ATMOSPHERIC DISTURBANCES by Helen Grant (Swan River Press 2024)

Cover art by John Coulthart

Has it really been so long?

That was my first thought in looking at the contents list of this excellent new collection. I need hardly mention that Helen Grant's stories have been appearing in Supernatural Tales for quite a while, now. Four of the thirteen tales collected her first saw light of day courtesy of my hot little editorial hands. And another, 'The Wynd', first published in Nightmare Abbey, features on my YouTube channel. Check it out here on the Helen Grant playlist. 

Needless to say 'The Wynd' is excellent, a clever variation on the mysterious church best left unvisited theme. What makes it especially good is that not only does the rather nasty protagonist get his comeuppance, but this occurs in the heart of a bustling modern city. A church lurking in wait amid soulless office blocks is a tough menace to pull off, but the author manages it with aplomb.

Looking again at the stories I was privileged to publish, I'm glad to say they stand up well alongside the other inclusions. Indeed, the first three stories in the book are all ST 'alumni', as is the title story, which rounds off the volume. 

And I think 'Atmospheric Disturbances' is arguably the best piece in the book, though not by a wide margin. This story of a solitary man on an island who loses touch with the world - perhaps as the result of some unimaginable global catastrophe - perhaps borders on science fiction. But it is also a modern take on the 'last man' theme tackled by Mary Shelley, among others. What makes it especially moving, for me, is the conclusion, which I will certainly not spoil here. 

'Mrs. Velderkaust's Lease', the first story, could not be more different. 'The house was a good house; it was very nearly perfect.' This is a nifty Yuletide tale that successfully updates some aspects of the M.R. Jamesian ghost story. Mrs. Velderkaust wants to move into a splendid old property in the run-up to Christmas. Odd that the letting agent seems reluctant to even show her the place. And what is this bizarre local legend about Saint Nicholas?

'The '50' was - very kindly - written by Helen to mark ST's 50th issue. It is a cracking tale about another cad/bounder character (I wonder if the author has encountered a few chaps of that sort? They do crop up quite often in her novels, too). This one bites off more than he can chew. Or, in this case, drink. Intrusion followed by retribution - an old theme well handled.

Far more venerable is the theme of 'Gold', which has a distinct touch of the classic pulp magazines in its setup. A dodgy character offers another dodgy character the chance to win untold riches. But there is a catch. You can hear my reading of 'Gold' on the same YouTube playlist as 'The Wynd', by the way. It deserves to be much anthologised as a modern example of the cautionary tale.

The spectre of Montague Rhodes James is never far away in this book. ‘The Lost Maze’ is a fine example of the Jamesian idea brought up to date. It first appeared in the Ro Pardoe edited Ghosts & Scholars Book of Mazes. As such I reviewed it here. Also previously reviewed is ‘The West Window’, a strikingly original tale from the Egaeus Press anthology Crooked Houses.

‘The Field Has Eyes, the Wood Has Ears’ is that rarest of literary jewels, a worthwhile story that sprang from the recent pandemic. A British traveller on the continent is almost trapped in Berlin by the first wave of closures and lockdowns. The last thing he does is view a painting by Bosch, which gives the story its title. He gets home but what may be the virus begins to take hold, and his grip on reality loosens. Is he transformed, saved, doomed?

‘All Things That Are Reproved’ – a new story to me – sees us return to familiar Grant territory, the wilder parts of Scotland. In this case a man returns to a remote island to search for his wife, who has gone missing from the cottage they were doing up. This one is closer to Algernon Blackwood in its evocation of a strange phenomenon that often coincides with the Northern Lights. I particularly liked the ending, in which awe takes the place of horror courtesy of some beautiful imagery. It left your humble reader wondering if the mundane world might be well lost.

Loss of a different kind is central to ‘Chesham’ (first published in Terror Tales of the Home Counties edited by Paul Finch), a story that proves horror can be intense without being in any way visceral. The story concerns a woman who returns to her place to birth to clear out her parents’ home. She finds a photo album and in it discovers a paradoxical picture of her family. What I admire most about this story is the misdirection, worthy of a conjuror. And yet all the facts are laid before the reader. Everything fell into place when I read the very last word. Chilling.

And now, a puzzler. ‘The Valley of Achor’ is a well-crafted tale of an archaeology student investigating the site of a long-lost chapel in a remote Scottish glen. What she finds is something distinctly odd, which I have to admit I did not understand. No surprises there, I am quite dim at times. I looked up the title and it is a typically jolly Old Testament tale of someone being stoned to death.

One my tired old brain did grasp is ‘Friday’, which offers what I felt was a touch of the Maigrets. An elegant, intelligent French lady is questioned by a private investigator over the disappearance of her husband. He left her, she explains, and provides a solid case for a marital breakup. It all seems as clear as a spring sky in Paris. But what about her habit of visiting the city’s famous catacombs? Suffice to say that this mystery, while not supernatural, is intriguing – and a bit grisly in its implications.

Petrospheres. That’s what ‘The Edge of the World’ is about. That, and a love affair. An archaeologist desperate for the woman he loves to leave her husband stumbles upon a theory about mysterious stone spheres found in the north of Scotland. On what can only be termed a dark and stormy night, he goes about testing his theory in the most reckless manner imaginable. The results of the experiment are convincing. This is a fine example of the way Helen Grant combines old school supernatural mystery with modern psychological horror.

This is an excellent collection, surely one of the best of 2024, if not the best. And the book itself is a thing of beauty, a striking design perfectly in harmony with the contents. You can read an interview with Helen on the Swan River Press site.