After Sundown

After Sundown is a collection of twenty horror short stories edited by Mark Morris. The contributors are published authors.

BUTTERFLY ISLAND (C.J.Tudor) is set in a post-viral world and features flesh-eating butterflies, a psychotic maniac, mines and some greedy, gun-happy opportunists. 4/5

RESEARCH (Tim Lebbon) an author ends up inside a plot that could easily be his own. 5/5

SWANSKIN (Alison Littlewood) a fishing town with wintering swans, beautiful women and cruel men. 4/5

THAT'S THE SPIRIT (Sarah Lotz) a fraud psychic with an elderly sidekick and electronic aids begins to wonder about the "messages: his assistant denies sending. 5/5

GAVE (Michael Bailey) a regular donor does what he can for a diminishing population 2.5/5

WHEREVER YOU LOOK (Ramsey Campbell) an author of supernatural thrillers finds himself being haunted by a character. 5/5

SAME TIME NEXT YEAR (Angela Slatter) the one light of the year when ghostly Cindy has some weight is not a good night to hang around the cemetery. 5/5

MINE SEVEN (Elana Gomel) when Lena and Bill go on an Arctic winter vacation, the melting ice unleashes a very old curse. 5/5

IT DOESN'T FEEL RIGHT (Michael Marshall Smith) a father discovers that his is not the only child in the neighbourhood whose socks initiate a "doesn't feel right" tantrum. 5/5

CREEPING IVY (Laura Purcell) a nineteenth Century garden lover's plants take revenge for her murder. 4/5

LAST RITES FOR THE FOURTH WORLD (Rick Cross) mythical monsters turn up dead in strange places. 3/5

WE ALL COME HOME (Simon Bestwick) a man returns to the site of a childhood trauma to face a repressed memory. 4/5

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORAL HYGIENE (Robert Shearman) a woman writes a letter of warning to her husband's lover. 5/5

BOKEH (Thana Niveau) Vera's daughter sees fairies, but no the Tinkerbelle kind. 4/5

MURDER BOARD (Grady Hendrix) a Ouija board session sets off a string of deadly events. 5/5

ALICE'S REBELLION (John Langan) post-Wonderland, Alice finds her battles not yet over. 4/5

THE MIRROR HOUSE (Jonathan Robbins Leon) a wife discovers an alternate reality in the pantry. 4/5

THE NAUGHTY STEP (Stephen Volk) a social worker comes to care for a little boy at a murder scene. 5/5

A HOTEL IN GERMANY (Catriona Ward) a movie star and her personal vampire(?) on location in Germany. 3/5

BRANCH LINE (Paul Finch) at almost sixty, Richard Gates is questioned about the disappearance, over forty years earlier, of his classmate, Brian O'Rourke in the abandoned Branch Line. 4/5

This collection is a mixed bag: some are excellent, and five of the stories, Research, That's The Spirit, Wherever You Look, It Doesn't Feel Right, and Murder Board, are quite outstanding.

This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Flame Tree Press.