Ron K. (WhidbeyIslander) -
As usual, a mixed bag of near-great to near-poor stories.
Contents (and my * to ***** ranking):
- Objects in Dreams may be closer than they Appear (Lisa Tuttle) - Ex-married couple encounter a house that locals claim doesn't exist. *****
- Pied-A-Terre (Stephen Volk) - a woman has a strange experience while viewing a house for sale. *****
- In the Absence of Murdock (Terry Lamsley)- after a writer disappears, a man looking for him discovers his house has strange properties. ***
- Florrie (Adam L.G. Nevill) - a man seemed possessed by a house's former occupant. *
- Driving the Milky Way (Weston Ochse) - The disappearance of three young friends in an Arizona desert haunts a fourth. ****
- The Windmill (Rebecca Levene) - A convict sees sights from his cell window that disturb him, but not his strange cellmate. **
- Moretta (Gary Kilworth) - Deaths occur in an old house formerly owned by a woman obsessed with dark things. *****
- Hortus Conclusus (Chaz Brenchley) - friend of a dead man visit his home and mother in order to clean up his overgrown garden but experience an unusually high number of accidents. ****
- The Dark Space in the House in the House in the garden at the Centre of the World (Robert Shearman) - a naive couple can't seem to follow God's simple warnings. ***
- The Muse of Copenhagen (Nina Allan) - a man inherits his late uncle's seaside home but finds more inside than he bargained for. ****
- An Injustice (Christopher Fowler) - ghost-hunters are surprised by what they discover in a rundown row house in London. ****
- The Room Upstairs (Sarah Pinborough) - A thief waiting for a robbery to be planned rents a room in a widow's home, but finds his sleep disturbed night after night. ***
- Villanova (Paul Meloy) - An English father takes his two daughters to a French camping site where tragedy had befallen a similar family. **
- Widow's Weeds (Christopher Priest) - A magician visits a woman who asks to learn his secrets while having some of her own. ***
- The Doll's House (Jonathan Green) - A harried housewife is upset when her mother brings her a childhood toy that she hated then, and which now seems to get back at her for it. ***
- Inside/Out (Nicholas Royle) - A man is disoriented in a house with two seemingly coexisiting parts. **
- The House (Eric Brown) - An author of children's books is approached about putting on a play which he feels will lead to more tragedy for the actors in it. ****
- Trick of the Light (Tim Lebbon) - A woman whose husband went missing seven years before buys an isolated house and experiences uncanny feelings about a room in a tower. ****
- What Happened to me (Joe R. Lansdale) College roommates experience disconcerting events that lead two of the three to abandon the house they are renting and the third to try and find out what's going on by finding the last living member of the house's former family. *****
Contents (and my * to ***** ranking):
- Objects in Dreams may be closer than they Appear (Lisa Tuttle) - Ex-married couple encounter a house that locals claim doesn't exist. *****
- Pied-A-Terre (Stephen Volk) - a woman has a strange experience while viewing a house for sale. *****
- In the Absence of Murdock (Terry Lamsley)- after a writer disappears, a man looking for him discovers his house has strange properties. ***
- Florrie (Adam L.G. Nevill) - a man seemed possessed by a house's former occupant. *
- Driving the Milky Way (Weston Ochse) - The disappearance of three young friends in an Arizona desert haunts a fourth. ****
- The Windmill (Rebecca Levene) - A convict sees sights from his cell window that disturb him, but not his strange cellmate. **
- Moretta (Gary Kilworth) - Deaths occur in an old house formerly owned by a woman obsessed with dark things. *****
- Hortus Conclusus (Chaz Brenchley) - friend of a dead man visit his home and mother in order to clean up his overgrown garden but experience an unusually high number of accidents. ****
- The Dark Space in the House in the House in the garden at the Centre of the World (Robert Shearman) - a naive couple can't seem to follow God's simple warnings. ***
- The Muse of Copenhagen (Nina Allan) - a man inherits his late uncle's seaside home but finds more inside than he bargained for. ****
- An Injustice (Christopher Fowler) - ghost-hunters are surprised by what they discover in a rundown row house in London. ****
- The Room Upstairs (Sarah Pinborough) - A thief waiting for a robbery to be planned rents a room in a widow's home, but finds his sleep disturbed night after night. ***
- Villanova (Paul Meloy) - An English father takes his two daughters to a French camping site where tragedy had befallen a similar family. **
- Widow's Weeds (Christopher Priest) - A magician visits a woman who asks to learn his secrets while having some of her own. ***
- The Doll's House (Jonathan Green) - A harried housewife is upset when her mother brings her a childhood toy that she hated then, and which now seems to get back at her for it. ***
- Inside/Out (Nicholas Royle) - A man is disoriented in a house with two seemingly coexisiting parts. **
- The House (Eric Brown) - An author of children's books is approached about putting on a play which he feels will lead to more tragedy for the actors in it. ****
- Trick of the Light (Tim Lebbon) - A woman whose husband went missing seven years before buys an isolated house and experiences uncanny feelings about a room in a tower. ****
- What Happened to me (Joe R. Lansdale) College roommates experience disconcerting events that lead two of the three to abandon the house they are renting and the third to try and find out what's going on by finding the last living member of the house's former family. *****
