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Ghost Music and Other Tales
296 pages, Hardcover
First published July 31, 2000
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About the author
Thomas Tessier
196 books104 followersThomas Tessier grew up in Connecticut and attended University College, Dublin. He is the author of several acclaimed novels of terror and suspense, plays, poems, and short stories. His novel Fog Heart received the International Horror Guild's Award for Best Novel, was a Bram Stoker Award finalist, and was cited by Publishers Weekly as one of the Best Books of the Year. He lives in Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
April 29, 2022
Review 7: Ghost Music and Other Tales by Thomas Tessier
Most of the stories in this collection are found in Tessier's newest collection "World of Hurt: Selected Stories"; I will be reviewing these five (5), four of which have not appeared in an anthology or collection. But a perfect score is still to be awarded, as this collection contains most of Tessier's best, from "In the Desert of Deserts" to the classic Borderlands stories "Evelyn Grace" and "The Banshee" Without further ado, here are the tales:
1. The Last Crossing
It's not the loss of his 20-year job that bothers stock trader Dale Davies but the eventual humdrum ennui after it. Dale can't find solace in his family; he hates his wife and his youngest daughter does not care for the family either. So he roams the city for some thrills. Dale will soon find his moral bearings- as well as his sanity- slowly disappear.
"The Last Crossing" is the story that drew me to Tessier's works. The neat and clean prose, the sly and unassuming beginnings, and, of course, the shocking, puzzling but deep endings are all present in this story.
This story, I argue, is as dangerous as any piece of transgressive fiction out there. Why? It speculates on the moment when the veneer of self-control and civility we all possess is gone. When this moment happens, horror ensues. This idea is what "The Last Crossing" brilliantly conveys.
Appears in: Hottest Blood
2. Lie Down with Us
Mia lives with her mother in their forest kingdom. (the forest begins at the edge of their back garden) As familiar as she is with the plants and trees of the forest, she has never encountered any animal. Everything will change when she finally dives into a pool that her mother has been warning her about.
Symbolism. An almost-fantasy setting. Dream logic. I'll let you fill in the gaps in this one. As for its theme, It's about the discovery of, ah I'm sure you've figured it out.
3. Wax
Sweeney and Jensen are traveling to Rezpor to investigate the ingredients and the method of production of a strange type of wax. Upon arriving, they are amazed at the almost-arbitrary method of producing said wax. They split up: Jensen would focus on the beekeepers while Sweeney would focus on the herbs and spices added to the wax. Sweeney is assigned to Bija, a local lady familiar with the religious and ritualistic uses of the wax. Sweeney falls in love, but Bija has a gift to offer him.
From its interesting (if a bit unusual) premise to its startingly horrifying conclusion, Wax delivers the goods Tessier is known for. The tale is short, compact, and concise; Tessier wastes no time delivering the horror after the set-up.
Why has this story not been anthologized? I can picture this tale in those "100 short horror stories" collections edited by Martin Greenberg. This tale is made for such anthologies.
4. Nightsuite
Our unnamed main character is enjoying some quiet time in Paradiso, the reclusive restaurant, to get away from the crowds. But when two young women sit at a table close to him, he overhears an enigmatic story of love, infidelity, and death. Soon after, a storm ravages the city, and he sees the woman who was telling the story walking with abandon. He decides to talk some sense into her and brings her to safety. But why is there a familiarity he can't shake?
"Nightsuite" may be upfront with its themes of love and imagination being realized, but it remains an enigmatic story that defies genre. Is it a love story? Horror? What is happening? The ambiguity that adorned Tessier's "Nocturne" (also found in this collection) is present, heightened by inexplicable time/space jumps that recall David Lynch's "Lost Highway." (Actually, it does remind me of Lost Highway, with the mysterious -but familiar- woman at the center of the story)
I'm not surprised this was not in any horror anthology since it does not belong to any of the sub-genres of horror.
5. Figures in Scrimshaw
"There are so many crimes, but so few interesting ones"
An unnamed crime reporter is looking for the infamous femme fatale, Nina Ghent. She is responsible for the deaths of her criminal boyfriends, who are often driven to kill each other for her attention. The wife of a former victim of Ghent warns the reporter about pursuing Ghent. But there's a problem: the reporter is drawn to Ghent, too!
