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Death On Wheels
Book by Haining, Peter (edited by)
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
31 people want to read
About the author
Peter Haining
331 books99 followersPeter Alexander Haining was an English journalist, author and anthologist who lived and worked in Suffolk. Born in Enfield, Middlesex, he began his career as a reporter in Essex and then moved to London where he worked on a trade magazine before joining the publishing house of New English Library.
Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.
In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).
He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.
Haining achieved the position of Editorial Director before becoming a full time writer in the early Seventies. He edited a large number of anthologies, predominantly of horror and fantasy short stories, wrote non-fiction books on a variety of topics from the Channel Tunnel to Sweeney Todd and also used the pen names "Ric Alexander" and "Richard Peyton" on a number of crime story anthologies. In the Seventies he wrote three novels, including The Hero (1973), which was optioned for filming.
In two controversial books, Haining argued that Sweeney Todd was a real historical figure who committed his crimes around 1800, was tried in December 1801, and was hanged in January 1802. However, other researchers who have tried to verify his citations find nothing in these sources to back Haining's claims. A check of the website Old Bailey at for "Associated Records 1674-1834" for an alleged trial in December 1801 and hanging of Sweeney Todd for January 1802 show no reference; in fact the only murder trial for this period is that of a Governor/Lt Col. Joseph Wall who was hanged 28 January 1802 for killing a Benjamin Armstrong 10 July 1782 in "Goree" Africa and the discharge of a Humphrey White in January 1802. Strong reservations have also been expressed regarding the reliability of another of Haining's influential non-fiction works, The Legend and Bizarre Crimes of Spring Heeled Jack.
He wrote several reference books on Doctor Who, including the 20th anniversary special Doctor Who: A Celebration Two Decades Through Time and Space (1983), and also wrote the definitive study of Sherlock Holmes on the screen, The Television Sherlock Holmes (1991) and several other television tie-ins featuring famous literary characters, including Maigret, Poirot and James Bond. Peter Haining's most recent project was a series of World War Two stories based on extensive research and personal interviews: The Jail That Went To Sea (2003), The Mystery of Rommel's Gold (2004), Where The Eagle Landed (2004), The Chianti Raiders (2005) and The Banzai Hunters (2007).
He won the British Fantasy Awards Karl Edward Wagner Award in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
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December 8, 2019So, trying to complete my "To Be Read" short genre fiction list - W section - I've been focusing on Ian Watson lately. And one of the stories on my list was in this anthology, so I got it from InterLibrary Loan - it's an anthology featuring "weird" stories involving cars. It turned out a Harlan Ellison story on my "To Be Read" list was also in here, so I read that. It also turned out that two stories I had previously read and liked from before Goodreads existed were here, so I reread them to be able to do reviews. Then, two other stories I had already read and reviewed were here, so I ported over those reviews. Finally, this had a Ramsey Campbell story which wasn't on my list but I'm not gonna miss a chance to read a (from what the introduction implies) fairly obscure Campbell story, so I read that as well. Whew! So here you go!
In "Night Court" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman, a habitual reckless driver (who uses family connections to avoid responsibility for his actions) hits a young girl on a lonely road, and then finds himself ushered into a ghoulish "Night Court," comprised of victims of traffic accidents, to answer for his crimes... I bumped this up a bit on re-reading. The details of 1950s road and social culture are interesting (the reckless driver is a Korean war veteran, who uses this status to justify to himself his actions), and some of the details macabre, even if the "supernatural makes you learn your lesson" plot is familiar and predictable, and the "old negro" is written with dialogue done in an "Amos & Andy" patois.
"The Dust Cloud" by E.F. Benson is interesting, early attempt to grapple with the concept of a "ghost car" - here, local legends built up around a thoughtless wealthy man who ran over a girl when careening through the country roads, before causing his own death when he accidentally slammed into his estate gates. What's interesting is how the local legends particularize the haunting - some see the car, some hear it, some hear only the little girl's scream, some see her but she remains uncommunicative. Another interesting point is that the main character, while interested in the legend, finds himself incapable of following up on the reports, but then "car problems" (typical of the time - multiple flat tires, etc.) inevitably cause him to be exactly where he needs to be to have visual/sensory confirmation of the haunting. The last line is nicely handled. I bumped this up a grade in my estimation on the reread.
