oddly weird fiction

" ... an empty house is an admirable field for the operations of the imagination ..." -- from "The Haunted Vicarage," by Emeric Hulme-Beaman 9780712355933 British Library, 2025 244 pp hardcover Ever since Valancourt Books put out its first book of Victori…

First off, a huge thank you to everyone who emailed to check if I was still alive and okay—I can’t tell you how much that meant!

9789992033876 Mons Culturae Press, 2023 190 pp paperback (read in April) Taking its place on my favorite books of 2025 shelf, this collection of stories sits next to Snuggly's The Onyx Book of Occult Fiction, which is where I first read anything by its au…

" ... we all search for meaning -- to give our life purpose." 9781912586615 Tartarus Press, 2025 253 pp hardcover (read earlier in March) If you find that recently you've been a bundle of nerves given world events, do yourself a favor and do not read this…

9781949491609 Cemetery Dance, 2025 253 pp paperback I'm hopefully done with sporadic posting now.

9781912586608 Tartarus Press, 2024 240 pp hardcover It is not only a true pleasure to have a book published by Tartarus in my hands once again, but added to that is the joy of it being a book of collected stories by Reggie Oliver.

"Your bombs were meant to cast down Hitler, but they raised his spirits." 9781787589292 Flame Tree Press, 2024 245 pp hardcover First, my many and grateful thanks to Flame Tree Press for my copy of this book.

"There are more men in the world who wreaked senseless havoc than men who preached for peace." 9781913766306 Eibonvale Press, 2024 406 pp I would have done a happy dance when this new book by Alexander Zelenyj arrived at my door, but there were people here

"And so, life itself that one needs to live so as to write the stories that creates the life that created them in the first place, will be sure to prevail perhaps forever, whoever the one is whom one chooses to write them." 9781069101624 ghosttruth/Montag,

9781913766153 Eibonvale Press, 2024 143 pp paperback Crikey!

9781939063702 Wakefield Press, 2021 originally published 1943 translated by Iain White 246 pp paperback Sometimes you just find that book that you know is not only unlike anything you've ever read but also makes you wonder just how in the hell you're going

"There would be tokens and talismans of the true country ..." --- from "The House of Flame" 9781783800476 Swan River Press, 2024 198 pp hardcover It's no secret that Mark Valentine is one of my favorite writers and now, with Swan River's publication of Lo…

9781905784356 Tartarus Press, 2024 (first Tartarus edition 2000) originally published 1951 289 pp hardcover I hadn't actually planned on reading this book this summer, but I had recently finished reading Circles of Stone: Weird Tales of Pagan Sites and An…

9798886010619 Stark House Press, 2024 292 pp paperback (read earlier in May) I have to confess that I have never read a book by Sax Rohmer before although I own a copy of his Tales of Secret Egypt, one of the two books included in this double-feature edit…

9781949641578 Two Lines Press / Calico 215 pp paperback I think I'm finally back from my long hiatus caused by the when-it-rains-it-pours syndrome that seems to plague my house every so often and just knocks me mentally on my can.

9798886010787 Stark House Press, 2024 224 pp paperback I've finally come to the last of the three volumes of Hichens stories I'd set out to read, and to my very great surprise there isn't one supernatural or even supernatural-ish tale in the bunch.

9798886010510 Stark House Press, 2023 241 pp paperback Back again with the second entry in my three volumes of tales by Robert Hichens published by Stark House.

"These occult things can't always be told of, even when they are known." 97886010565 Stark House Press, 2023 245 pp paperback Not too long ago the very good people at Stark House Press sent me an ARC of a forthcoming collection of stories by Robert Hichens

9780712354271 British Library, 2022 305 pp paperback It's been a while since I've been here -- vacation and then a subsequent case of covid have sucked up my time pretty much since Thanksgiving and I'm just now feeling up to posting again.

"Nobody asks questions, and it goes on." 9781639640225 Schaffner Press, 2023 originally published in 2003 as El Criadero translated by Andrea G.

9781956321953 Valancourt, 2023 translated by James D.

9781739733940 Broodcomb, 2023 281 pp hardcover First things first: a mega thank you to Jamie Walsh -- you know why.

9780712354424 British Library, 2022 340 pp paperback It's time for another book in the British Library Tales of the Weird series.

9781783807482 Swan River Press, 2021 (originally published 2012) 197 pp paperback I've been more than a bit depressed lately, coping with the recent death of one of my friends, and figured I needed to get off my can and do something other than simply sit…

"The past seems so close here..." 9780712354134 British Library, 2023 279 pp paperback I have a serious addiction to the British Library Tales of the Weird series, so much so that I tend to preorder the books often months ahead of their scheduled release.