Terry Lamsley

Two most excellent longish stories, not quite novellas, of the strange tale genre. Lamsley is good at heaping on the gradually disturbing details. The first story, Made Ready is full of suspense as things gradually turn askew during one holiday that won't be forgotten. Cupboard Love is even weirder without anything really being out of place. Another holiday gone bad.

Both stories are marvelously creepy, built up gradually and when the payoff comes Lamsley leaves it to your imagination instead of having the monster stare you in the face a la King.

Nice illustrations by Glenn Chadborne.… (more)

I seemed to like this more than anyone else on goodreads. Not sure if I'm just stupid or everyone else is, but I have my own theory about that. Anyway, Lamsley has fashioned a nifty little Lovecraftian novella that should give suicides pause and reminds me somewhat of [a:H.P. Lovecraft|9494|H.P. Lovecraft|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1299165714p2/9494.jpg]'s From Beyond. Oh, and don't go into the top flat at 37 Calder Street. I'll say nothing more.

Nice cover by Jason Van Hollander.… (more)

Terry Lamsley favors eeriness over blood n' guts, which I prefer... generally. This is a collection of tales; about a dozen or so. Some stories were absolutely fantastic, whereas others didn't really do it for me, but that's common in collections. They can't all be winners.

There is one story, "The Break", that was fascinatingly strange and bizarre. I loved the way he described the setting and atmosphere. For example, I've never read a story where the author made a seagull seem scary! That takes talent! However, there was a turning point in the story where some characters did something that made me say out loud, "Uh oh. I think these characters are going to turn out to be vampires." It was so great up until that point. The vampire angle wasn't even needed. He totally torpedoed a potentially great story by unnecessarily adding in a tired cliché.

The really good stories, like "Walking the Dog", more than made up for the weak ones making the collection overall above average. Not stunning, but good.… (more)