Every story has a beginning, and every story has an end, but sometimes the end is the beginning and the beginning is the end.   

Soul Masques is the latest in he rather splendid line of chapbooks from Spectral Press. This is the tenth installment in what has been a first class series of chapbooks, that have al shared a common theme of quiet unsettling creepy horror.  

Soul Masques, however is a bit of a departure from the core theme of the series, and for that I applaud Simon for trying to do something different with the line, to stop it from going stale.  

Stylistically this is the most complex story that has appeared in this series, however for me this story while intelligently written and full of clever writing lacked a certain substance.  Told in a non linear form with the climax at the beginning of the book  I found the story hard to engage with and at times I was left wondering what exactly was going on.  

The thing I hate most about reviewing  books like these where the writer is clearly talented and gifted, over books that are just badly written, is the who is a fault here?  Is it the writer for writing a story that engages with me?  or is it me for not getting the story.  Lets be clear here this is not a badly written story, I just don't think I was the target audience for the story.  

I'm sure this is just a bump in the road, and Spectral's next book from Simon Bestwick will see this series of chapbooks back on the straight and narrow.  

The history of cinema is full of unsung heroes, those whose work is often forgotten and overlooked, those who don't get the recognition they deserve and in the case of John Burke, someone whose name has all but been struck from the history of a particular film.  

Thankfully for us there are people like the brilliant and passionate Johnny Mains.  Johnny is one of those people who I like to call a Guardian of The Genre.  He works tirelessly to not only  preserve the history of horror, but also to ensure that the cultural importance of this genre is recorded and recognised.  

Previously Johnny has published a fantastic biography  on Herbert Van Thal, the man behind  Pan Book of Horror Stories as well as the critically acclaimed anthology Back From the Dead: The Legacy of the Pan Book of Horror Stories.  This time Johnny has turned his attention to John Burke.  

For those of you who don't know who John is, he was a great writer, who wrote in many genres, from the Atlantic Award in Literature winning Swift Summer, to Science Fiction, horror and even a load of film and Television novelisations.  However this book centres around his screenplay for the film The Sorcerers.  

The film, which was directed by Michael Reeves and staring Boris Karloff concerned  hypnotist Professor Montserrat who has developed a technique for controlling the minds, and sharing the sensations, of his subjects. He and his wife Estelle test the technique on Mike Roscoe, and enjoy 'being' the younger man. But Estelle soon grows to love the power of controlling Roscoe, and the vicarious pleasures that provides. How far will she go, and can the Professor restrain her in time.  

However it was the fact that for all intents are purpose John Burke's name was removed from the film.  You see John wrote the screenplay for this film, and yet his only credit for the film is a 'From an idea by John Burke'  It was only in a 2003 biography of Reeves that this fact became know to the wider population.  

Which brings us to Johnny's fantastic book.  The Sorcerers  collects together all the proof and documentation of John Burke's actual place in the history of this film.  Johnny has collected letters received by John, a full reprint of the film's shooting script, and more importantly the version of his script before it was altered by Reeves and Tom Baker.  

Complimenting these are a wonderfully moving introduction from Johnny, a fascinating insight from film guru Kim Newman, a chapter from Reeves biography, and  a message from Burke's widow, all rounded off with some revealing stills from the film.  


The Sorcerers as a film has a very important place in horror history and   Johnny's book does this film and more importantly John Burke a tremendous service.  You can tell that was a labour of love  for Johnny.  It provides a fascinating insight into not only the film and those associated with it, it also gives the reader an insightful snap shop of the era itself.  

With The Sorcerers Johnny Mains has produced an exceptional book that will appeal to not only film fans but also fans of horror fiction.  This is another clear example of why Johnny is such an important figure in the horror genre.  The dedication and the amount of hard work that he puts into projects like this is a joy to behold.  You need to own this book, it's that plain and simple.  I learned a huge amount from this, to the point that I am now on a quest to track down as much of Burke's writing as possible. 

Another month and another new book from Darkfuse publications.  I swear to god this publisher has taken up more of my time, this last year, than any other publisher out there. So it's  good thing that the  time spent between the pages of their books has been some of the most enjoyable and fun filled periods I have had this year.  

So when you factor in author such as William Meikle, whose novels and short stories have thrilled me for more years than I care to remember, you just know you are in for something special.   

For the most of my reading selections I play it safe, in the words of Peter Gabriel  I know what I like and I like what I Know.  Occasionally I like to mix it up, and take a chance on something new or different, you got to keep things spiced up folks.  So when I got I copy of Snake Eyes I thought this was going to be a safe read, I've read Joseph's novels Meat and Garbage Man, and really enjoyed them.  Man was I ever wrong, those of you expecting a nice easy comfortable tale, are in for a hell of surprise.

Sometimes the best horror fiction is hard to read.  And by hard to read I don't mean because of the writing style and language used.  I mean it should grab one of your base emotions and wrestle it to the floor.  Mark West's The Mill does this with great style.  We have all lost someone, we have all felt the emotions associated with loss.  It's a common feeling that lingers with you for the rest of your life.  Mark has created a an amazing novellette, that is packed with more emotion and feeling than you could imagine would be possible in a story of this length .  This is a powerfully moving story that will tug at your heart strings and stay with you long after you have finished reading it.The writing beautifully conveys the feeling of loss and hopelessness that one feels after losing a loved one.   The Mill has one of those endings that will have you smiling and shedding a tear at the same time.  Well I did and if you don't you must have a heart of stone.  The Mill, cements Mark West's place in the ranks of the new wave of quality UK horror authors, who are turning out intelligent, thought provoking and extremely well written stories.

One of the best things about getting sent books to review, is discovering authors, who up until now, you had never heard of.  The flip side of this though is realising that you have missed out on some great authors.  Thankfully David A. Sutton of Shadow Publishing, has published this collection of short stories from Eddy C. Bertin.  For those of you not in the know Eddy is Belgian author who was first published in 1968. 

The Whispering Horror, brings together fourteen of Eddy's best stories in one rather splendid collection.   

It's no secret that John Llewellyn Probert is one of my favourite authors. His stories bring a huge smile to my face; you can clearly see John's love for classic horror films in these books.  They are intelligently written books full of wry humour, gloriously over the top villains, dashing heroes, and more importantly a joyous sense of fun, that is so infectious, they should be a notifiable disease. 

However with Differently There, his latest novella from Gray Friar Press,   John has dramatically changed the tone of his writing.