By Paul D Brazill.
Fancy a drink? Maybe a snifter or two of Bite Sized Horror, the lethal literary cocktail concocted by Johnny Mains, the man behind the resurrection of The Pan Book Of Horror Stories?
Take a look at these intoxicating ingredients:
Brighton Redemption by Reggie Oliver, The Between by Paul Kane, His Pale Blue Eyes by David A. Riley, The Unquiet Bones by Marie O’ Regan, The Rookery by Johnny Mains and The Carbon Heart by Conrad Williams.
Bite Sized Horror is a short, sharp collection of deathly dark fiction which is bookended by two whip crack stories: Reggie Oliver’s The Brighton Redemption – a brilliantly paced historical chiller which tells the tale of Reverend Cyprian Bourne- Webb’s time in a Brighton which contains ‘A very great deal of vice.’ –and Conrad Williams’ splendid noirish The Carbon Heart, which uses the setting of a city coated with volcanic ash to create a marvellously atmospheric mystery.
In amongst these two gems we have the Sartre-esque tale of an angry man trapped in a lift; an ordinary young girl trying to live a normal life in a world full of zombies, a couple whose car breaks down in the middle of nowhere and a broken, divorced man trying to compensate for his losses with a houseful of guns.
So, sit yourself down, hell, lie down if you want to, and knock back a couple of shots of the strong stuff. Bite Sized Horror is as potent as Mezcal and just as likely to stalk your delirious dreams.
Bite Sized Horror is available from Obverse Books in June.
PULP METAL MAGAZINE 