I was expecting Tessier to add some horror to this noir crime tale. But, instead, he just brings the tale to its logical conclusion. Not bad at all, but I was expecting more surprises. But at least he doesn't skimp on the eroticism and the occasional violence. Imagine if he added horror elements!
Btw, why is the story titled like that? I have no idea.
Most of the stories in this collection are found in Tessier's newest collection "World of Hurt: Selected Stories"; I will be reviewing these five (5), four of which have not appeared in an anthology or collection. But a perfect score is still to be awarded, as this collection contains most of Tessier's best, from "In the Desert of Deserts" to the classic Borderlands stories "Evelyn Grace" and "The Banshee" Without further ado, here are the tales:
1. The Last Crossing
It's not the loss of his 20-year job that bothers stock trader Dale Davies but the eventual humdrum ennui after it. Dale can't find solace in his family; he hates his wife and his youngest daughter does not care for the family either. So he roams the city for some thrills. Dale will soon find his moral bearings- as well as his sanity- slowly disappear.
"The Last Crossing" is the story that drew me to Tessier's works. The neat and clean prose, the sly and unassuming beginnings, and, of course, the shocking, puzzling but deep endings are all present in this story.
This story, I argue, is as dangerous as any piece of transgressive fiction out there. Why? It speculates on the moment when the veneer of self-control and civility we all possess is gone. When this moment happens, horror ensues. This idea is what "The Last Crossing" brilliantly conveys.
Appears in: Hottest Blood
2. Lie Down with Us
Mia lives with her mother in their forest kingdom. (the forest begins at the edge of their back garden) As familiar as she is with the plants and trees of the forest, she has never encountered any animal. Everything will change when she finally dives into a pool that her mother has been warning her about.
Symbolism. An almost-fantasy setting. Dream logic. I'll let you fill in the gaps in this one. As for its theme, It's about the discovery of, ah I'm sure you've figured it out.
3. Wax
Sweeney and Jensen are traveling to Rezpor to investigate the ingredients and the method of production of a strange type of wax. Upon arriving, they are amazed at the almost-arbitrary method of producing said wax. They split up: Jensen would focus on the beekeepers while Sweeney would focus on the herbs and spices added to the wax. Sweeney is assigned to Bija, a local lady familiar with the religious and ritualistic uses of the wax. Sweeney falls in love, but Bija has a gift to offer him.
From its interesting (if a bit unusual) premise to its startingly horrifying conclusion, Wax delivers the goods Tessier is known for. The tale is short, compact, and concise; Tessier wastes no time delivering the horror after the set-up.
Why has this story not been anthologized? I can picture this tale in those "100 short horror stories" collections edited by Martin Greenberg. This tale is made for such anthologies.
4. Nightsuite
Our unnamed main character is enjoying some quiet time in Paradiso, the reclusive restaurant, to get away from the crowds. But when two young women sit at a table close to him, he overhears an enigmatic story of love, infidelity, and death. Soon after, a storm ravages the city, and he sees the woman who was telling the story walking with abandon. He decides to talk some sense into her and brings her to safety. But why is there a familiarity he can't shake?
"Nightsuite" may be upfront with its themes of love and imagination being realized, but it remains an enigmatic story that defies genre. Is it a love story? Horror? What is happening? The ambiguity that adorned Tessier's "Nocturne" (also found in this collection) is present, heightened by inexplicable time/space jumps that recall David Lynch's "Lost Highway." (Actually, it does remind me of Lost Highway, with the mysterious -but familiar- woman at the center of the story)
I'm not surprised this was not in any horror anthology since it does not belong to any of the sub-genres of horror.
5. Figures in Scrimshaw
"There are so many crimes, but so few interesting ones"
An unnamed crime reporter is looking for the infamous femme fatale, Nina Ghent. She is responsible for the deaths of her criminal boyfriends, who are often driven to kill each other for her attention. The wife of a former victim of Ghent warns the reporter about pursuing Ghent. But there's a problem: the reporter is drawn to Ghent, too!
