NIGHTMARE ABBEY

Issue 3 of Nightmare Abbey is as good as the first two, which means very good indeed. As before, editor Tom English offers us a heady mix of fiction, new and old, plus some excellent factual items. And then there's the artwork, both cover and interior, which recalls the golden age of pulps. Much of what's here wouldn't have looked out of place in Weird Tales c. 1930. However, the bias among the reprint stories is more skewed toward the earlier magazine era when M.R. James and co. roamed the earth. 

I was sent a copy of this splendid large-format magazine by Helen Grant, who is one of the contributors. So it's only fair to start with her story, which is excellent. Helen is a witty writer with a lot of charm, but there's a distinctly bleak tone in 'Seeing Is Believing' from the start. What surprised me was that the subject matter turned out to be one of the most whimsical concepts in the supernatural (no spoilers). The plot concerns a woman who escapes an abusive partner and takes refuge in a house left to her by a dead relative. It turns out that the supposedly solitary Aunt Dora did not live alone, or not exactly. 

Steve Duffy (another ST regular) also contributes a marvellously atmospheric and well-constructed tale. 'Nights of No Moon' tells the tale of a protracted family tragedy in small-town America during the early 20th century. An apparently happy and contented wife and mother loses her sanity as the result of an enigmatic encounter in the woods. One of her sons, Ben, finds himself in the role of principal carer. Gradually the mother grows stranger and becomes an actual menace to her youngest child. It's a kind of 'bad house' story that will haunt the reader. Not a ghost story, but a tale of the (maybe) supernatural and the terrible toll that life and time takes on good people who mean nothing but good.

Other names from ST crop up, I'm glad to say. Gary Fry , Ian Rogers, and David Surface all offer impressive stories. John L. Probert is here, too, with an appreciation of the underrated British horror film Night of the Eagle. And Matt Cowan's Horror Delve looks at 13 of the best haunted house movies, with a list I cannot seriously improve upon (I might quibble a bit but that's how horror nerds roll).

I mentioned reprints. Of these, I think E.F. Benson's 'Caterpillars' will be familiar to every ghost story enthusiast, as will Perceval Landon's 'Thurnley Abbey'. But I think Tom English is right to include such classics, because not every modern horror fan has probed the roots of the genre. Also, the between-the-wars pulps featured a LOT of reprints (Amazing Stories in 1926 featured The War of the Worlds, for instance) and it adds to the feel of the thing. 

So, another excellent batch of nightmares emanating from the abbey. Check it out on your favourite site that sells books and stuff. I don't think any reader who likes supernatural fiction could be disappointed by this one.