I would like to thank the author and Black Shuck Books for an advance copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher - Black Shuck Books

Published - Out Now

Price - £5.99 paperback £1.49 ebook via https://blackshuckbooks.co.uk/shadows-37/

Black Shuck Shadows brings you a pocket-size sample from the best in modern horror.

Archeology and horror always seem to be connected. We have the obvious cursed objects that exist in myths like the Cure of Tutankhamen but also this is sometimes grave robbing, disturbing what is hidden and breaking boundaries which the likes of MR James have used often to compelling effect. Now in Steve Toase’s very good horror collection Dirt Upon My Skin we have a great and inventive mix of stories using archeology to chill us.

Among the tales I enjoyed were-

The Ercildoun Accord - we have a very practical smart archaeologist digging and retrieving bodies from graves. But quickly the reader is wrongfooted and we realise our main character is working in a work covered by the land of faerie and they are not happy about his presence. The nature of reality gets changed all the time here as various deadly tricks get played and our character has to get out of them. It’s made clear these fae are the nasty type whose bargains aim to destroy people and the rising is threats while our main character is on the ball most of the time it only takes one slip for them to pounce. How long can luck hold? Really impressive and the use of nature being changed into something dark and magical is very well done.

To Rectify In Silver - an archaeologist working on pictures of dogs spots a Neolithic stone site appear to change before her eyes. A compelling mystery as our sympathetic lead is constantly demeaned by her boss while the site pulls her towards it. A rising dread that she is in over her head is keeping threader on the toes but cleverly also we find out she has a few secrets too driving us to an unusual tale of magical revenge.

God In A Box - a clever funny very short take of an archeology who finds a small god on site. It’s funny until it ends troubling you as to what happens next. Very smartly told.

Dirt Upon My Skin - the title story is a superb tale of two archeologies in a rundown empty town of strange houses and one goes missing. As the remaining archeology makes her away searching through houses the strange sites within each tale make the reader more and more uncomfortable. Strange signs on doors, a sense of building terror and then the chilling final scene comes together beautifully and the scares are delivered powerfully.

Traverse - I am very impressed how Toase uses the language of archeological surveys to create a horror tale. In this case we get the more simple and dry language of a dig diary mixed in with the team leader’s building puzzlement and frustration at weird locals and her colleague’s mistakes. As we know she is about to disappear then the slow piecing together of clues as to what is going on really works.

Tuppence A Bag - this tale starts in an old factory warehouse filled with dead birds who roosted here. Our young archeology is just doing some urban city work when an accident unleashes a horrific attack that gets even more apocalyptic. I love the way this raised the stakes and goes from folk horror to something truly bigger and unnatural making it even more terrifying for the character.

Horn and Hoof - this tale intelligently looks at the dangers of archeology crossing with commercial building. The discovery of an ancient site is not always welcomed with open arms. The realness of the situation and a truly annoying building manager sets the scene that something is going to happen but the final sequence is a skilled piece of making the reader look in the wrong direction and so comes across as a shocking finale.

Terminus Post Quem - the second tale to use a report structure and for me one of the strongest. The language of a find is all the story does with the results of the tests but a bowl somehow with finger bones in it starts to unsettle - it’s the wrongness of the item that builds up our wariness of it and simply, powerfully we get to a conclusion all is not well. Extremely well told!

Zaun Konig - a grizzled veteran archeology tells us of a younger colleague who he worked with on a dog that goes horribly wrong. The gritty realness of what life is like on digs builds the texture and depth making the place come alive. This is then juxtaposed with his colleagues increasingly scary behaviour and the final set of reveals suggests a much more powerful set of events is in store you don’t expect.

This is a very good skilled set of horror tales that are effective and inventive in ways to scare readers. I loved the mix of subject and how the supernatural could make things so so much worse. Strongly recommended to horror fans!