Book Rec – Overnight by Philip Fracassi

 

I’m often way behind on my reading, aren’t we all? It took me a horrendously long time for Philip Fracassi’s wonderful collection Behold the Void to make its way to the top of my teetering “to be read” pile. But when I picked it up, holy shit, did it blow me away! “Fail-Safe” and “Altar” immediately went on my list of stories that I would’ve cut my own legs off to have written. Behold the Void is one of those books that grabs you by the face and doesn’t let go.

So when Overnight dropped from the wonderful people at Unnerving, it blew all other books out of the water and I simply had to read it straight away. And it didn’t disappoint. Overnight is a sleazy morality tale about a security guard on a film set that is drawn into a morally dubious arrangement with the “biggest fan” of the film’s lead actress.

The story is crammed with Fracassi’s usual superb wordsmanship and fully-rounded characters. It carries a sense of dread from the start and the set-up provides numerous avenues for the story to run down. For the record, it did not end up where I thought it was going! Another bonus.

Overnight is a quick read but one densely packed with detail and suspense. I won’t reveal more about the overall storyline for fear of spoilers but I would say, the story really delivers on a great premise.

Get yourself a copy on Kindle over at Amazon. Or better yet, get it in a lovely hardback edition straight from the source at Unnerving.

Good Things – Awards Season

This is just a quick post to mention two good things that have happened in my writing world of late. Firstly, against any of my expectations, Imposter Syndrome,  that I co-edited with James Everington has been short-listed for Best Anthology at the British Fantasy Society Awards.

The long-list came out ages ago and it had slipped from my mind so to see the book make the final cut is fantastic. It has to be said that this anthology is where it is due to the fantastic quality of the stories sent in by our wonderful authors. Thanks must also go to my co-editor James, Ross and Anthony at Dark Minds Press and Neil Williamson who designed the cover art. As well as all of the readers who picked up a copy. Here’s hoping we can scoop the trophy in October!

The full anthology category is listed below. There is some fantastic competition and congratulations to all of the other nominees.

Best Anthology
· 2084, ed. George Sandison (Unsung Stories)
· Dark Satanic Mills: Great British Horror Book 2, ed. Steve Shaw (Black Shuck Books)
· Imposter Syndrome, ed. James Everington & Dan Howarth (Dark Minds Press)
· New Fears, ed. Mark Morris (Titan Books)
· Pacific Monsters, ed. Margret Helgadottir (Fox Spirit)

Pick up your copy of Imposter Syndrome here: – (UK | US)

In other news, my contributor copies of Stories of the Dead: A Tribute to George A. Romero have arrived, and they look absolutely stunning. The book is a charity anthology and contains stories from great writers such as Rich Hawkins and Anthony Watson. My story “Grounded” leads off the TOC and I’m really proud to have been involved. It’s been a fantastic experience working with Duncan Bradshaw and David Owain Hughes on this book. Pick up your copy here.