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A review by vanessakm
Dark Detectives: An Anthology of Supernatural Mysteries by Stephen Jones
3.0
This was an B&N impulse buy. It's making me question impulse buys.
That's a bit harsh, but this collection was mostly just ok. 500 pages and not that many stories I really enjoyed. The editor, Stephen Jones, organized this collection chronologically, and suggests you read it that way. I say you can skip around, other than reading Kim Newman's novella segments in order. And despite the back cover description promising tales of supernatural investigators, there are too many stories in the front half that turn out to be variations on, "We thought it was The Curse of the Island Monster, but it was old Mr. Johnson in a Tiki God mask. Curse us meddling kids!"
Here is the content breakdown--prepare for an onslaught of fevered superlatives like "ok", "decent", "not the worst thing ever":
--Seven Stars by Kim Newman: This is easily the standout part of the book, and delivers on what it says on the tin. Seven stories plus a prologue set in Ancient Egypt detail various heroes and villains' tussles over a magical gem designed to bring about the end. of. the. world. I vaguely knew of Newman, but I definitely want to read more of him now. Oddly enough though, the stories get less good as they get closer to the present. The resolution of the series was a bit of a clunker, but I still liked this series. Also, one of the stories, "Dog Story", I had to skip because it had bad things happening to dogs. One of them was a Pekingese. My dog is a Pekingese. I love that little fart machine.
--"Our Lady of Death" by Peter Tremayne: An ok-ish mystery featuring Tremayne's Sister Fidelma, an official in the 7th century Celtic church. I liked the Irish history more than the story.
--"The Horse of the Invisible" by William Hope Hodgson: Something about a young couple being haunted by a horse ghost. Snore. DNF.
--"The Adventure of the Crawling Horror" by Basil Copper: More than any other story in this collection, this is Conan Doyle fan fiction. Copper apparently actually contacted Doyle after he quit writing about Holmes and asked if he could take over the series. Doyle said hell no, Copper started a series about a detective named Solar Pons who sounds an awful lot like Holmes. The story was too long but ok. I think if you've read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and really want more, Basil Copper may be worth checking out.
--"Rouse Him Not" by Manly Wade Wellman: Something about a haunted patch of lawn. Boring. Anti-climactic.
--"De Marigney's Clock" by Brian Lumley: Man owns mysterious clock. Thieves try to steal it. Vanessa reads story, thinks it is, "Eh, ok."
--"Someone is Dead" by R. Chetwynd-Hayes: This one about a haunted house that is more than it appears was pretty good.
--"Vultures Gather" by Brian Mooney: Mostly a locked room mystery until the end. This was decent.
--"Lost Souls" by Clive Barker: This features Barker's Harry D'Amour PI character (featured in Lord of Illusions, which I'm sure everyone here has heard of and seen 100's of times. Right? Is this thing on?) This was too short (the only time I'll say that WRT this book), but I liked it.
--"The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" by Marty Burns: This really has nothing to do with paranormal OR detectives (the bit with the ouija board doesn't count.) I'd mark this as ok, but I didn't like the faint thread of dumbass homophobia that ran through the story.
--"Bay Wolf" by Neil Gaiman: Say that 4 times fast and what do you get? Beowulf. This is a short, modernized verse retelling of Beowulf featuring Lawrence Talbot-as in THE Wolf Man. Gaiman was advertised on the cover and was one of the reasons I got this, but the story was oddly pointless.
Wow, I didn't think I could use the word "ok" so many times in one review. I think I've broken a Goodreads record here.
This book is going in my Half Price Books stack.
That's a bit harsh, but this collection was mostly just ok. 500 pages and not that many stories I really enjoyed. The editor, Stephen Jones, organized this collection chronologically, and suggests you read it that way. I say you can skip around, other than reading Kim Newman's novella segments in order. And despite the back cover description promising tales of supernatural investigators, there are too many stories in the front half that turn out to be variations on, "We thought it was The Curse of the Island Monster, but it was old Mr. Johnson in a Tiki God mask. Curse us meddling kids!"
Here is the content breakdown--prepare for an onslaught of fevered superlatives like "ok", "decent", "not the worst thing ever":
--Seven Stars by Kim Newman: This is easily the standout part of the book, and delivers on what it says on the tin. Seven stories plus a prologue set in Ancient Egypt detail various heroes and villains' tussles over a magical gem designed to bring about the end. of. the. world. I vaguely knew of Newman, but I definitely want to read more of him now. Oddly enough though, the stories get less good as they get closer to the present. The resolution of the series was a bit of a clunker, but I still liked this series. Also, one of the stories, "Dog Story", I had to skip because it had bad things happening to dogs. One of them was a Pekingese. My dog is a Pekingese. I love that little fart machine.
--"Our Lady of Death" by Peter Tremayne: An ok-ish mystery featuring Tremayne's Sister Fidelma, an official in the 7th century Celtic church. I liked the Irish history more than the story.
--"The Horse of the Invisible" by William Hope Hodgson: Something about a young couple being haunted by a horse ghost. Snore. DNF.
--"The Adventure of the Crawling Horror" by Basil Copper: More than any other story in this collection, this is Conan Doyle fan fiction. Copper apparently actually contacted Doyle after he quit writing about Holmes and asked if he could take over the series. Doyle said hell no, Copper started a series about a detective named Solar Pons who sounds an awful lot like Holmes. The story was too long but ok. I think if you've read all of the Sherlock Holmes stories and really want more, Basil Copper may be worth checking out.
--"Rouse Him Not" by Manly Wade Wellman: Something about a haunted patch of lawn. Boring. Anti-climactic.
--"De Marigney's Clock" by Brian Lumley: Man owns mysterious clock. Thieves try to steal it. Vanessa reads story, thinks it is, "Eh, ok."
--"Someone is Dead" by R. Chetwynd-Hayes: This one about a haunted house that is more than it appears was pretty good.
--"Vultures Gather" by Brian Mooney: Mostly a locked room mystery until the end. This was decent.
--"Lost Souls" by Clive Barker: This features Barker's Harry D'Amour PI character (featured in Lord of Illusions, which I'm sure everyone here has heard of and seen 100's of times. Right? Is this thing on?) This was too short (the only time I'll say that WRT this book), but I liked it.
--"The Man Who Shot The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence" by Marty Burns: This really has nothing to do with paranormal OR detectives (the bit with the ouija board doesn't count.) I'd mark this as ok, but I didn't like the faint thread of dumbass homophobia that ran through the story.
--"Bay Wolf" by Neil Gaiman: Say that 4 times fast and what do you get? Beowulf. This is a short, modernized verse retelling of Beowulf featuring Lawrence Talbot-as in THE Wolf Man. Gaiman was advertised on the cover and was one of the reasons I got this, but the story was oddly pointless.
Wow, I didn't think I could use the word "ok" so many times in one review. I think I've broken a Goodreads record here.
This book is going in my Half Price Books stack.