Book Review; Midnight In The Grave Yard Anthology

 Publication date Oct 2019/ Publisher Silver Shamrock

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Synopsis

Midnight. Some call it the witching hour. Others call it the devil’s hour. Here in the graveyard, midnight is a very special time. It is a time when ghostly spirits are at their strongest, when the veil between our world and theirs is at its thinnest. Legend has it, that while most of the world is asleep, the lack of prayers allow the spirits to communicate under the cover of darkness, among the headstones, their whispers rustling in the leaves of the old oak trees. But if you’re here in the graveyard, you can tell yourself it’s just the wind, that the moonlight is playing tricks on your eyes, that it’s only the swirling mist you see. But when you hear the graveyard gate clang shut, the dead have something to say. Here are their stories…

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Review

Midnight In The Graveyard is a fantastic compilation of authors both favoured and new to me. 25 stories ranging from classic style haunted houses and of course cemeteries to bizarro occurences and phenomena.

Janz gives us the perfect mood setting foreword, I could picture him sitting in an armchair by a fireplace in dim lighting. Anyone remember tales of the crypt keeper? That’s the vibe.

I won’t take you through each and every short story, instead here’s a few highlights of my favourites;

Devils Dip a brilliant short story to open on- quick, snappy and dread building. Three men pick up an uninvited traveller by the roadside.

Euphemia Christie  makes for a great little atmospheric haunting surrounding a tragic family history.

Holes In The Fabric
Definitely my favourite in the anthology. Reading this terrifying undead cult story transported me straight into the body of main character Norma. Absolutely fantastic writing by Todd Keisling, an author new-to-me that I’ll be looking out for in future.

Dog Days
I enjoyed this format. A tale of inexplicably deranged dogs, told via a series of letters written over a fifty year span and found in various crevices of one house. I read this with one wary eye on my own puppy sat at my feet!

Drown
As expected Hunter added a gem to Midnight’s crown with his ghost hunter B&B story. Original and fun, I loved the backstory of the ghosts too.

Putpocket
The opposite of a pickpocket! A London thief reformed in the afterlife- with a heartbreaking secret.

Bettor’s Edge
A soul sinker this one. Sometimes human actions really are the scariest of all! Of course the vengeful spirit only heightens the terror here.

Portrait
Kealan ends the anthology with a BANG that resounded with me long after I closed the pages.

For someone who struggles to finish anthologies I can easily say this is the best I’ve ever read. I thoroughly enjoyed almost every story written.
I say almost… the necrophiliac erotica wasn’t really for me.
Otherwise a must have for any horror fanatic.

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