 QUALITY TRUMPS QUANTITY WITH FIVE EXCELLENT SHORT STORIESThe Watcher in the Woods might be small, but it is also exquisitely formed, with Charlotte Bond presenting five delicious short stories, taking us from a remote part of Iceland to equally isolated areas of Scotland, involving local superstitions, curses, ghosts, hauntings, werewolves, and the occasional pagan ritual. Even the Devil himself makes a sneaky appearance in one story. Released on the Black Shuck Shadows range, this is one of their latest micro-collections which could easily be devoured in a single sitting. I appreciated the clever range of the five entries which were all slightly different reading experiences which were often influenced by fairy tales and myths from different cultural periods. Neither were there were any particularly weak links, with the title story The Watcher in the Woods being my personal favourite, as I am always a sucker for Scottish set tales.  The collection opens with Hessian Sky and a young woman, Petra, driving across a remote part of Iceland when she gets car trouble in a foggy and isolated part of the island. Stressed and unable to speak the language, she chances upon a pub which has one room available to rent, however, the landlord is reluctant to let it to her, gruffly mumbling about a curse. A group of exchange students help her out with the language difficulties and when she jacks the price up way beyond the asking amount he eventually relents. Petra, of course, does not believe in the local superstition and thinks that the only thing that awaits in the room is a good night’s sleep. You should have slept in the car girl! I am not going to say what goes on in the room, but it was very entertaining with a sharp ending. I really liked Petra and the lengths she was prepared to go to save her own bacon was both cunning and industrious. If you have ever seen the classic film The Seventh Seal, where Max Von Sydow challenges Death to a game of chess, switch the boardgame to a card game and you have a clue of the direction the plot heads into. The detailed endnotes state this was inspired by a Russian fairy tale. Next up was the equally slick A Wolf in the House and I was pleased to read in the endnotes that my first guess that this shaggy dog story was inspired by Angela Carter was correct. As soon as the main character puts on her red cloak, I had a feeling, and I am sure you will too, where it might be heading. I love stories which have vague settings, but drop clues here and there, this story does that and could be set anywhere from the Middle Ages to whenever, in a small village community. The main character, teenager Purbey, is looking forward to visiting the travelling fair with her friends and her half-sister Tressa. The problem is her stepfather Isaac is both a violent and unpredictable man but as she lives under his roof, she must follow his rules. However, when she and her friends visit a strange old woman to get their futures told, the crone gives her the vaguest hint of a different life, but only if she sneaks out after dark for an illicit meeting. Although it was easy to see where the story was going, it was elegantly told, and illustrates that not all short stories need a twist ending. The endnotes state that the location of Rowan Cottage in The Wild Hunt was inspired by a holiday house Charlotte Bond stayed in as a kid. These are often the best types of memories to be plundered for short stories, locations which you recall from childhood, but not necessarily 100% accurately. When my daughter and nieces were younger, I loved telling them ghost stories when we were on joint holidays and they were always based around places I lived or visited as a kid, all of which were in the north of Scotland, the location of this story. Sally and her daughter are staying in a rented cottage over the Christmas period and are initially drawn to the friendly village atmosphere of the locals who offer them a wreath for their front-door and make a big deal about them accepting it. They are later invited to a local festival dance, potentially pagan, where things take a turn for the worse. Although it was a decent story, based itself on a British legend, I thought more could have been made of the supernatural element and the wild surroundings as it could have been scarier, with the ‘hunt’ elongated or the beasts more hair-raising. This was also the only reprint in the collection. Teeth in the Shadow was a quirky supernatural tale, again, it was difficult to tell when or where it was set, but I would guess the Middle Ages. The hook of the tale is a cool one: King Alessandro’s beloved wife died three years earlier, however, the King keeps her severed arm with him and talks to the arm as if his wife were still sitting next to him. If other people are involved in the conversation they must play along with the charade, unless of course, the King really does see her? The story is seen from the point of view of Chiara, who is a potential suiter to be the King’s next wife, the problem is, the many previous prospects do not seem to live very long. Chiara, however, is both versatile and spunky, beginning an investigation into what might truly be ailing the King, a task which takes her on a dangerous journey into the world of hauntings, curses and revenge. This was another fine inclusion, inspired by a German legend. The book closes with The Watcher in the Woods which was my favourite and is framed around a guy called Fergus who is about to write a memoir of some kind, initially we do not know what this memoir is for, only that he is sad that he has no children or family to pass his recollection onto. However, Fergus is not writing a normal book, by day he works as a mechanic, but before and after his shift in the garage he works as a ‘Watcher’ (apologies, when I read this I could not get Mr Giles from Buffy the Vampire Slayer out of my head!) guarding the local forest which is rumoured to be haunted. This was a terrific meditation on loneliness, which reveals its secrets quite slowly and had a nice mix of the old and the new, as the reader slowly realises where and when the story is set. This beautifully crafted story will have you thinking of Aokigahara, better known as the ‘Suicide Forest’ in Japan, except that the action moves to Scotland. 200-pages whizzed past in a flash and The Watcher in the Woods is a very solid collection, with five varied tales. With short story collections the temptation of often to pile in as many stories as possible, digging out old rejects or other pieces, thankfully Bond does not do this and as a result this is a well-rounded and balanced final product. The author does not go for ‘BOO!’ scares, violence or shock horror, instead her stories are framed around convincing and varied settings, strong characterisation and a deep respect for the fairy tales of yesteryear which she references in her informative endnotes. 4/5 Tony Jones   Ginger Nuts of Horror, the Heart and Soul of Horror PromotionComments are closed.
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