John L. Probert's collection Coffin Nails arrived a bit too late for a proper review in ST16, which will be off to the printer this weekend, probably. So I'll be writing a review for ST17 next year. In he meantime, I thought I'd bung in a few perceptive comments as I read my way through the book, which is a hefty collection of spooky tales. For a start, it includes two stories I published first and therefore claim some credit for in a totally unscrupulous way. 'The Moving Image' is the one about the horrible thing in the old film. 'Guided Tour' is the one about the man who goes on, erm, a guided tour - just after his girlfriend has dumped him. You'd think the poor sod would get a break, but not. Needless to say they're both damn fine stories.
I've also perused a few other tales. John's way with words is certainly evident in 'Of Music and Mayhem', which is about a terrible musical entitled Oh, Hell! A cleaning lady who has false teeth that are too big for her calls her cat 'Thwogmoo (at least, that's what it thought its name was).' Also enjoyable is 'Nefarious Assortment', which features the sort of choccies no sensible ambassador would serve unless he wanted to spoil his guests in the wrong sense of the term.
Coffin Nails is published by Ash-Tree press. And John has other books out, oh yes. You can get a lot of them at Amazon.
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