"Accident Zone" by Ramsey Campbell - A young man takes a walk in the countryside and happens across a hair-pin turn near a hill, marked by a standing mirror to warn drivers of oncoming traffic. Later evidence seems to show the turn hosts a large number of bewildering accidents (despite the safety mirror). Following his own personal/ground-level experience, he returns to the site to attempt to puzzle out this strange mystery... I liked this - Campbell can always be relied on for quality writing and the main character is an interesting example of the "surly young man". The setting itself is distinctive and the ending has a delirious quality that works well.
Harlan Ellison's "Along The Scenic Route" (aka "Dogfight on 101") is set on the high-speed freeways of the future, where "duels" between customized cars are officially sanctioned. And so we have the age-old conflict of the middle-age family man who feels belittled by the lingo spouting taunts of the hot-rodder youngster, but now played out with super-speed and future weaponry. Nice. I especially like how all the "world building" is tied into the story's needs, and so no extraneous time is spent on unimportant details.
"Thy Blood Like Milk" by Ian Watson is set in a polluted future in which most humans live circumscribed lives inside domes, while a few rebel "sunchasers" race their "buggys" through the smog, attempting to experience the short moments when the sun pierces the toxic atmospheric veil and shines on the surface. Considine, a sunrunner, has developed his own personal religion and visionary system based on the ancient Aztec sun-god Tezcatlipoca, which he uses to guide his breakout from hospital incarceration (his nurse in tow) and to lead a band of similar rebels to a climactic "sunspot" breach - with tragic results. On the one hand, this is "world-building", futuristic sci-fi which I am not generally a fan of. On the other hand, it is from the New Wave movement, which I do have some time for - and while I wasn't initially sold on the story, the feverish, near-Beat prose did a good job of propelling me through the story. Not bad. Would make a good animated short film.
H. Russell Wakefield's "Used Car" works as a nice counterpart to "The Dust Cloud" as an early exploration of the idea of the "haunted car". A British father buys a used car - an American Highway Straight Edge, originally brought over from Chicago - for his family, but they all soon begin to experience troubling events - glimpsed figures, a stain that won't come out, an odd smell - and sinister, repeated visions of being assaulted and attacked in the car. While the outcome may be obvious, this is a quite well done story - the horror of the hallucinations is nicely handled, nightmarish and invasive - and I like all the details one gets about the life of a family of this class, during this time period (the family dog, Jumbo, is almost another character himself - he doesn't trust the car, needless to say).
Finally, Richard Matheson's "Duel" (the suspenseful made for TV adaptation of which helped start Spielberg's career - watch it here) is, if you don't know (and how could you not?), the prosaic, suspenseful tale of a man who passes a slow truck-driver....the wrong truck driver, as it turns out, and gets pursued across hill and dale. It's a taught, terse, well-paced story and a total gem - crafted out of simple detail, plot logic and suspenseful pacing.
And that's all I read.
In "Night Court" by Mary Elizabeth Counselman, a habitual reckless driver (who uses family connections to avoid responsibility for his actions) hits a young girl on a lonely road, and then finds himself ushered into a ghoulish "Night Court," comprised of victims of traffic accidents, to answer for his crimes... I bumped this up a bit on re-reading. The details of 1950s road and social culture are interesting (the reckless driver is a Korean war veteran, who uses this status to justify to himself his actions), and some of the details macabre, even if the "supernatural makes you learn your lesson" plot is familiar and predictable, and the "old negro" is written with dialogue done in an "Amos & Andy" patois.
"The Dust Cloud" by E.F. Benson is interesting, early attempt to grapple with the concept of a "ghost car" - here, local legends built up around a thoughtless wealthy man who ran over a girl when careening through the country roads, before causing his own death when he accidentally slammed into his estate gates. What's interesting is how the local legends particularize the haunting - some see the car, some hear it, some hear only the little girl's scream, some see her but she remains uncommunicative. Another interesting point is that the main character, while interested in the legend, finds himself incapable of following up on the reports, but then "car problems" (typical of the time - multiple flat tires, etc.) inevitably cause him to be exactly where he needs to be to have visual/sensory confirmation of the haunting. The last line is nicely handled. I bumped this up a grade in my estimation on the reread.
