Touch Wood

Narrow Houses #2

by Peter Crowther (Editor / Contributor), Ramsey Campbell (Contributor), T. Winter-Damon (Contributor)

Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here

In these 25 specially commissioned stories from some of the greatest names in contemporary fiction, creatures of the night hunt society's forgotten children, spirits roam the physical sphere and the angel of death claims yet another soul. Authurs include Neil Gaiman, Charles Grant, Yvonne Navarro, Bill Pronzini, among others. HC: Little, Brown.

Genres: Horror, Anthologies, Short Stories

372 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Peter Crowther, born in 1949, is a journalist, anthologist, and the author of many short stories and novels. He is the co-founder of PS Publishing and the editor of Postscripts.

Reviews

[Cameron Trost · Rating 2 out of 5]

It wasn't easy deciding whether to give this anthology two or three stars, but I've gone with just two. Why? Well, it's generally hard to rate an anthology, because you inevitably like some contributions more than others. The main problem is that this book contains twenty-five works over three hundred and seventy-two pages, but only four of them impressed me. That's not to say that I thought all the others were bad. The writing in itself was generally fine, but most lacked originality, effect, or a point of any kind. The four that pulled me in are "The Ten O'Clock Horses" by Paul Lewis and "Funny Weather" by Steve Lockley (these writers both live in Wales and are friends who presumably work on their writing together), "Little Lessons in Gardening" by Karl Edward Gardner (beautifully written, creepy, informative - with regards to botany, and unusual), and "The Wager" by Thomas F. Monteleone, a gripping tale in the tradition of Poe. I would certainly be interested in reading more of these authors' stories.

[Jim · Rating 3 out of 5]

I didn't have much in the way of feelings for the stories in this book one way or another. They were pretty much all readable but only a couple would I classify as interesting or enjoyable. Most of these stories read more like anecdotes and at some point it started being strange that a book of horror stories didn't contain much horror and, although not necessary to a good story, the lack of adult language and behavior struck me as odd the further into the book I read.

I don't think I can really recommend this unless you're fave author is included with a story otherwise unpublished elsewhere.

I'd do a 2.5 stars if the choice was there.