SPOOKY SALMONWEIRD BY M.G. MASON

9/3/2023

With most single author collections it's commonplace for readers to have clear-cut favorites among the proffered titles, yet Mason's skillfulness makes any such preferential treatment difficult. Each entry is just as satisfying as the preceding one, though six still manage to muscle their way to the forefront.

SPOOKY SALMONWEIRD By M.G. Mason

M.G. Mason Books, 324 Pages, Available now on Amazon

A Horror Book Review by Damascus Mincemeyer

The British medievalist scholar and author Montague Rhodes James (1862-1936) is best remembered for his volumes redefining supernatural fiction. First published at the dawn of the twentieth century, his perfected narrative devices set a gold standard, pulling ghost stories from the cliché of formal Gothic backdrops in favor of realistic contemporary settings and everyday protagonists. Highly regarded even today, the classic Jamesian tale (as his technique was dubbed) often featured quiet, quaint English villages, seaside towns or country estates imperiled by vengeful wraths intruding upon our world from beyond the grave, and echoes of James' craft linger in the works of such subsequent literary icons as H.P. Lovecraft, Clark Ashton Smith, T.E.D. Klein, Ramsey Campbell and Stephen King.

Another touched by James' haunting presence is his fellow countryman M.G. Mason, the Swindon-born author whose latest compilation of unearthly yarns, Spooky Salmonweird, is not only dedicated to James, but pays loving homage to his still-thriving legacy. Subtitled as Tales From the Village, it's a companion tome to Mason's continuing series (along with Salmonweird: A Cornish Crime Comedy Caper and A Salmonweird Sleighing) about Salmonweir, a coastal hamlet whose primary residents are of the incorporeal kind, and each of the thirteen stories delves into the past of a different ghost, revealing there's much more to their lives than death.
Beginning in Iron Age Cornwall, moving forward chronologically through the Second World War and roaming from England to Italy to the high seas, the battlefields of the Confederate States and back again, the volume's opener, 'The Bucca of Old Rock', shows how the site of the future Salmonweir came to be and focuses on Kensa, chosen by her ancient druid tribe to be the forbearer of their people who must endure a series of mysterious trials. The next story comes in Roman times, where newly appointed Centurion Cato falls prey to 'The Nightmare Cult', worshippers of a bizarre beast that feeds on people's fears and which ties directly into Mason's 2020 sci-fi/horror novel, Phobetor's Children. Replete with crawling chills and a claustrophobic location, 'The Crypt' features a Black Death-era priest encountering a sinister vampiric entity after he unwittingly disturbs her earthen-filled crates.

The stones of a monolith and a feisty female sprite inadvertently lure the son of a lord during Henry VIII's reign into a confrontation with a chthonic creature seeking 'The 20th Maiden'. With its cloistered atmosphere and hideously human twist, 'The Haunting of Withecombe Abbey' follows demon hunter Eli as he attempts to purge the titular building from an infernal being. 'Old Sam' changes continents and ratchets up the intensity with a unique take on the American Civil War, as a wounded Union soldier must outpace a ravenous wendigo following a woodland skirmish. And a weary wife on the way to rendezvous with her sailor husband accidentally boards a phantom train carrying the tortured souls of World War I soldiers as well as the malevolent monstrosity who feasts upon them in 'Never Again'.

No doubt due to Mason's training as an archeologist, Spooky Salmonweird is steeped in history and does a wonderful job of awakening each epoch in the reader's mind. Period details and dialogue, anecdotes and famous events serve to buttress the narratives, but are careful never overwhelm the characters' individual plights. There's a pure love of language, wordplay, and a certain easy manner in Mason's prose, in the seductive, sly way he ingratiates protagonists to the audience--in only a few pages one feels comfortable with every lead and their situation. And while wry humor arises at times, the focus here is repeatedly and successfully on fostering irrevocable dread. Hardcore horror hounds take heart, however: these are no stodgy sprites, and true to the Jamesian tradition a reverence of the grotesque unapologetically exists.

With most single author collections it's commonplace for readers to have clear-cut favorites among the proffered titles, yet Mason's skillfulness makes any such preferential treatment difficult. Each entry is just as satisfying as the preceding one, though six still manage to muscle their way to the forefront.

A woman's thespian ambition in Elizabethan days leads her to a dilapidated theater and a foreboding confrontation with 'The Man in Row 8', while a bevy of buccaneers captained by a disguised heroine plunder a cursed sword that arouses ghastly ghouls in 'Dead Sails'. Similarly possessed objects also inhabit two other tales: a spectral traveler toting a malicious doll beguile a tavern owner and her family in 'Late Arrival', just as the coin found at the seashore plays a pivotal part in a young woman's journey through the hall of mirrors on 'Carnival Night'. Echoes of Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol' abound when a wealthy abolitionist must leave an annual yuletide offering for 'The Girl In The Orangery'. Yet for sheer palpitating terror, it's impossible to surpass 'The Curse of the Storm Harpy', which recounts the fate of a pirate crew once they board a deserted (and possibly living) vessel. Replete with harrowing, hideous imagery and spine-snapping flair, it will leave even the most jaded horror stalwart shuddering.

If there's any weakness to this book, it's that someone fresh to the Salmonweird universe may finish with the sensation they're missing pieces from a bigger picture by not visiting the previous volumes first. But newcomers fear not: Mason cleverly dodges that otherwise fatal bullet by letting each tale exist independently instead of requiring extensive exposition. In doing so, the audience is allowed leisurely breathing room; a longtime reader will no doubt cull a deeper understanding of the figures they've come to esteem, but anyone with a hankering for supremely composed frights could do far worse than snare Spooky Salmonweird, and for that reason I bestow upon it a well-deserved 4.5 (out of 5) on my Fang Scale. M.R. James would be proud of you, Mr. Mason. Bravo.

Spooky Salmonweird: Tales From The Village
by MG Mason

The ghosts of Salmonweir in Cornwall have given the village's only living resident - the retired detective Karl Blackman - the night off.

In this collection of short stories, thirteen of the supporting characters recount weird and spooky goings on from the times when they were alive.

What did Kensa have to do to prove herself a worthy queen? Why does Harry fear the ship known as The Storm Harpy? Did The King's head have a ghost resident before Morwenna and Babajide came back as ghosts? From the Iron Age to World War II, including takes from both the American Civil War and interregnal England, these thirteen stories pay homage to some of the greatest ghost stories of all time.

Ghost stories for Halloween, for Christmas, and all the year round.

The world in which the ghosts of Salmonweird live has a darker, scarier side.

Dare you?

DAMASCUS MINCEMEYER

Exposed to the weird worlds of horror, sci-fi and comics as a boy, Damascus Mincemeyer was ruined for life. Now he spends his time doing lurid book cover illustrations and publishing fiction in various anthologies. He lives near St. Louis, Missouri, USA, and has one volume of short horror stories, Where The Last Light Dies, and a forthcoming horror novel, By Invitation Only, to his credit. He spends his spare time listening to music nobody else likes and wasting far too much time on Instagram @damascusundead666