Ellen Datlow - The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

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.

The Undying Thing and Others by Barry Pain (Hippocampus Press) contains for the first time, all of the author’s weird writing and a rare novel in collaboration with James Blyth. Introduction by S. T. Joshi.

The Gaki & Other Hungry Spirits by Stephen Mark Rainey (Dark Regions Press) features seventeen stories, six never before published.

A Bracelet of Bright Hair by Jane Jakeman (Sarob Press) showcases eight very effective ghost stories, one new, with an afterword by the author.

It Knows Where You Live by Gary McMahon (Gray Friar Press) nicely captures the unease and alienation of contemporary life in these fifteen horror stories, all but two original to the collection.

Tales of Sin and Madness by Brett McBean (LegumeMan Books) has twenty stories and short-shorts, some reprints, some original, with the hardest-to-read typeface for everything but the actual stories that I’ve ever tried to decipher. Fie on book designers who have no clue about readability.

Looking at the World with Glass in My Eye by Mark Justice (Graveside Books) has eighteen stories, half original. With an introduction by Ronald Kelly.

Cold Mirrors by C. J. Lines (Adramelech Books) is a debut collection of fourteen stories, nine published for the first time.

Zombies in New York and Other Bloody Jottings by Sam Stone (Telos) contains thirteen stories and six poems, most published for the first time.

Nightingale Songs by Simon Strantzas (Dark Regions Press) is the author’s third collection, containing twelve stories, three new. Strantzas writes stylishly about disturbing subjects and his work is always worth reading.

Multiplex Fandango: A Weston Ochse Reader (Dark Regions Press) is a collection of sixteen stories, six published for the first time. All are well-worth reading.

The Exorcist’s Travelogue by George Berguño (Passport Levant) has seven stories, five published for the first time.

I Smell Blood by Ralph Robert Moore (Sentence Publishing) is the author’s second collection, this one self-published. It contains eight stories, two published for the first time, and a short novel.

In Extremis by John Shirley (Underland Press) features twenty-two stories published between 1991 and 2010, with two originals.

Quiet Houses by Simon Kurt Unsworth (Dark Continents Publishing) is a collection of haunted house stories, each case investigated by paranormal researcher Richard Nakata. All but two of the seven stories are new.

Our Lady of the Shadows by Tony Richards (Dark Regions Press) has twelve dark stories, published over the past twenty years, including four new ones.

Monsters of L.A . by Lisa Morton (Bad Moon Books) covers the array of horror tropes from vampires to the urban legend in twenty, new, mostly brief stories. In addition, Morton writes about each story in an afterword.

The Odd Ghosts by Maynard Sims (Enigmatic Press) is a collection of eight brief original tales by the writing duo M.P.N Sims & L.H Maynard heralding another collection coming out in 2012. All the stories are well-worth reading.

The Butterfly Man and Other Stories by Paul Kane (PS Publishing) has eighteen stories, most published within the past three years, with four original to the collection. With an introduction by Christopher Golden.

Ex Occident Press brought out several collections including The Peacock Escritoire by Mark Valentine, which collects thirteen stories (six published for the first time); Allurements of Cabochon by John Gale with seventeen stories and prose poems; The Bestiary of Communion by Stephen J. Clark with three novellas; The Mauve Embellishments by Charles Schneider (Passport Levant) is a fascinating collection of twenty-three weird, surreal, and occasionally dark and gruesome vignettes, stories, and poems, each illustrated by the author (this last is the only one seen).

Long Shadows, Nightmare Light by Mark Morris (PS Publishing) is the author’s third collection and includes fifteen stories published over the past eighteen years, with two very good originals. Introduction by Christopher Golden.

The Uncanny Valley: Tales from a Lost Town by Gregory Miller (Stone-Garden.net publishing) has thirty-three short tales told by the inhabitants of the small Pennsylvania town of the title. Most of the stories have been published previously and they lovingly depict the weird happenings that occur until the town’s demise.

Picking the Bones is by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance Publications) who is an excellent short story writer and this is his fourth collection. Three of the seventeen stories appear for the first time, one is from a sort-of-a-shared world anthology that was never published.

The Last Days of Kali Yuga by Paul Haines (Brimstone Press) is the third collection of raw, unflinching dark fiction by the multi-award winning Australian writer. All but one of the twenty stories and novellas are reprints. Included is his acclaimed, harrowing novella “Wives.”

Two Worlds and In Between The Best of Caitlín R. Kiernan (Volume One) (Subterranean Press) is, at 600 pages, a very generous helping of this excellent writer’s short fiction output between 1993 and 2004. A must-have for fans of Kiernan’s dark fictions. Her background in geology and vertebrate paleontology infuse her science fiction work as well as her Lovecraftian influenced stories.

Stories from the Plague Years by Michael Marano (Cemetery Dance Publications) is the author’s debut collection and brings together nine stories and novellas (two original to the collection) published in a variety of venues in print and online, beginning in 1995. John Shirley provides the introduction and the author provides individual story notes.

We Live Inside You by Jeremy Robert Johnson (Swallowdown Press) contains eighteen very readable stories and short-shorts of crime, horror, and sf/horror, all but one reprints.

The Devil’s Dictionary, Tales, and Memoirs by Ambrose Bierce (Library of America) collects four books and an additional eight stories. Edited and with notes and chronology by S. T. Joshi.

The Engines of Sacrifice by James Chambers (Dark Regions Press) is a well-written interconnected collection of four Lovecraftian novellas.

Campfire Chillers by Dave Jeffery (Dark Continents Publishing) contains thirteen brief tales of nasty things that happen to those who go camping.

Voices: Tales of Horror by Lawrence C. Connolly (Fantastist Enterprises) is a collection of thirteen stories published between 1982 and 2010, with two new ones. Each comes with commentary by the author.

Talespinning by David J. Howe (Telos Publishing)) has seventeen new and previously published short stories and movie scripts by a writer who is better known as the publisher of Telos.