I would like to thank Flame Tress Press and Anne from Random Things Tours for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for affair and honest review

Publisher – Flame Tress Press

Published – Out Now

Price – £9.95 paperback £3.82 Kindle eBook

Darkness Beckons is the fourth volume in the non-themed horror series of entirely original stories, showcasing the very best short fiction that the genre has to offer, and edited by Mark Morris. This new anthology contains 20 original horror stories, 16 of which have been commissioned from some of the top names in the genre, and 4 of which have been selected from the 100s of stories sent to Flame Tree during a 2-week open submissions window. A terrifying cocktail of the familiar and the new, the established and the emerging.

Previous titles in the series, all still in print are After Sundown, Beyond the Veil and Close to Midnight.

With horror short fiction the reader is always looking for the trapdoor or what is awaiting you around the corner or via the door. The anticipation and suspense is just as crucial to the eventual reveal of the threat. I tend to think even more so. In Mark Morris’ cunningly titles Darkness Beckons we get a great collection of modern horror stories where the reader is on edge throughout

Among the stories I enjoyed were

Hare Moon by HV Patterson – an unusual mix of SF future tale and folk horror. Our narrator and her family have been chosen for the annual festival as a key part of the day. We get a constant unsettling set of scenes, a headless hare, very worried parents and sinister doctors and priests. Things are off from the start, and we know it is going to get worse and it really really does. Sacrifices are hard choices indeed in this story.

Under Cover of Darkness by Stephen Volk – a topical tale with an unusual narrator – a funeral director. A prominent celebrity he buried is now known to have committed serious crimes and work is underway to remove all trace of him. Volk achieves a worrying degree of menace just by explaining the situation and we can’t quite see where the horror of the story will come from. Its magnificently taut and keeps us on our toes until the very end. It really created a sense of menacing dread throughout.

Dusk by Angela Slatter – A nurse who is not a nurse tends to a very wealthy old lady in her isolated mansion. Slatter ads a touch of noir as we follow the main character Sissy who is in serious need of cash and this job is the only way to do it. Slatter though makes us wonder what else is wrong with the picture we are seeing. A house that has secrets; an elderly patient who cannot talk; a housekeeper not telling the truth and it all suggests something is being underestimated and when it comes out of the blue it takes us still by surprise. Very effective storytelling.

A Face Leaving No Traces by Brian Evenson - this is my favourite in the collection. Our narrator wakes in his sleep believing he is bitten and thinks there may have been a face at the window. It’s a single night of a tale where it weaves our narrator’s past and possible future battles against a former lover into a terrifying context. Evenson doesn’t explain things greatly leaving just hints and suggestions of what may have happened and what the foe (if there is one) may be capable of. Everything has a sinister edge to it from streetlamps to our narrator’s kind wife. We are left to face a new day and have no idea what awaits our character next and that is terrifying.

Good Bones by Sarah Read – Jim is a useless but desperate handyman and is hoping an elderly neighbour offers work, but this job is full of nasty surprises. Body horror, nasty creatures and a high degree of making the reader squirm makes this very effective horror.

Facts Concerning The Disappearance of the Orloff Six by Alyssa C Greene – a very impressive found footage tale of a famous 1990’s mystery where six young people vanished without a trace and now one of their relative and her student friends re-trace their footsteps. I loved the exploration of how such stories grow arms and legs in various conspiracy groups but then as the journey starts, we get a sense that there is a lot more to the tale few understand and its likely going to be too late for this modern group to avoid their own brush with death and danger. Very well crafted and melancholy.

He Wasn’t There Again Today by Peter Atkins – It feels like a standard urban fantasy detective tale as Kitty Donnolly Occult Detective is asked to investigate the case of someone seeing a ghost (but of someone who hasn’t died).  It’s a good hook but is further enhanced by Kitty’s no-nonsense voice and she’s a fascinating character with a past as a drug dealer just one of her many other jobs and there is a delicious dark strand that only comes apparent at the very end. A really impressive story.

Dodger by Carly Holmes - Another favourite in the collection as its so unsettling. Lorna is attending a party and suddenly a strange child grabs her calling her Mummy. Then her husband also says its their child. A troubling Jacksonesque tale of making us wonder like Lorna what is going on and how do you deal with such a solution. It is uncomfortable and touches on ideas of what women are expected to be when they are apparently a mother. It keeps us worried all the way through.

The Service by Ally Wilkes – Another impressive story where we are with the staff of a rundown seaside hotel. One whose strange owners have unusual rituals such as being served in total silence. Wilkes throws in lots of good ideas such as how immigrant labour is used and abused; how bosses treat people and then slowly sets in strange ideas that leads to a set of conclusions and dangers. Our main character Karolina must decide is she in danger and what can she do about it. Its wonderfully ambiguous and we must decide what actually happened and neither idea is a great one.

The late Mrs Applegarth by Mark Gatiss - a widower eats a meal seems fairly straightforward, but this neatly very short tale serves up a fine final course of a last line.

The Fig Tree by Lucie McKnight Hardy – folk horror in modern Wales as a young family find a strange house in an increasingly strange village. Lots of odd sights slowly coalesce into a very disturbing an horrific finale and its very deliciously dark.

Il Crepuscolo by Helen Marshall is another magnificent, troubling tale that has the feel of doom throughout starting with the future drowning of Venice and Europe entering a dark age. The human race start to look towards new cities I the stars and our main character designs his tribute to Venice on Mars but things start to go wrong again and again. Its weeping epic almost horror opera in how things fall apart, and we wonder if the end has come once and for all. Beautiful storytelling.

A very impressive set of stories await the reader and even the ones I did not respond to where more cases where the style wasn’t to my tastes. Perfect for dark and cold evenings as enter the more eerie part of the year and strongly recommended!