This one is the new short story collection by an ex-local writer to me - the rare talent that is Mr Simon Bestwick.
Due to issues with the publishing house - just google ChiZine Publications if you want an idea of what those problems are - this book may not be particularly easy to get hold of for a while. Simon has asked for people not to buy the ChiZine edition because of the issues - and he is seeking a new home for the collection.
I hope he finds one soon, or that ChiZine can clean their house sufficiently to be trusted, because this is a fantastically good collection of stories that deserves a much larger readership.
It opens with an introduction by one of Simon's greatest influences and mentor - the one and only Ramsey Campbell - who offers his own insight into the stories without any spoilers - something I hope to emulate.
You may have noticed the front cover reads "Tales of Childhood, regret. and innocence lost. And these are themes that recur throughout the 15 stories in this book. It's not an upbeat selection of tales by any stretch of the imagination although it's certainly not without a smattering of humour where needed (usually almost as black as humour can be before it's indistinguishable from something entirely different). A couple of stories feature plot twists that, in lesser hands, would have seem trite and cliched, but in the assured hands of Mr Bestwick they work. They scare us, move us and disturb us.
On to the stories then...
Dermot - this story is one of the sickest openings to a collection I've seen in a long long time. The locations are drawn perfectly. I know the bus stop where the story begins very well. We're introduced to our title character, sitting, first waiting for and then on, the bus to his destination. Something about him makes people queasy and dirty. The first couple of pages left me wanting to wash my hands, or my brain. The scene then shifts to a strange unit at the local police station, the officers are waiting for a visitor with some information. The end of this story is pretty much the definition of horror.
Beneath the Sun - A boy grieving the loss of his mother has a strange encounter with something not human on the moors near his home.Again the landscape is fantastically well realised, distorted through the boy's grief as it is. This is one of the shortest tales in the book but is just as effective as any of the longer ones. The ending is poignant and shocking.
The Moraine - In this one, the landscape IS the bad thing. Our unlucky bickering couple are lost on the moors when they hear a dog barking in the mist. From that point on the terror is unstoppable. This one is so tense that my fingers almost left gouge marks on the cover. A variant on Tremors (although we never know exactly what is under there) that works brilliantly well
Comfort your dead - a moving story of love that can't be allowed to happen. as this story moves on we feel glimmers of hope for the narrator - but this is a Simon Bestwick story and the ending pulls the rug out from under our feet.
The School House - the longest story so far. A nightmare that flits between a mental hospital where a junior member of staff reluctantly agrees to help with a new guest - an ex schoolfriend - and flashbacks to the school they both attended. Both locations are equally horrific and the gradual reveal of the plot is excellent. This is by turns moving and difficult to read (for all the right reasons) and downright scary.
Left Behind - A young man is offered a chance to leave the neighbourhood he grew up in, but what will he need to sacrifice to leave this place behind? The answer was... unpredictable. This one completely blindsided me.
Hushabye - I do have an issue with this story. The geography of Salford is wrong. You can't turn off Langworthy road directly onto Brindleheath. Other than the geographical error, this is a strong tale of a man who stumbles across a weird creature that's been attacking local children, and his subsequent hunt to catch it and save any other children.
A Small Cold Hand - a deeply emotional story of grief and how it haunts people. I can't say much more in case of spoilers, but this is one of my favourites in the collection.
The Proving ground - proving that less is more, this tells more in the gaps in the narrative than in the details we're given. Extremely unpleasant and disturbing - which as usual - that's a good thing here.
Angels of the Silences - a pair of dead girls roaming the streets of Manchester watching out for and protecting the gang they hung with before they were murdered. The two ghost girls are great company to ride along with in this novella. The story does follow a fairly predictable route but is no less fun for that. We feel happy and sad and whatever else that arch-manipulator Simon wants us to feel on behalf of the two goth ghost girls.
And Dream of Avalon - A man goes on a trip down memory lane - not the right thing to do in a Bestwick story, even if the memories are, remarkably, fairly positive in this one. This is one of those stories that demonstrates that fresh talent can breathe life into an overused trope.
Winters end - A heartwarming love story, except for the strange things that haunt the narrator's beloved and throw possibly insurmountable barriers into the relationship. This features the central character from Hushabye, having slightly more fun than he had in his first outing - well at the start of the story at least.
They Wait - the terror of growing old and the terror of disenfranchised youth meet in this story. Another powerful and moving tale.
The children of Moloch - A truly nasty story, set in another horrific public school. Two children turn to the supernaatural for help to escape their tormentors. The misery inflicted human to human in this story is easily as shocking as any supernatural revenge that gets dished out.
And Cannot Come Again - our title story has all the trappings of a ghost/supernatural monster story. A man is called back to the town where he spent his summers as a child to face the repercussions of his actions twenty years earlier. Again this story uses a fractured timeline between the events of the past and modern day. Again the gradual reveal of the story is masterful. The use of foreshadowing and backshadowing (is that a thing?) is a real pleasure to read, and the ending is as emotional as it is scary.
The writing is clear and concise throughout, and occasionally deeply metaphorical but without ever risking alienating a casual reader. These stories often feature deeper resonances and layers of meaning without ever bogging down the surface stories. That takes real talent.
I really hope that the issues behind this publication can be sorted out. This is a fantastic collection without a single weak story. A Small Cold Hand and They Wait were the standouts for me from a very good collection indeed.
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