This collection of stories by different authors are supposed to be dark and bizarre. It cuts across genres and is rarely dull.
The first one is by Holly Rae Garcia. I am so used to reading serious, chilly fiction that it never occurred to me you can write a funny story and make the murder almost pleasant. Garcia surprises you with her writing style and the humorous take with her story “The Many Indiscretions of Agent 592.”
“Drunk on the Moon” by Paul Brazill. The ending is predictable as the title but the narration is funny and almost the rhyming way the protagonist speaks with lovely descriptive language. The title is a dead giveaway
"Lance Hardwick Mysteries" by Viktor Aurelius and Jeff Niles – the authors are no more but they were voice actors on radio shows and this story was therefore in the radio show format. I enjoyed reading it aloud though my family gave me strange looks which is only to be expected. It is too longish if you try to read it like a short story and so pretend you are doing a radio show.
“Skin Flicks” by Jesse Rawlins is filled with unexpected turns and ends well. “Death Answers” by Kimberly Godwin is interesting and suspenseful to the end. There is no way you can guess anything and both the stories have some truly insightful lines apart from the mystery element.
"Butcher Baby" by Jason Norton is a story that starts dull, picks up pace and ends up like a horror movie. I would say it is a cross between Dan Brown novels and Slasher movies rolled into a short story. I was truly surprised.
“Company Man” by Tom Pitts was the best one I read as the end caught me completely by surprise though the term is not serial killer but hitman.
“Light at the End of the Tunnel” is by Mark Slade who appears to have compiled and edited the collection. We are now in proper, old fashioned private detective territory and the end is too realistic that it almost disappoints.
Wolf in Wolf’s Clothing by Michael Martin Garret. I was surprised to learn the author is a female and what a clever way to narrate a story.
“Paint it Black” by Jim Shaffer is almost poetic and the characters are interesting. There is a line in the story, “All clues don't lead to solution you can live with” which is so insightful. It is about a group of friends who one day get to know that their friend has been murdered and go about trying to solve the case.
“Final Theory” by G.Wayne Miller is in the screenplay format which hooks at the beginning but not very satisfying. Felt incomplete to me.
"Dracula: Private Eye and the demon skull of Badakari" by Andy Raush is an absolute gem of a story. Dracula is a private detective and is asked to look into a robbery, discovers a cult, what more can you ask for?
"Teddy Bear! Kill! Kill!" by Phil Thomas made me think “eh, what the hell to damn this can happen.” It is well written and fast paced.
“The Kind of Woman who doesn’t make men happy” by T. Fox Dunham is about a narcoleptic woman who is suspicious of her husband because of her condition and has a detective investigate him. Seems too straightforward right? That is just when all things unexpected begin to happen.
“Voyeur” by Kimberley Godwin was a huge surprise though you know it is about a couple’s supernatural sexual problem. The author surprises you when you least expect it and narrates it fantastically.
The collection is both insightful and delightful and will make a good read as it cuts across genres and formats, the authors ensure the story is interesting – Halloween or no Halloween.
If you wish to buy it, you can buy it here
