Supernatural Tales

  On the top floor of a converted warehouse, the restaurant is a discreet venue, well away from the established haunts of the political power brokers and the press. The large windows overlook the river on one side and a strangely shaped late-modernist masterpiece made out of glass and steel on the other. The light is aggressively grey yet slick, as if everything it touches is in the process of being weaponised. Thus begins a strange novel , yet one that seems oddly familiar in so many of its themes and characters. Every Place Unlike Home is the story of a deeply unpleasant Tory politician facing a massive crisis as his sordid past threatens to destroy his career. Given that, you might expect it to be told in a fairly hard-boiled, almost journalistic fashion. But it is not. Instead, this book's antecedents seem to be - in no particular order - Robert Aickman's strange tales, Flann O'Brien's The Third Policeman , a light seasoning of Kafka, and perhaps a dash of Michael ...

A new title  from Sarob is always of interest, and I'm fortunate to have received a review copy from Rob Morgan.  Superb owl by Paul Lowe Votive Offerings consists of four stories by - in order of appearance - Mark Valentine, John Howard, Peter Bell, and Colin Insole. It does my old heart good to note that all have contributed to ST down the years. In this review, I will do my best to avoid spoilers. As a minor aside, I don't mind spoilers for books or films, but I know they drive some people bonkers.  'Roman Masks' by Mark Valentine is set on the English side of the Solway Firth, where a group of art college teachers and students half-playfully immerse themselves in the landscape's pagan past. As always with Valentine's stories, I learned a lot from this one and enjoyed the process. There are some fine scenes, and touches of humour are balanced by a sense of the weird and numinous. Arthur Machen is invoked, and that gives you some idea of the overall mood. The...

 Contents: Veuf Cliff McNish       Bright as a Button Katherine Haynes       The Women in the Woods Sam Dawson       Chico Rivera’s Guitar Tim Jeffreys       The Miniaturist Steve Rasnic Tem       Hagstone   Reggie Chamberlain-King Cover art by Sam Dawson

  I received a review copy of The Water Bells from the author.  This new collection  contains one tale from ST 59, 'Fire and Stick', which I'm sure readers will agree is a first-rate tale of the strange and disturbing. In total TWB offers fifteen stories, and all are of the same high calibre. The illustrations, as astute folk might have noticed, are by Odilon Redon, and are well suited to the tales. Charles Wilkinson's world is an odd one, a liminal but very British domain. It lies, I think, somewhere between Aickman and de la Mare with a strong dash of M.R. James.  A recurring them here is the solitary or somewhat awkward individual - usually male - who finds himself a fish out of water. Thus Theo Dodds who, having 'done nothing with his life for three years', is sent to care for a dying relative in 'Absent Below the Lip'. The title more than hints at horrors to come as Theo discovers - far too late - just what his uncle was and did. 

  Another poetry pamphlet from the laureate of the fens, Pete Cox. This one contains a handful of works on a mysterious medieval outfit founded by one Hugh Bardolph. The guild 'oversaw the construction and consecration (in 1235) of the so-called Dean's Eye' - a rose window in Lincoln Cathedral. Among other things... The first poem deals with the imps of Lincoln and their role in the earthquake of 1185. Apparently 'their interference had been deduced/By mages skilled in ancient scrying art'. Which was a good thing, as 'holy magics' could be 'unloosed' on the little blighters. The imps turned to gargoyles. Serves 'em right. 'Hugh Bardolph and the Dragon' is a nice anecdote about the eponymous chap in his youth, arriving at court with what he claimed was the head of a dragon. Dinosaur fossil? Perhaps. As the poem reveals, Henry II and his advisors were not mugs. Hugh admits it's a fair cop... 'I found the skull among the rocks and sa...

  Sam Dawson's cover and internal art for Steve Duffy's upcoming story 'Valparaiso'. Definitely not AI-generated.  ST will never use any form of AI content.