I was expecting Tessier to add some horror to this noir crime tale. But, instead, he just brings the tale to its logical conclusion. Not bad at all, but I was expecting more surprises. But at least he doesn't skimp on the eroticism and the occasional violence. Imagine if he added horror elements!
Btw, why is the story titled like that? I have no idea.
February 11, 2016
While certainly one of the more elegant practitioners of contemporary horror, Tessier does not seem to be completely comfortable in his short form work. Though featuring an intriguing concept about a composer who slowly and subconsciously takes on the persona of a dead musician, the titular story drones through so much third-person exposition that too much distance forms between the reader and the story. Other longer stories, such as "Lulu" and "Blanca," also suffer from a sense of being constricted to a form smaller than their concepts deserve.
At the same time, when Tessier excels, his stories sink their insidious roots deep into the reader's imagination. "In Praise of Folly" follows a man obsessed with follies--architectural anomalies--who seeks out an old estate where a very affluent man once built a miniature village of statues in his backyard. The way Tessier describes the voices trailing from these abandoned grounds into the surrounding small town is so beautifully haunting, while the final scene offers some of the most indelible images of body transformation I've ever come across in horror.
Also of note, "Nocturne" is a very brief piece which involves a middle-aged man entering an old world-style bar where he witnesses a spectacle which could be either performance art or ritual suicide. While the unexpectedness of this strange event can be a satisfying effect in itself, Tessier seems to use this story as a kind of parable for how the phenomenon of death both shocks the human mind and leaves it powerless to articulate its deceptive impossibility.
A story of an errant traveler, "In the Desert of Deserts" is a perfect demonstration of how to create a psychological horror by suggesting an outer menace until, by the very end, the man's own fear proves to be his own enemy; and while this could have been close to some cheap skit you'd find on "Hitchcock Presents," the sparseness of Tessier's prose leaves just enough silence and space for the reader to feel himself become a victim of his own fear.
Overall, Ghost Music and Other Tales is a somewhat uneven collection which has both superlative examples of how elegant and articulate horror can be, while also revealing the author's occasional weakness of cramming big concepts into undeservedly short forms. And while I believe the short story form is often a perfect fit for those writing in the horror genre, I wouldn't be surprised if Tessier's novels showcase his abilities better than this collection does.
At the same time, when Tessier excels, his stories sink their insidious roots deep into the reader's imagination. "In Praise of Folly" follows a man obsessed with follies--architectural anomalies--who seeks out an old estate where a very affluent man once built a miniature village of statues in his backyard. The way Tessier describes the voices trailing from these abandoned grounds into the surrounding small town is so beautifully haunting, while the final scene offers some of the most indelible images of body transformation I've ever come across in horror.
Also of note, "Nocturne" is a very brief piece which involves a middle-aged man entering an old world-style bar where he witnesses a spectacle which could be either performance art or ritual suicide. While the unexpectedness of this strange event can be a satisfying effect in itself, Tessier seems to use this story as a kind of parable for how the phenomenon of death both shocks the human mind and leaves it powerless to articulate its deceptive impossibility.
A story of an errant traveler, "In the Desert of Deserts" is a perfect demonstration of how to create a psychological horror by suggesting an outer menace until, by the very end, the man's own fear proves to be his own enemy; and while this could have been close to some cheap skit you'd find on "Hitchcock Presents," the sparseness of Tessier's prose leaves just enough silence and space for the reader to feel himself become a victim of his own fear.
Overall, Ghost Music and Other Tales is a somewhat uneven collection which has both superlative examples of how elegant and articulate horror can be, while also revealing the author's occasional weakness of cramming big concepts into undeservedly short forms. And while I believe the short story form is often a perfect fit for those writing in the horror genre, I wouldn't be surprised if Tessier's novels showcase his abilities better than this collection does.
August 25, 2019
In many ways, this collection reminded me a lot of Alan Peter Ryan's THE BONES WIZARD. Very surreal stories which inhabit a shadowy borderland between day and night. Many of the stories are reinforced by strong foundations of realism, which are then nudged into the weird and the fantastic by Tessier's deft touch. Going to have to get his newest short story collection.
