The Judgement Call by Simon Bestwick & Along The Long Road by Penny Jones

Publisher – Fox Spirit

Published – Out Now

Price - £6.00 paperback £2.99 Kindle eBook

A car crash and a cabin full of strangers where everyone has a secret. A night out in the Countryside goes horribly wrong. Just desserts perhaps, or just bad luck. Whatever you decide, a lonely road in the dark will hold new horrors. Turn the radio up and be careful of wrong turns. Two short stories of rural horror from newcomer on the British Horror Scene Penny Jones and the established horror favourite Simon Bestwick

The end of the year is a desolate time – cold, wet, dark and despite the festive season we also seem to have a sense that this time of the year gets associated with death too with winter making the world a more dangerous place. Winter horror stories have a long tradition from MR James and Dickens. Towards the colder end of the spectrum is the short double bill from Fox Spirit that contains two rather good spine chillers. A short duo that may be perfect reading with the lights down low and the wind howling outside

Along the Long Road by Penny Jones - Beth has very little joy in her life with an ailing mother and a job that feels like there is little real joy in her life. She has a more outgoing friend in Sienna who loves to take the initiative at work or in her personal life. Beth is invited for a summer drive by Sienna and her boyfriend Adam, but they’ve not been completely honest about what is going on. Loved how in a few pages we get to see the two women’s real relationship and how our sympathies go to Beth as the situation gets incredibly cruel, disturbing and awful; making the actual ending both tragic, horrific and understandable. Very impressed with the ambiguity I felt in the end

The Judgement Call by Simon Bestwick – Miles like Chris Rhea is driving home for Christmas and has an accident on a dark remote country road. He gets rescued and finds himself in a strange cottage with five strangers. Miles finds out that all of them are now trapped with a mysterious force outside slowly whittling them down. This is a clever short story comprised of even shorter stories as we meet and find the five’s life stories – portmanteau horror in miniature. The horror here is about what people have done in difficult situations and we see the definition of evil get explored and we ourselves have to test our own morality on who may be guilty and despite that some other powers may disagree with us leading to grisly fates. An unsettling tale in many ways as our own morality gets tested.