BOOK REVIEW: TEN MINUTE WARNING BY EM DEHANEY

It's great when a single author collection manages to navigate successfully through different styles, and put you through a variety of emotions along the way. So even though you're constantly left guessing about what's coming next, the quality of the writing is never in doubt. Thoroughly recommended.

Offering ten stories and something of a warning before you get started, Em Dehaney's collection of short fiction certainly can't be accused of false advertising. What it can be accused of is giving you an entertaining, shiver-inducing read, and the verdict is: guilty.


To mix my metaphors a bit further, it's a collection which often zooms in on finer details, then pulls back wider and wider to reveal plenty of depth to go with the horror. It's a very cinematic style in other words, guiding the reader's eye close to a craftsman's hands to see the cracks in his skin, or pushing uncomfortably close to ripped flesh as the blood begins to spill,


Similarly, you get up close and personal with a range of interesting characters: travellers, murderers, literal nuclear families, troubled actresses and more. Bad things happen to bad people, leaving you with a grin of satisfaction, while other times those who don't deserve it get the bad end of a knife, or worse, and you won't be smiling so much there. These are everyday, believable characters – including one very different spin on the life of a Hollywood star – who occasionally face off against the paranormal. While there aren't many flights of fancy, rooting its scares in familiar places and situations lends the book both a feel of authenticity in its characters and their plights, along with a decent level of chills.


The settings mostly bounce between the UK and the USA, delivering plenty of accurate local flavour with each trip across the pond. Anything set in America doesn't let any English slang into the mix, and vice-versa, deftly navigating the cold streets of LA one moment before plonking you down in the English suburbs the next. One story follows another historical character after they cross the Atlantic in the early 1600s, giving you a perspective from both sides, as well as another side to a story you may have heard before. And that's the main takeaway from this book – it's easy to let your guard down and feel like you know what's coming, but there are plenty of surprises to keep you guessing.


Each of the 10 offerings here are a genuine treat; there's no one theme binding them together, you're just in for a great time, with imagery that takes roost in your brain-barn and refuses to leave, and characters you'll want to follow to the often bitter end. It's great when a single author collection manages to navigate successfully through different styles, and put you through a variety of emotions along the way. So even though you're constantly left guessing about what's coming next, the quality of the writing is never in doubt. Thoroughly recommended.

Review by Ben Walker 

From the river to the sea, pain is universal. The dead know your secrets, and the living take their fears to the grave...A Hollywood magician cuts a woman in half.An old man yearns for the wife he lost.An artist paints with his shame.A plane crash like no other.The author of Food Of The Gods brings you ten more tales of transformation, lost loves, regret and blood. So much blood.This book contains darkness and horror, in all its many forms.You have been warned.

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