Call Drops: A Horror Story by John F Leonard

Vincent likes nothing more than rootling round second-hand shops in search of the interesting and unusual. Items that are lost and forgotten.
Why not? He needs the diversion. Time on his hands and money to burn. His life is affluent and empty. Little on the horizon and memories tinged bittersweet.
That’s all about to change. He’s about to find something that is perhaps better left unfound.

CALL DROPS is a darkly swirling mix of horror and mystery that will stay with you long after the reading is done. It’ll maybe make you think twice about impulse buying, those moments when you simply must have something, even though you don’t need it.
It might cause you to look again at the apparently mundane and everyday ...and possibly, just possibly, wonder at what twisted marvels lurk within your mobile phone....
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Oddly enough, telephones have often been a source of nightmares for me. I do mean that literally, not just that I dislike talking on the phone. In my dreams it's a land line of the old fashioned rotary dial type. In this story it's a cell phone. A simple older slider model with no inner workings and no service provider that somehow manages to ring anyway, bringing brief but disturbing messages for it's new owner. The first time the phone rings it's shocking, as is the information Vincent is given by the disembodied voice when he answers the call. Further calls lead to far more gruesome discoveries. This was a short but shuddersome read that I would recommend to all who love horror and dark fiction.

I received a complimentary copy for review.


About the author
John was born in England and grew up in the industrial midlands, where he learned to love the sound of scrapyard dogs and the rattle and clank of passing trains.

He studied English, Art and History and has, at different times, been a sculptor, odd-job man and office worker. He enjoys horror and comedy (not necessarily together).

He has published eight books. Congeal, The Bledbrooke Works, A Plague of Pages, Bad Pennies, Doggem, Call Drops, Collapse and 4 Hours, and is currently working on a number of projects which include more tales from the Dead Boxes Archive and the Scaeth Mythos, and new stories set in the ever evolving, post-apocalyptic world of Collapse.

Catch up on Twitter: @john_f_leonard

Tales in Sombre Tones by by Sean Walter and Karen Ruffles

Lock the doors, close the blinds and settle in with this anthology of illustrated horror stories. Velvet dark imagery leads you into haunting tales that will stay with you long after the lights have gone out. Drawing on folklore and nightmares, exploring modern versions of classic stories and bringing original, inventive new horrors, this is a collection that takes the reader on a stunning journey into the world just behind the shadows.

 

 

Tales In Sombre Tones contains 24 deliciously disturbing bite sized morsels of dark fiction that I tried to savor slowly like a box of expensive chocolates, but the urge for just one more got the better of me. Before I knew it I had consumed them all. The gorgeous artwork on the cover is just a hint of what's inside.

Each story begins with a full size illustration and I will allow you just a peek at what awaits you. I admit that upon receiving my copy I immediately flipped through to look at all the pictures and tried to imagine what each story was about. I do love illustrated horror! There are tales of vengeance and loss, unusual people, and supernatural creatures. My favorites were probably the stories of monsters, things under the bed, and strangers stumbling through the fog together while I wondered which would make it to their destination. I would highly recommend this anthology to all horror readers and those who enjoy dark fiction.

I received a complimentary copy for review.

 

 

 

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About the author

Sean Walter is an author living in Portland, Oregon. He writes primarily dark fiction and bizarre concepts.

 

Karen Ruffles is a reviewer for Screamfix and a self employed artist of horror, dark fantasy, wildlife and landscapes.

 

 

The Best Horror of the Year, Volume 11 Edited by Ellen Datlow

Description

For more than three decades, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror readers crave.

Encompassed in the pages of The Best Horror of the Year have been such illustrious writers as:
Neil Gaiman Kim Stanley Robinson Stephen King Linda Nagata Laird Barron Margo Lanagan And many others

With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. But this light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows. It is a catalog of terror, fear, and unpleasantness as articulated by today’s most challenging and exciting writers.

 

I love short horror stories and although I have not read all 11 volumes of The Best Horror Of The Year, Volume 11 stands out as my favorite among the few that I have read. There are stories that are quite disturbing (Thumbsucker by Robert Shearman and The Donner Party by Dale Bailey for example) and stories that are frightening (Milkteeth by Kristi DeMeester) But my absolute favorites were those that featured people away from their homes facing strange customs such as in "White Mare" by Thana Niveau When a father and daughter claim an inheritance and get caught up in a tradition far different than the Halloween festivities they are used to at home, and Golden Sun where a family on vacation will be forever changed.

There is something for every horror fan in these pages whether you are looking for thrills, scares or scifi.

I received an advance copy for review.

 

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Recursion by Blake Crouch

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dark Matter and the Wayward Pines trilogy comes a relentless thriller about time, identity, and memory—his most ambitious, mind-boggling, irresistible work to date.

Memory makes reality. That’s what New York City cop Barry Sutton is learning as he investigates the devastating phenomenon the media has dubbed False Memory Syndrome—a mysterious affliction that drives its victims mad with memories of a life they never lived.

Neuroscientist Helena Smith already understands the power of memory. It’s why she’s dedicated her life to creating a technology that will let us preserve our most precious moments of our pasts. If she succeeds, anyone will be able to re-experience a first kiss, the birth of a child, the final moment with a dying parent.

As Barry searches for the truth, he comes face-to-face with an opponent more terrifying than any disease—a force that attacks not just our minds but the very fabric of the past. And as its effects begin to unmake the world as we know it, only he and Helena, working together, will stand a chance at defeating it.

But how can they make a stand when reality itself is shifting and crumbling all around them?

I have been a huge fan of Blake Crouch since long before any of his books were turned into TV shows and I won't be surprised if this novel ends up as a TV series too, a movie wouldn't do it justice.
Barry Sutton is a cop investigating False Memory Syndrome, a strange disorder that causes sufferers of this malady to recall in perfect detail memories of living an entirely different life than the one they really have. Nobody knows what causes it or whether it is possibly contagious but once someone has False Memory Syndrome those in their close social circles seem to come down with it as well.
Helena Smith is a brilliant Neuroscientist who has been working on way to preserve memories in hopes of helping her mother who is rapidly forgetting everything and everyone to Alzheimer's. Her technology is successful beyond anyone's imagination and can give users the ability not just to remember the past but to relive it. What could possibly go wrong? When Barry is given the "gift" of a chance to relive the past and be a better father, son and husband he will find out what can go wrong, on more than one timeline.
This book will blow your mind.
I received an advance copy for review.
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About the author
Blake Crouch is a bestselling novelist and screenwriter. He is the author of the forthcoming novel, Dark Matter, for which he is writing the screenplay for Sony Pictures. His international-bestselling Wayward Pines trilogy was adapted into a television series for FOX, executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan, that was Summer 2015’s #1 show. With Chad Hodge, Crouch also created Good Behavior, the TNT television show starring Michelle Dockery based on his Letty Dobesh novellas. He has written more than a dozen novels that have been translated into over thirty languages and his short fiction has appeared in numerous publications including Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine. Crouch lives in Colorado with his family.