Know Dr. Martell is a psychiatrist at an asylum where he treats his patients with Droxetine. Despite several of his patients becoming increasing worse, he refuses to stop the medication, stating "Better the devil you know than the devil you don't." But will he still feel the same way after unknowingly injecting Droxetine?
Flashing Lights On a dark and rainy night, Hank sees a woman coming out of the hospital and offers to give her a lift. He thinks he's doing a good deed and it's doesn't hurt that the woman is attractive. But looks can be deceiving, and this passenger is anything but the innocent young woman Hank think she is.
The Pumpkin Patch After being expelled from school, Cassie is forced to stay and work at her aunt's farm. Country life is a lot different from the city. Is that why everything feels menacing? Or is there really something unworldly that wants her gone?
Loup Garou There's something evil lurking in the bayou. Something that will steal, kill and destroy everything you hold dear. And one man will not stop until he has found retribution for what that evil took from him.
Wraith of West End Woods Mick is traveling to Maine to visit his mom's family. They're pretty odd and the town is creepy...especially since it's built beside a cemetery. And the woods, they're always watching.
Black-Eyed Children Housesitting turns deadly when two mysterious and creepy children knock at the door. They want in and a locked door isn't enough to keep them out.
Wendigo The legend of the skin walker comes to life in this unsettling tale. Once you come face to the face with the Wendigo, is there any hope of escape? Or are you doomed to became its next victim?
Run Away John makes a harrowing escape from prison after the guards are distracted by a fight. Freedom feels so sweet! But when John starts working as a farmhand, he'll find out he was much safer behind prison walls.
Ritual A group of friends gather together on Halloween and read from an old book of spooky tales. None of them are scary and the friends are ready to bale until they get to the last story: Heaven's Victory Church. This story is true and when the friends decide to visit the old church, they may not live to tell the tale.
I read the first part a few years ago, and loved it. I liked this volume just as much!
Evan Camby has nearly mastered the short horror story, at least in my opinion. The stories are all varied and you never know what to expect. Some stories have "happy endings", some have dark endings, and some don't really end but leave things up to the reader to fill in the blanks. This variety is one thing that makes the stories great.
This a perfect Halloween read, and I recommend it for anyone who likes short horror stories. Great for a chilly October night!
Another great collection of 10 spooky short stories! They are a bit tamer than typical horror stories so good for readers that don’t want gore. Just good storytelling that stirs up a little fear.
There was some editing errors such as using the wrong name for a character in first story. Earl kept getting called Doug which was his cousin’s name.
The standouts for me were The Devil You Know, The Pumpkin Patch, Run Away and Ritual.
This is an anthology with ten stories that while not really scary per se are at least mostly atmospheric and can give that feeling of loneliness that can engender fear. Many of the characters are not really worth thinking about one way or the other but you do run into the occasional person who makes you feel some sympathy for them and their situation and then there are those who you just want to see gone because they appear to be beyond redemption.
While I gave this 3 stars it is based on an average of each story, the average total was 2.7 stars so, of course, I had to round up.
"Cabin Creek", 2.5 stars. In this prequel to Walking After Midnight, part 1, we get to learn more about Sheriff Benoit and how the tiny town of Cabin Creek came to hold a bigger secret than anyone imagined. This story shows that a parent's love can twist even the sweetest child into something unrecognizable when Vengence is set in motion.
"The Devil You Know", 2.5 stars. Dr. Martell is a psychiatrist at the local insane asylum. But the dark shadows in the minds of his patients aren't just in their minds as he learns. This was not really a horror story to me but one about a doctor who did not care about his patients and got a taste of what he gave out.
"Flashing Lights", 1 star. Hank Bowser is a truck driver, a lonely man in a lonely job. When he is faced with a damsel in distress he jumps at the chance to save her. This did not even keep me engaged for the short term and I kind of just blasted through it to get to the next one.
"The Pumpkin Patch", 3 stars. Cassie is forced to spend the summer with her eccentric aunt and socially inept cousin because she has gotten into a lot of trouble in the city. She thinks it can't possibly be that bad. As the summer draws to a close however she begins to have visions that prove things can always get worse. This wasn't that bad, a ghost story with a little twist.
"Loup Garou", 3 stars. Leon Hermanutraut lost his wife and kids to the Beast 50 years ago. In the swamps of Bidart, Louisiana this old man plots his revenge. I liked the simple explanation but they did not tell you what a Loup Garou is and did not even give you a good look at him.
"Wraith of West End Woods", 3 stars. While on a run in the woods of West End tourist Rick Downing learns that he should have listened to his elders when they said to stay out. This had a nice pace and the action was expected but well done. The ending is what made it work for me.
