recent read; Best New Horror: Volume 25 edited by Stephen Jones

It's hard to go wrong with any of these The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror anthologies from Stephen Jones.

This volume came out in 2014, and contains stories from 2013. It also includes a dense "Introduction: Horror in 2013" which informs about all manner of publications in the horror field for 2013. The only drawback is that titles are embedded in the prose. You'll need to distill your own list, if you are interested in following up on any of the mentioned books.

The stories are all quality, I don't need to review each one. A few weren't to my taste, which is nearly always a given with any anthology. Some of my favorites were "Click-clack the Rattlebag" by Neil Gaiman, "The Middle Park" by Michael Chislett, "Into The Water" by Simon Kurt Unsworth (an Innsmouthian tale,) and "The Sixteenth Step" by Robert Shearman.

The volume also includes the entire novella, "Whitstable" by Stephen Volk, featuring a fictionalized account of Peter Cushing's off-screen life as he deals with a real life monster. Well done and worth the read.

The thick volume ends with "Necrology: 2013," which, sadly, is an "in memoriam" essay. Many people were lost to the horror field in 2013.

As I said at the top, you can't really go wrong with any of these. Worth having. Worth reading.

p.s.; Jones has been republishing earlier volumes through PS Publishing for e-book editions. New ones are e-book and hardcover. (Dropping the The Mammoth Book Of... moniker.) They have new EC Comic style covers, too.

recent loot; Innsmouth & Dark Detectives

My Cthulhu Mythos tangent continues - along with a bonus. I learned about a deal on the hardcover edition of Stephen Jones' Dark Detectives, which I've had my eye on for a while now.  I was able to bundle in the three Jones' Innsmouth anthologies with the deal.

I hemmed and hawed. I really do want to curb the book acquisitions this year. It's not just money - bookcase space is at a premium in my house.

But these were just too good to pass up.  Still pricey, but I'd say I bought them at 2/3 their price, and they are new.

If you are more interested in the stories and aren't willing to pony up the hardcover prices, all four books are (or will be by March) available as ebooks and paperbacks.