Simon Hedge’s Reviews > The 16th Fontana Book of Great Horror Stories > Status Update

Switching Off (1983) by Roger Malisson. A touching story of how an unfortunate son of negligent parents, victim of a vindictive school teacher can 'fall between the cracks'. Lovely build up, but the pay-off is weak.

Mother's Day (1983) by Alison Prince. Very well told tale about senile dementia. Should have ended with a real gut-punch shocker of a scene, but the blurb writer chose to spoil that on the back cover of the book.

Oblige Me with a Loaf (1983) by Dorothy K. Haynes. A woman 'revisits' the shop she used to rely on as a child and is greeted by very creepy ghosts of the shopkeepers. Not evil, just creepy.

The Horror of Abbot's Grange (1936) by Frederick Cowles. Leasing an old house leads to vampire attacks. This is either a joke or a terrible story. I'll be kind and call it a heavy-handed pastiche.

Creepogs (1977) by Phillip C. Heath. Story about murderous creatures venturing out of the swamp, with a denouement that just doesn't make sense.

The Feet (1935) by Mark Channing. An aged uncle has taken over the house once owned by a cruel Indian Nawab. He has become convinced that an evil spirit shares the house, and his only protection is the broken-off feet of a statue which he keeps in his curio collection. To prove him wrong, his nephew steals the feet, whereupon the old uncle drops dead. Tightly written pulp silliness.

Blackberries (1983) by Roger Clarke. A boy is playing with toy soldiers when he is interrupted by his (imaginary?) friend. He is then called inside where he has an adversarial discussion with his mother about where he will go to pick blackberries for the dinner she is making for her new man. He defies her and goes to the quarry where he is chased and killed by the slug-like 'dead man'. A very odd story.

The Wheel (1933) by R. Warner Munn. A wealthy American is negotiating with a lowly Mexican for the oil rights on some land. They go to the Mexican's torture chamber to discuss it. The American finds himself affixed to the worst torture device as the Mexican reveals that his ancestors were tortured and killed by the American's ancestors. This is a VERY silly story, but good pulpy fun none the less.

See How They Run (1981) by Terry Tap. The rats have turned on man. Gory stuff, but James Herbert did it better. This story's only other appearance was in another anthology edited by Mary Danby, so she likes it!

The Farmer (1983) by Steve Rasnic Tem. A boy learns that before he can take from the earth, he has to give... Nice little creep-out opener to the anthology with some well-written descriptions. Presumably written for this volume as it doesn't seem to have appeared anywhere else.