Darkness Beckons Edited by Mark Morris~Blog Tour

 Publisher: Flame Tree Press

Publication Date: 10th October 2023

Genre:Horror

Summary:

Darkness Beckons is the fourth volume in the non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. A terrifying cocktail of the familiar and the new, the established and the emerging.

Previous titles in the series, all still in print are After Sundown, Beyond the Veil and Close to Midnight.

Contents List:

SAINT BARBARA by Nina Allan

HARE MOON by H.V. Patterson

UNDER COVER OF DARKNESS by Stephen Volk

DUSK by Angela Slatter

A FACE LEAVING NO TRACES by Brian Evenson

GOOD BONES by Sarah Read

FACTS CONCERNING THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE ORLOFF SIX by Alyssa C. Greene

HE WASN’T THERE AGAIN TODAY by Peter Atkins

DODGER by Carly Holmes

FROM THE MAN-SEAT by Reggie Oliver

THE SERVICE by Ally Wilkes

THE LATE MRS. APPLEGARTH by Mark Gatiss

THE FIG TREE by Lucie McKnight Hardy

IF YOUR SOUL WERE A PITCHFORK I’D DESPISE YOU by Eric LaRocca

HEEBIE JEEBIES by Amanda Cecelia Lang

KILLING BONES by Simon Clark

IL CREPUSCOLO by Helen Marshall

REMEMBER ME by Ronald Malfi

WITCH’S CLUTCH by Simon Strantzas

CAMP NEVER by J.S. Breukelaar

Review:
Firstly thank you to Random Things Book Tours, Flame Tree Press and Mark Morris for having me on this tour and sending me the book.

Now I don't read much in the way of horror and I've been trying to remedy that this year because I do love a classic horror film and I've been trying to find books that give off that feel. And I have to admit that what sold this anthology to me was it having a story written by Mark Gatiss in it, as after watching his A History of Horror series I know he's a lover of the kind of horror I enjoy so I had high hopes of getting that classic horror feel. I definitely got a very eerie feeling from his story, which was really impressive because it's probably one of the shorter stories in the book(it's just two pages long) but it left me with a little shiver down my spine.
I really enjoyed dipping in and out of this one, though I could see myself happily sitting down and reading it in one sitting because you get a variety of different types of horror and you switch between them throughout the book, it's been cleverly edited so you don't have two similar threads of horror one after the other.
It was nice to see that the vast majority of the stories were written by women, I know I haven't read much horror(yet) but when it comes to thinking of well-known horror writers you mostly think of male writers, but this has given me a list of people whose work I need to now check out. And I  think I'll be looking back at the other anthologies that Mark Morris has put together, it's been nice to try out different types of horror writing.

All in all a good book to delve into this spooky season.

Krystina xx