The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

Bone Marrow Stew by Tim Curran: Collected Works Volume One (Tasmaniac Publications-The Asylum Projects) is a good introduction to the author’s short fiction. The book includes seventeen stories and novellas, two published for the first time. The art throughout is by Keith Minnion. Simon Clark provides an introduction and the author includes notes for each story.

Eldritch Evolutions by Lois Gresh (Chaosium, Inc.) is the author’s first collection and it brings together twenty-six stories published between 1993 and 2011, nine of which appear for the first time. Although best known for writing Lovecraftian pastiches, Gresh also writes science fiction and weird westerns and her best work is very good indeed, particularly the dark fairy tale “Wee Sweet Girls.”

The Tangled Muse by Wilum Pugmire (Centipede Press) is a beautiful work of art, as well as a fine (albeit expensive) introduction to this author of weird dream-like, decadent fictions. The book, intended as a retrospective of Pugmire’s work over the past two decades, includes over forty stories and prose poems, five of them published for the first time. A second collection by the author, Gathered Dust and Others (Dark Regions Press) includes eighteen stories, four new — at a more affordable price.

Mrs Midnight and Other Stories by Reggie Oliver (Tartarus Press) is an excellent fifth collection of horror and weird stories, with four of the thirteen stories published for the first time. Featuring spot illustrations by the author. One of the best of the year. In addition, Centipede Press brought out Dramas from the Depths, a 900 page retrospective of Oliver’s short fiction containing the table of contents of his first three collections and a number of drawings by the author.

Five Degrees of Latitude by Michael Reynier (Tartarus Press) is an impressive debut — the book contains five new, unsettling novellas in the realm of the uncanny.

Tartarus Press published several other collections: Kicking off their Robert Aickman series is We Are For The Dark by Robert Aickman and Elizabeth Jane Howard, originally published in 1951, with three stories by each writer, none identified as by which one at the time. Included in the book is an introduction by R. B. Russell based on a recent interview he conducted with Howard; Dark Entries by Robert Aickman, which contains the six stories from his early, first solo collection, originally published in 1964. The volume is introduced by Glen Cavaliero; Powers of Darkness by Robert Aickman contains another six stories and features an introduction by Mark Valentine; Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman has eight stories and an introduction by Phil Baker; Ringstones and Other Curious Tales by Sarban was, in 1951, the author’s first published work. The new edition of five stories is accompanied by a second volume Time, a Falconer: A Study of Sarban by Mark Valentine, a biographical work that by using Sarban’s archives, traces the author’s history from his working-class roots to a distinguished diplomatic career. In addition, there’s Discovery of Heretics: Unseen Writings by Sarban, containing previously unpublished fragments and unfinished stories and poetry.

Red Gloves by Christopher Fowler (PS Publishing) is an excellent double volume of twenty-five stories celebrating the author’s 25^th anniversary writing horror. Fowler is both prolific and versatile, a winning combination. The first volume contains London stories, the second is made up of world stories. Several are original to the volume and one of them is a new Bryant and May story.

Rumours of the Marvellous by Peter Atkins (The Alchemy Press and Airgedlámh Productions) features fourteen stories by this consistently entertaining author, including one bracing original. The introduction is by Glen Hirshberg.

Scream Quietly by Charles L. Grant (PS Publishing) is a tribute to the late great master of “quiet” horror edited by Stephen Jones. Jones provides an introduction and Stephen King provides a foreword, along with essays by Nancy Holder, Kim Newman, Thomas F. Monteleone, and Peter Straub. Plus an interview of Grant by Nancy Kilpatrick. This in addition to the generous helping of over thirty of his stories.

The Saints Are Dead by Aaron Polson (Aqueous Books) is a debut collection of eighteen stories, four published for the first time.

The Call of Distant Shores: Tales of Elder Gods and Lovecraftian Horror by David Niall Wilson (Macabre Ink) contains thirteen tales, one original to this ebook collection.