Simon Lelic ★★★★ Sixteen-year-old Sadie Saunders is missing, last seen six days ago, and no stone is being left unturned in the attempt to find her. The local community thinks that she’s dead, and they’ve decided just who’s to blame – her troubled boyfriend, Mason. Sadie’s clique of friends, including Mason, think that the search…… Continue reading The Search Party
Month: March 2020
Eden
Tim Lebbon ★★★ Decades ago, in a desperate international effort to reverse some of the damage we had inflicted on our planet, thirteen Virgin Zones were purged of humanity and left alone for the natural world to reclaim. Of these, Eden is the oldest, and the most dangerous. The Zones were fiercely protected by the…… Continue reading Eden
Speak
Mary O. Paddock ★★★★ Instead of following her brother into the family business, Ellen made the stupid (according to her father) decision to become a journalist. Now she’s writing obituaries at a local paper, and living in her parent’s basement, avoiding contact with as many people as possible (especially if those people might be blind…… Continue reading Speak
Bone Quarry
KD McNiven ★★ I adore creature features, and even more so if they’re marine creatures, so when I read the description for Bone Quarry I was immediately interested. Mystery marine fauna die-off? Check. Underwater graveyard of human bones? Check. Living dinosaurs which should have been dead for around 8 million years? Check. A cover showing…… Continue reading Bone Quarry
Forgotten Ones
Edited by A. Robertson-Webb & M. River ★★ Forgotten Ones is a collection of more than two hundred tales, stories of the old gods, fabulous creatures and a cornucopia of beings from myths and legends all over the world. Two hundred stories in a single book? Surely not, the book would be enormous! Ah, but…… Continue reading Forgotten Ones
Cryptofauna
Patrick Canning ★★★★ Working as a janitor St. Militrude’s Home for the Insane and Elderly, Jim considers his existence to be meaningless, so decides to commit a clean, quiet and respectful suicide. Just before he swallows his pills, an elderly resident whisks him off down a previously non-existent staircase, and a few minutes later Jim…… Continue reading Cryptofauna
The Neighbour’s Cat
J.S. Ellis ★★★ In the short story The Neighbour’s Cat, Ellis introduces us to Theodore, a little black-and-white cat who just so happens to be owned by a serial killer. Theodore’s owner develops a worrying fixation with the married woman living in the opposite house leaving the cat, fearing for her life, no option but…… Continue reading The Neighbour’s Cat
The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
H.G. Parry ★★★★★ When Robert gets a middle-of-the-night call from his little brother Charley, he feels justifiably aggrieved: he’d been promised that it wouldn’t happen again. He had a case to take to trial in just a few hours, and instead of getting a decent night’s sleep he was dragging himself out of bed and…… Continue reading The Unlikely Escape of Uriah Heep
The Warehouse
Rob Hart ★★★ The Warehouse is a glimpse into a near future where a single corporate entity, Cloud, dominates the retail world. In a climate-ravaged world of automation, high unemployment, low wages, and scarce affordable housing, Cloud offers not just a place to work but also a safe community in which to live. Cloud is…… Continue reading The Warehouse
Dear Child
Romy Hausmann ★★★ Thirteen years ago, 23-year-old Lena Beck went missing on the way home from a party. Her father, Matthias, spent the next decade hounding the police and the press, trying to get somebody, anybody, to find her – even if it means that all they find is remains. Two weeks ago, a woman…… Continue reading Dear Child
