Damn you Peter Mark May, just when I though I had purged the last zombie form my reading list, you had to go and publish this rather fine anthology, that shows, and I really hate myself for saying this, there may well be a flicker of life in this rotten and bloated genre.  To be honest any flicker of life in the genre is probably more done to the talent held within these pages, I don't think I'll be rushing out to pick up the latest 99p offering from the next big thing in zombir fiction.

I'm going to do a real time review of this book.  Some of the reviews will be out of sync, as I couldn't help but jump to some of my favourite authors.  Last years Dark Minds was an excellent anthology that mixed some well known names and for me some unknowns, Darker Minds, sets out to do the same, so along with tales from Gary McMahon, Mark West and Simon Bestwick, we have a number of, to me, lesser known authors.

As with the previous book, the production values are high with some excellent cover work and some nice internal plates that frame the authors biographies.  A small but nice touch.

 Regular readers will be well aware of my love for Spectral Press, in the short time since its inception it has become one of the UK’s finest small Presses.  From their excellent chapbook series that has showcased some of the brightest names in UK supernatural fiction, authors such as Gary McMahon, Alison Littlewood, Cate Gardner and Paul Finch, to their first novella by Gary Fry.  Each and every one of these books has had not only the highest production values, they have also held within their pages stores of the highest calibre.  Their latest publication The Nine Deaths of Dr Valentine by John L. Probert unsurprisingly carries on their fine 

Some writers thrill me with their action packed all guns blazing horror.  Some chill me to the bone with their dark and scary imaginations, and some authors dig their icy talons deep into my emotional cortex and tear it to pieces.  Mark West is one of those authors, his stories have always struck an emotional chord with me, and this, the latest chapbook from Spectral Press is no exception.  

"A collection of twelve very different horror stories, six original to this book. Author Reggie Oliver said that "Johnny Mains follows in a great tradition of horror stories which he knows and respects, but his stories have a power and strangeness which is all their own". And anthologist Stephen Jones said his fiction "would not have been out of place in the old Pan Book of Horror Stories". In his introduction to this volume, author Stephen Volk remarks that "These stories absorbed and disturbed me. And confirmed to me that Johnny Mains not only carries a flame for the old horrors, but wants to cause a bit of a conflagration of his own".


Not content with being an excellent anthologist, Johnny is also a rather fine author as well.  Frightfully Cosy and Mild Stories For Nervous Types (FCAMSFNT), is the perfect place to begin, your education in the writing of Mr Mains.