Big dark hole Stories

Employing wide-ranging supernatural conceits--Dust Bowl demons, Amish hexes, figures from Greek legend--these 15 dark tales of evil, loss, and greed from Ford (Out of Body) are sure to send shivers up readers' spines. Ford's subtle stories peel away suburbia's mask of mundanity to reveal sinister undertones--and most of his hapless characters are oblivious to the darkness around them until it's too late. The title story sees inept cops and apathetic townsfolk abandon their search for an abused boy who crawled into a sewer pipe. In "The Thousand Eyes," an artist works to capture the grotesque lounge singer he saw perform at a bar, but comes to believe that when he finishes the painting, he will disappear. A bored writer witnesses a tribe of tiny fairies scaling his bookshelves in "The Bookcase Expedition." In 1933, the manager of a rundown carnival accepts a demon's help in "Hibbler's Minions." And after Sisyphus's boulder is destroyed in the melancholy yet redemptive "Sisyphus in Elysium," the tormented and regretful Greek king searches the afterlife for the spirit of his wife. Readers will enjoy these creepy, thoughtful stories--but should be warned not to read them in the dark. Agent: Howard Morhaim, Howard Morhaim Literary. (July)

Fifteen tales of horror, suspense, and macabre encounters that recount moments when the fantastic finds a crack in our everyday world. Ford is a prolific writer with a shelf of well-deserved rewards for his novels, but short stories are his sweet spot. Armed with the paranoia of Poe, the psychological terror of Shirley Jackson, and Stephen King's empathy for everyday people, this latest collection is both subtle and nightmare-inducing, depending on the story. The opener, "The Thousand Eyes," is a noir-tinged period piece about a mysterious bar, an obsessed painter, and a frightening singer with a "voice of death." Many of the stories are subdued creature features: "Hibbler's Minions" is about a flea circus gone awry while "From the Balcony of the Idawolf Arms" features a werewolflike shape-shifter. Finding the minor magic in the everyday world is another thread, but the shifts in style between stories are impressive, from gothic horror in "Inn of the Dreaming Dog" to mythology in "Sisyphus in Elysium" to the long-suppressed grief in the title story. Several of the stories--some of the most experimental and intriguing--find the author narrating his own experiences through fantastical events. In "The Match," sporadic writing teacher Ford is informed that in order to keep his job, he must fight an angel, as one typically does in academia. Elsewhere, in "Monster Eight," the author's fictional counterpart has a run-in with the local monster just doing his "monster thing," and in "The Bookcase Expedition," he witnesses a minor war between fairies and spiders. In "Five-Pointed Spell," the final story and one of the longest, Ford deftly spins a tale that starts with shades of Duel or Mad Max and turns into something that more closely resembles The Blair Witch Project. A collection of wonderfully creepy gems in which each story goes its own way, to frightening effect. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.