"Black-Eyed Children", 2 stars. Eric is a college student who has found the perfect job, he house sits for a wealthy woman in an affluent part of Chicago. When on his last night a knock comes at the door. What he finds are two strange-looking children who make him pause at the thought of allowing them in, they seem weird and he cannot decide what to do. There is no real action and begins and ends so fast that you almost miss the plot.
"Wendigo", 3 stars. A blind date has gone wrong. Kate is navigating the winding roads of the northern Sierra Nevada mountains late on a dark night. To add insult to injury she is being stalked by an ancient, evil being. Liked the story for the most part but the detail was lost because they ignored certain elements.
"Run Away", 4 stars. John Brighton's first problem was not escaping from prison, but trying to find what to do after. Once free he wandered the rural countryside, deciding who to trust was going to be his major decision. This had a rather anticlimactic ending but the rest did keep me reading because I kept waiting for that big moment.
"Ritual", 3 stars. Bored on Halloween night, two couples decide after reading a book to try and find the church referenced in it when one of the guys says they went there before. The abandoned nineteenth-century church was not given a good enough description in the book and left out some of the most important details. While I really liked this story there were numerous spelling errors and the story description did not match the story that was being told.
Walking After Midnight: Tales for Halloween Part I was better than Part II, but this is still a solid collection of eerie stories. The collection starts off strong with a prequel to my favorite story in the previous collection, "Walking After Midnight". This story, "Cabin Creek", was fantastic. It was my favorite story in the collection. I love how dark and bleak it is. The next story, "The Devil You Know You," had good atmosphere, and it was a satisfying slow burn. The next three stories were pretty good but not new favorites, but the collection picks up again with two stories about black-eyed children and a wendigo, respectively. I love stories about "those two legends, and "Black-Eyed Children" and "Wendigo" did not disappoint. The collection closes out with two really eerie stories "Run Away" and "Ritual". "Ritual" was my second favorite story in the collection. It is a good blend of cosmic horror and the sort of cautionary tale that spawned horror stories and their campfire tale predecessors.
I look forward to continuing my journey through Evan Camby's works. She has a strong narrative voice, and she knows how to write a slow burn just right. She is not afraid to write a dark story with a tragic or bleak ending, and I am here for it.
I recently had the pleasure of reviewing Miss Camby's first Tales for Halloween collection. I enjoyed it so much that upon finishing I immediately purchased the second. Without hesitation I can say I'm officially a fan and will be purchasing any future work from Miss Camby.
I will suggest that, while the first collection is very much connected to Halloween, most of the stories in this one have little or nothing to do with the holiday. They are creepy and fit well with the Halloween feel, but perhaps a general title of Tales of Horror would be more appropriate.
That's not to say that this wasn't a great read though. A few stories are less impressive, yes, but as a whole I loved Walking After Midnight just as much as I did the first Tales. One story in particular stuck out for me as the most unsettling, although I'll let other readers see for themselves which I mean.
This is two in a row that have knocked it out of the park. In my book, that makes for an author to watch out for. You've made a fan for life, Miss Camby. Thank you once again for keeping classic, creepy horror alive and well.
This is the second collection of Halloween short stories by the author. The stories in this collection were longer than the ones in the first volume. For me, this made the stories a little better since you had more time to get involved with them. Most of them were not very scary though. Most of them relied on the scares coming from what might have been. They were the close call with the things that go bump in the night, but the main character still managed to get away. This just took a lot of the potential creepiness away. But a couple of the stories did manage to be just creepy enough to really work. Still, I think this collection is best suited for younger readers or those that want just a slight scare.
How she is able to spin stories so intriguing and so full into these short stories is a skill I definitely lack. I need an entire novel to bring out the intensity that these seem so completely filled with. After each story I told myself okay but after that back to work, then once more and again, finally I just finished the book so I can get some work done. It was the only way to put it down. This is a must read! I look forward to her next book which I downloaded Christmas Eve! And to all a good night!
Camby, yet again, hits it out of the park with this collection. He has a wide array of stories- high suspense, sinister, haunting and down right terrifying. An awesome read if you're hunting for a good scare.
This book was the perfect follow up to the first collection of stories. Every story was spooky and unique! Please tell me there will be a volume 3....put me on the preorder list for sure! A must read during the Halloween season or anytime you want to send a chill down your spine.
Every story I read was so scary and kept me turning pages as fast as I could to find the ending of the story. Each story was well worth reading and I would say you need to read this book.
I think this one was better than the first book! The stories were more involved and I really enjoyed them. Cabin Creek was a really good one but so were the others as well.
Good solid creepy halloween/spooky stories - not every story has a Halloween genre but some are placed in autumn in spooky locations and so are loosely based for Halloween