Whew, I better up my posts here and get with the program. There are eighteen days left in Halloween, *cough* October. And after this review, eighteen stories.

Convenient.

I have always worked better under pressure...so here's my thoughts on Simon Stranzas' It Runs Beneath the Surface.

Urban. Dark. Surreal?

It's short; slightly less than eight pages long. I like this in a story, particularly when it's unambiguous and well-written. It does what I want it to in creating a need in this writer to become more succinct; become clear and create a tale with fewer words that still has enough momentum to keep you from clicking the bed lamp off too soon.

It's a tale you can read more than once and still take something from. Stranzas paints a city with very minimal strokes, yet the reader gets the details needed. You have an older, disheartened shrink, and a young one who seems to want to change the world, a mysterious patient and the subway.

By the end of this tale the reader will look at shadows, dirt, and oil with a small, new found fear. While this tale may not be as concrete as the first, now have a tentative happy ending. I am satisfied. I am more frightened and generally creeped out than with the first.

Next is: Lynda E. Rucker's These Things We Have Always Known.

Front Page McGuffin

I often wonder how the editors of anthologies choose the order they place the fiction between the covers. Do they select for length, content, or simply whoever bought their last drink?

Peter Crowther's Front Page McGuffin and the Greatest Story Never Told is what editor Stephen Jones placed first in Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 20. And it's a solid numero uno, both intriguing and making you wish to read just one more.

My only quibble with this tale is with the title and not the work itself. FPMGSNT-is even long as an acronym. It feels like they couldn't choose between two titles.

Pick one.

Frankly, Front Page McGuffin is good and makes you wonder what it's about. Greatest Story Never Told seems for another work, especially since I don't know what it refers to even after reading the story.

Twice.

Crowther grabs you with his intro: "It's not always as easy as you'd think to tell dead folks from those that are still alive, and certainly not by where you happen to find them."

I love it because I want to know where this is heading. Crowther's conversational style is exercised with skill and I love the ebb and flow of it. Here is a story of life and death, love, brotherhood and friendship. There are some supernatural and creep-out elements in it but nothing over the top. Ultimately it's a people story.

The author's characterization is so deep that I credit it for not understanding which story isn't being told, as each person we truly meet seems to have ALOT going on we don't know about.

The world you step into in twenty-four pages is rich and full of life. You'll want to sit down and have a drink with these guys. You'll see and smell them. You'll want to know more about their family.

This is my introduction to Crowther's work and I feel strongly these characters are part of a much larger piece.

This world reminds me of Simon R. Green', and I adore it.

All in all, this is a story worthy of the wordy editor, and I feel promises that were made in those pages (here are the best of the horror field) have been kept thus far.

Next up: Simon Stranzas It Runs Beneath the Surface.