The Gold Leaf Executions

by Helen Marshall

There was a way of killing people you told me about. You found it in a book, an old one: gilded edges and a cracked spine, boards that had warped like the hull of a ship.

A young boy takes up the Egyptian art of embalming to win the girl of his dreams. Four devils play knucklebones, as they search for a way out of Hell.

In these stories the dead turn up in unexpected places: buried in the walls of newbuilds, washed up on deserted riverbanks, housed in the carcass of a giant sea creature, flung from bridges only to return to their homes, asking for cream and sugar with their coffee. All the while, the living search for ways to hold onto their happiness, knowing how thin the boundary is between their place and the next.

By turns poignant, surprising and darkly funny, World Fantasy Award-winner Helen Marshall crosses the territory of ancient stories, fairy tales and urban legends in search of new myths for the troubled times we live in.

Genres: Short Stories, Fantasy, Collections

359 pages, Hardcover

First published February 1, 2023

About the author

Helen Marshall (manuscriptgal.com) is an award-winning author, editor, and bibliophile.

Her poetry and short fiction have been published in The Chiaroscuro, Paper Crow, Abyss & Apex, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet and Tor.com. In 2011, she released a collection of poems entitled Skeleton Leaves from Kelp Queen Press and her collection of short stories Hair Side, Flesh Side was released from ChiZine Publications in 2012. This collection won the 2013 British Fantasy Sydney J. Bounds Award and was short-listed for a 2013 Aurora Award for Best Related Work. It was named one of the top ten F/SF books of 2012 by January Magazine. Her second fiction collection Gifts for the One Who Comes After launched in September 2014.

Reviews

[Runalong · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant, strange and intelligent set of strokes happily blurring boundaries and daring the reader to ponder what they’ve read. Tales of horror, survival and hope and you never know which is going to be which! Strongly recommended!

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

[Corey · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen Marshall is one of the premiere Canadian fabulists of modern Canadian, and so deserving of discovery to a wider audience. Her collections Hair Side, Flesh Side and Gifts for the One Who Comes After rank among the best genre story collections of the 21st century, and The Gold Leaf Executions equals them in style, originality, and overall talent. Not to be missed.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Helen Marshall’s latest collection feels like dreams: linear plots are often abandoned for events and places that haunt you long after you wake. With regularity unsettling image draws you toward sharp observation toward brushes with divinity toward caked blood and dirt beneath your nails. Marshall’s work seeps into you so your skin never settles quite evenly across your muscle again.

[Carlie St. George · Rating 5 out of 5]

Okay, I'm biased because Helen is a friend, but also, her prose is weird and dark and gorgeous. Just finished reading this latest collection, and there are just so many delicious, wonderful sentences in these stories. Top 3 favorites here: "The Embalmer," "Caro in Carno," and "The Way She is With Strangers."

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Strange and evocative stories. I'm not sure what the author's intention was for each one, but they're all exquisitely written. A few are easy to parse, since they're direct homages to books like 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle' and 'The King in Yellow'.

[David · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gently weird (not Weird) stories - totally lacks cliches, which is refreshing. I enjoyed this collection slowly in order to savor it more.

I grabbed this stylish limited edition hb when I learned Unsung Stories (pub) was shuttering its doors. Beautiful cover.