Monsters in Our Midst

A collection of new stories of sadists and psychopaths from seventeen authors, including Ray Bradbury, Lisa W. Cantrell, Ramsey Campbell, John Coyne, Lawrence Block, Jonathan Carroll, Ed Gorman, and Charles L. Grant

The author of Psycho , which spawned a legion of homicidal maniacs in modern horror fiction, returns as an anthologist with a sequel to last year's Psycho-Paths . Once again inviting some of the field's finest writers to explore the subject of deranged evil, Bloch has elicited 17 terrifying, brilliantly conceived characters, each one disturbingly credible and original. Among the most memorable: an ungrateful grandson-in-law whose chosen weapon is a garbage disposal in Ray Bradbury's darkly humorous "Fee Fie Fo Fum"; a gas station attendant and frustrated inventor whose homemade gasoline additive makes for cleaner air and countless mysterious deaths in Robert E. Vardeman's "A Gentle Breeze Blowing"; an overzealous animal rights activist in Lawrence Block's "How Would You Like It?"; and a neurotic young actress who feels she doesn't get enough messages on her answering machine in "The Lick of Time" by Jonathan Carroll. As Bloch promises in his introduction, the selections consistently explore--with chilling success--"the why , as well as the way" psychopaths operate, adeptly mapping the fine line between human and inhuman, sane and insane. As unsettling as they are entertaining, many of these forays into the psyche's dark side are sure to become classics.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Companion to last year's Psycho-Paths horror anthology, edited as before by the renowned motherstuffer of Psycho. Bloch's editorial chutzpa has collected some top-flight genre writers for this sheaf--most of which is not bad at all and some of which is quite well written. All told, the 17 authors know they're in good company and strive for excellence, though generally the stories featuring thuggish protagonists sink to the dreariest predictability--a thought that means the more intelligent the protagonist, the better the writing. Bloch kicks off with the best- written piece here, ``Snow Man'' by John Coyne, about a bitter Peace Corps teacher in Ethiopia whose students decide to teach him a lesson. Ray Bradbury's genial ``Fee Fie Fo Fum'' tells about the new bone-grinding Garburator in the kitchen sink and features the best opening sentence in the collection: ``The postman came melting along the sidewalk in the hot summer sun, his nose dripping, his fingers wet on his full leather pouch.'' Ramsey Campbell's ``For You To Judge'' tells of a juror on a serial-murder case who takes on the character of the guilty man. Jonathan Carroll's ``The Lick of Time'' finds a young woman being taken over by her own voice on her new high-tech answering machine. Charles L. Grant's ``Name That Tune'' Features a hopeful random-killer-to-be haunted by a tune whose name he can't remember until he's mugged in an alley. In ``It Takes One To Know One,'' editor Bloch cuts rather close to the bone, drawing a group of hack horror writers from the Fifties who form The Skull Club and set up a tontine: the last of them to remain alive wins a 98-cent bottle of Chianti. Though a mechanical revenge story, it's more carefully written than Bloch's embarrassing intro to the volume. Better than you may expect but not memorable. -- Copyright ©1993, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Billed as an assortment of unforgettably chilling horror stories by masters of the genre, this sequel to Psycho-Paths (Tor, 1991) is actually a rather lackluster compilation of 17 surprisingly tame short stories. Bloch's introduction explains that "suggestion, subtlety, selectivity--these are major criteria which helped govern the selection," but some works are so subtle that they're almost dull. However, there are some bright spots: Ray Bradbury's "Fee, Fie, Foe, Fum," a wickedly amusing modern fairy tale; S.P. Somtow's "Fish Are Jumpin', and the Cotton Is High," a fully developed horror tale only 26 pages long; and Bloch's own "It Takes One To Know One," top-notch suspense with an ending O. Henry would be proud to claim. For larger collections.
- Rebecca House Stankowski, Pur due Univ. Calumet Lib. , Hammond, Ind.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.