The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All by Laird Barron (Night Shade) was published a few months later than scheduled because it was caught in the sale of Night Shade’s assets to Skyhorse. It’s Barron’s third collection and has eight stories originally published between 2010 and 2012, plus one new one. Barron’s writing might be described as an amalgam of Lovecraftian themes and paranoia with the language and characterizations of tough men laid low (sometimes by women) of Lucius Shepard. Critics talk about Thomas Ligotti as an inheritor of Lovecraft’s mantel, and that might be, but Barron at his best has pushed cosmic horror through to the twenty-first century. It has an introduction by Norman Partridge. The original story is reprinted herein.
EverythingYou Need by Michael Marshall Smith (Earthling Publications) is a welcome new collection of seventeen stories by one of the contemporary masters of the form. Smith’s range is extraordinary, roaming equally smoothly among horror, dark fantasy, science fiction, and mainstream. There are three new stories, one of them mainstream and heartbreaking.
The Moment of Panic by Steve Duffy (PS Publications) is a the author’s fourth collection and has twelve stories and novelettes, five of them new. The novelette “The A-Z” is particularly good as the weirdness creeps up on the reader, but all are enjoyable.
Like Light for Flies by Lee Thomas (Lethe Press) is a fine, second collection by Thomas. In it are twelve stories, three new, one of those three a powerful novella about a South Florida government work camp built during the depression affected by a hurricane in 1935. The reprints were originally published in a variety of anthologies and magazines. Sarah Langan provides an introduction. The title story is reprinted herein.
The Ape’s Wife and Other Stories by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Subterranean Press) is Kiernan’s twelfth collection, containing stories written between 2001 and 2012 (plus Black Helicopters, an ambitious and dense new sf/ horror novella hardcover chapbook, included with the limited edition). She’s one of the few contemporary writers of dark fiction today writing science fiction/horror with a Lovecraftian tinge to it. Her writing continues to get better and better.
Holes for Faces by Ramsey Campbell (Dark Regions Press) contains fourteen stories published between 2005 and 2013 by this master of the short story. Campbell is great at conveying a creeping dread in the vulnerable, whether children or the elderly, something he does quite powerfully in the two stories first published in 2013.
There were two prose collections by British author Mark Valentine published in 2013: Herald of the Hidden and Other Stories (Tartarus Press) features ten entertaining dark fantasy stories (two new) about the occult detective Ralph Tyler, plus six early stories by the author. Seventeen Stories (The Swan River Press) includes both weird and darkly supernatural tales, two published in 2013, one of those appearing in the collection for the first time. There’s no overlap between the two volumes.
Monsters in the Heart by Stephen Volk (Gray Friar Press) is the author’s powerful second collection, with fifteen stories, all published since 2006 and two of them new. It contains story notes.
The Sea Change & Other Stories by Helen Grant (The Swan River Press) is the first collection of a very talented author of four novels. The stories were originally published between 2005 and 2012.
The Condemned by Simon Bestwick (Gray Friar Press) has six novelettes and novellas, two of them reprints. Grim, powerful, hard-edged, well-written.
Paul Kane had two new collections out in 2013: Ghosts (Spectral Press) with sixteen supernatural stories — four first published in 2013, one poem, and a script written for the short film Wind Chimes. Nancy Kilpatrick wrote the introduction. Also, The Spaces Between (Dark Moon Books) with eight longer stories, three published for the first time. It has an introduction by Kelley Armstrong.
The Moon Will Look Strange by Lynda E. Rucker (Karōshi Books) is the debut collection of a writer who amply demonstrates her chops with eleven stories (three published for the first time). It contains an introduction by Steve Rasnic Tem and an author’s note, discussing some of the stories.
Elegies & Requiems by Colin Insole (Side Real Press) is an excellent collection of ghostly stories and weird, dark tales and novellas. Traditional but fresh in feel. Nine of the eighteen stories are new.
Remorseless: Tales of Cruelty by Thomas Tessier (Sinister Grin Press) is the second collection by an author better known for his novels than his short fiction. This volume, with cover art by Alan M. Clark, features fifteen stories published between 1998 and 2011 in various magazines, anthologies, and websites.
Five Autobiographies and a Fiction by Lucius Shepard (Subterranean Press) showcases six powerful horror novellas by a writer utterly at home in any genre (not to mention mainstream), five of which have some autobiographical elements in them.
For Those Who Dream Monsters by Anna Taborska (Mortbury Press) is a debut collection with eighteen stories, two new. Included in the book is the powerful “Little Pig,” which was reprinted in The Best Horror of the Year Volume Four. It has black-and-white illustrations throughout by Reggie Oliver.
Bone Whispers by Tim Waggoner (Post Mortem Press) has eighteen stories, all reprints, published between 2007 and 2012.
The Tears of Isis by James Dorr (Perpetual Motion Publishing Machine) brings together sixteen stories and a poem published between 1992 and 2012. It also includes one new story.
Looking Back in Darkness by Kathryn Ptacek (Wildside Press) is a retrospective of nineteen fantasy and horror stories originally published between 1987 and 2012.
Ten Minute Stories / Day and Night Stories by Algernon Blackwood (Stark House Press) are two short story collections of hauntings, strange nature tales, weird events, and dark fantasy by one of the major writers of supernatural fiction in the twentieth century. It includes a new introduction by Mike Ashley, plus a rare early story, “The Farmhouse on the Hill,” originally published in an Australian newspaper back in 1907.
The Heaven Tree & Other Stories by Christopher Harman (Sarob Press) is a short but excellent introduction to this writer’s supernatural tales. It includes reprints of five recent stories plus two new novelettes.
The Bohemians of Sesqua Valley by W. H. Pugmire (Miskatonic Books) collects six novelettes (one reprint) paying homage to H. P. Lovecraft about the haunted valley in the Pacific Northwest.
Where You Live by Gary McMahon (Crystal Lake Publishing) is a revised edition of the one hundred copy signed, limited hardcover published as It Knows Where You Live in 2012 by Gray Friar Press. Three stories have been deleted, but five new stories have been added to this trade paperback edition.
Worse Things Than Spiders by Samantha Lee (Shadow Publishing) is the author’s first collection of dark fiction. Included are thirteen stories and an introduction by David A. Sutton.
Shades of Nothingness by Gary Fry (PS Publishing) has seventeen stories, twelve published between 2008 and 2012, and five of them — all pretty grim — appearing for the first time.