"Accident Zone" by Ramsey Campbell - A young man takes a walk in the countryside and happens across a hair-pin turn near a hill, marked by a standing mirror to warn drivers of oncoming traffic. Later evidence seems to show the turn hosts a large number of bewildering accidents (despite the safety mirror). Following his own personal/ground-level experience, he returns to the site to attempt to puzzle out this strange mystery... I liked this - Campbell can always be relied on for quality writing and the main character is an interesting example of the "surly young man". The setting itself is distinctive and the ending has a delirious quality that works well.
Harlan Ellison's "Along The Scenic Route" (aka "Dogfight on 101") is set on the high-speed freeways of the future, where "duels" between customized cars are officially sanctioned. And so we have the age-old conflict of the middle-age family man who feels belittled by the lingo spouting taunts of the hot-rodder youngster, but now played out with super-speed and future weaponry. Nice. I especially like how all the "world building" is tied into the story's needs, and so no extraneous time is spent on unimportant details.
"Thy Blood Like Milk" by Ian Watson is set in a polluted future in which most humans live circumscribed lives inside domes, while a few rebel "sunchasers" race their "buggys" through the smog, attempting to experience the short moments when the sun pierces the toxic atmospheric veil and shines on the surface. Considine, a sunrunner, has developed his own personal religion and visionary system based on the ancient Aztec sun-god Tezcatlipoca, which he uses to guide his breakout from hospital incarceration (his nurse in tow) and to lead a band of similar rebels to a climactic "sunspot" breach - with tragic results. On the one hand, this is "world-building", futuristic sci-fi which I am not generally a fan of. On the other hand, it is from the New Wave movement, which I do have some time for - and while I wasn't initially sold on the story, the feverish, near-Beat prose did a good job of propelling me through the story. Not bad. Would make a good animated short film.
H. Russell Wakefield's "Used Car" works as a nice counterpart to "The Dust Cloud" as an early exploration of the idea of the "haunted car". A British father buys a used car - an American Highway Straight Edge, originally brought over from Chicago - for his family, but they all soon begin to experience troubling events - glimpsed figures, a stain that won't come out, an odd smell - and sinister, repeated visions of being assaulted and attacked in the car. While the outcome may be obvious, this is a quite well done story - the horror of the hallucinations is nicely handled, nightmarish and invasive - and I like all the details one gets about the life of a family of this class, during this time period (the family dog, Jumbo, is almost another character himself - he doesn't trust the car, needless to say).
Finally, Richard Matheson's "Duel" (the suspenseful made for TV adaptation of which helped start Spielberg's career - watch it here) is, if you don't know (and how could you not?), the prosaic, suspenseful tale of a man who passes a slow truck-driver....the wrong truck driver, as it turns out, and gets pursued across hill and dale. It's a taught, terse, well-paced story and a total gem - crafted out of simple detail, plot logic and suspenseful pacing.
And that's all I read.
September 12, 2022
Tahle sbírka je poklad z půdy. Navzdory společnýmu jmenovateli se totiž Hainingovi podařilo sestavit pestrou sbírku silničního teroru. Mezi všema pak dominuje "Duel" od Mathesona (předloha úplně prvního Spielbergova filmu!), Dahlův "Stopař" s jeho typickou pointou nebo černě vtipný Archerův "Nikdy nezastavujte na dálnici" s až ďábelsky prostým koncem. Nebýt několika slabších kousků v poslední části, byl by to v podstatě stejk bez flaks. Kinga, Ballarda nebo Lansdalea v jedný vazbě totiž nedržíte každej den.
May 22, 2018
Toto je presne ten zvláštny prípad antológie, keď ti nesadne ústredná téma (auto ako hororový zabijak? čo to je za somarinu? síííce, za toto by som si od Christine vyslúžil rozbitie lebky predným nárazníkom..), ale kniha obsahuje natoľko silné a neštandardné kúsky, že tomu proste musíš dať vysoké hodnotenie. Odkladal som ju dlho predlho, nakoniec však neľutujem jedinej minúty, ktorú som s ňou strávil.
February 4, 2024
Some interesting short stories
September 21, 2024
Ballard's Crash is good.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews