"And All My Days Are Trances..."

To quote Edgar Allan Poe: "And all my days are trances, and all my nightlydreams are where thy dark eye glances, and where thy footstep gleams..." Noother quote could better apply to David Niall Wilson's collection, The Devil's in the Flaws (Macabre Ink, 2023).

I've reada lot of Wilson's work over the years, and I published several of hisstories in Deathrealm magazine back in the day — not to mention one of his more recent tales in myanthology, Deathrealm: Spirits (Shortwave Publishing, 2023). From the first of his stories that I read, back inthe 1980s, I credited him as an accomplished stylist.

The Devil's in the Flaws proves that his style has aged like a fine wine (although I know the author ispartial to bourbon). His prose is elegant, lyrical, masterful. While hehas penned stories and novels in various subcategories of speculative fiction —horror, fantasy (everything from urban to sword & sorcery), science fiction,and thriller — the twenty short tales and one novella in this collection areprimarily of a quiet, contemplative, introverted sort, more akin to the work ofShirley Jackson, Henry James, and perhaps Caitlin Kiernan than Stephen King orPaul Tremblay or Bridgette Nelson or any number of contemporary "horrific"voices. There is a wee bit of Lovecraftian influence for good measure.

Author/editorRichard Chizmar, who provided the foreword, wrote that, having beencaptivated by the work, he devoured The Devil's in the Flaws in asingle sitting. I read the first few tales from the hardback edition of thisbook, but I absorbed most of it by way of the audiobook, read by theincomparable Joshua Saxon, whose polished, expert delivery could hardlyhave been more perfect for this collection's overall tone.

Now, many,if not most, of these stories are contemplative, dreamlike, trance-like,eschewing kinetic character conflict and/or action in the customary sense. Manyof the tales focus on a single character's point of view and brim with vividdescriptions of physical or emotional stimuli, particularly those triggered bymusic or intoxicating compounds — or both — perhaps most notably in the story"Milk of Paradise." Traumatic memories often play a driving role. Of the shorttales, "Little Ghosts," "Interred," and "Fear of Flying" are the standouts forme, with truly haunting imagery and vivid, sensual prose. "Wayne's World,"dedicated to our mutual friend and fellow author, Wayne Allen Sallee, offers apowerful perspective on serial killer John Wayne Gacy, with whom Sallee onceshared some correspondence. I suspect Wilson's take on Gacy's horrific soulmight bring a big smile to Mr. Sallee's face.

For me, the crowningwork in this volume is the title novella. Here, Wilson's style shines. Thewell-drawn characters, snappy dialogue, sense of otherworldly mystery, and analmost Lovecraftian menace — combined with a smidgen of whimsy — makethis one of my favorite works by David Niall Wilson. Not that I could have everpublished a piece this long in Deathrealm , but the novella is, at its heart, the consummate Deathrealm story. It is, as they say, worth the full price ofadmission.

The Devil's in the Flaws as a collectionstrikes me, at times, as too internalized, surreal, and trance-like, andI wonder if re-ordering some of the tales might bring a more balanced ebb andflow to the pacing. Regardless, the title story as the collection's finale packssuch a lovely wallop that, whatever the sequencing of the other tales, it willleave you staggered — in the best possible sense.

Four out of five Damned Rodan's Dirty Firetinis . The Devil's in the Flaws by
David Niall Wilson at Amazon.com