May 1, 2022
A number of the stories in this book I'd read before but I enjoyed reading them again. I think it's an exceptionally good collection, without a single weak story, though "Figures in Scrimshaw" is, for me, the weakest. Picking a favourite is difficult, but if I had a gun held to my head I'd probably say "Infidel" or "Evelyn Grace", but there are numerous other masterpieces--"In Praise of Folly", "In the Desert of Deserts", "The Last Crossing" for its vicious joke of an ending, "The Banshee", not least for moments of electrifying prose, "I Remember Me" for its deeply frightening premise, "The Dreams of Dr Ladybank" for its pitiless depiction of human nature.
Having suffered for pretty much my while life from depression, and therefore being something of a reluctant expert on the subject, it seems to me that a lot of these stories inexplicitly portray that devastating condition. It's only thanks to medication that I'm a functioning human being, and otherwise I would not have been able to endure reading these stories. I see evidence of this throughout the collection, but it is perhaps most apparent, or just easiest to tease out, in the last two stories, in the profound disconnection and aimlessness of the central characters. In "In the Desert of Deserts", depression is manifest in the bleak endlessness of the desert itself and then rises to the surface, devastatingly, in the amazing final sentence. In "Nocturne", the central character is so disconnected that he witnesses a scene of extreme horror and has no emotional response of any kind.
Rendered in prose so exquisite that one can savour every line, these stories amount to a deep well of truth and horror worthy of multiple readings.
Having suffered for pretty much my while life from depression, and therefore being something of a reluctant expert on the subject, it seems to me that a lot of these stories inexplicitly portray that devastating condition. It's only thanks to medication that I'm a functioning human being, and otherwise I would not have been able to endure reading these stories. I see evidence of this throughout the collection, but it is perhaps most apparent, or just easiest to tease out, in the last two stories, in the profound disconnection and aimlessness of the central characters. In "In the Desert of Deserts", depression is manifest in the bleak endlessness of the desert itself and then rises to the surface, devastatingly, in the amazing final sentence. In "Nocturne", the central character is so disconnected that he witnesses a scene of extreme horror and has no emotional response of any kind.
Rendered in prose so exquisite that one can savour every line, these stories amount to a deep well of truth and horror worthy of multiple readings.
January 19, 2018
I read “In Place of Folly” in some horror trash compilation or other recently and LOVED it, so I figured I’d give Tessier’s other short stories a try. I was a bit disappointed. He relies too heavily on the sexy/evil female character trope and some of the endings are so oblique that the stories as a whole fall apart or don’t make sense. Really a 3.5. I liked most of them, but was expecting better.
November 3, 2012
These are some really good stories. I was so totally going to use the terrific terror tale "Evelyn Grace" for my library storytime, until I got to the very last word of the story, which would probably get me fired. (-:
July 30, 2024
food 3/5
Blanca 5/5
The Banshee 4/5
Evelyn Grace 5/5
In Praise of Folly 3/5
A Grub Street Tale 4/5
Infidel 4/5
La Mourante 4/5
I Remember Me 5/5
The Last Crossing 2/5
The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank 4/5
Lie Down With Us 3/5
Wax 2/5
Curing Hitler 3/5
Ghost Music 4/5
Lulu 3/5
NightSuite 3/5
Figures in Scrimshaw 4/5
In the Deserts of Deserts 3/5
Nocturne 3/5
Blanca 5/5
The Banshee 4/5
Evelyn Grace 5/5
In Praise of Folly 3/5
A Grub Street Tale 4/5
Infidel 4/5
La Mourante 4/5
I Remember Me 5/5
The Last Crossing 2/5
The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank 4/5
Lie Down With Us 3/5
Wax 2/5
Curing Hitler 3/5
Ghost Music 4/5
Lulu 3/5
NightSuite 3/5
Figures in Scrimshaw 4/5
In the Deserts of Deserts 3/5
Nocturne 3/5
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews