Conference With The Dead

Book Name : Conference With The Dead
Author : Terry Lamsley

What is it about : Over ten short horror stories, mostly based in rural northern England. A young man applied for what he thought to be an easy job of walking an animal, only to discover the "walking" had to take place after midnight and turned out to be more a feeding frenzy; an enthusiastic cyclist looking for a hot cuppa and stumbled upon an out-of-the-way tea house and being followed back to the BnB by a spirit; a middle-age man inheriting his mother's house and uncovered her dark past and found himself to be the object of an ancient local cult; a child holidaying with his grand parents in a sea-side town where old folks came to live out their remaining years, noticed the strange going-on's at the local old people's home where the staff were un-characteristically more interested in keeping these geriatrics alive.

Some thoughts after having read the book : The themes and beginnings of each story had great potential but the endings fell well short of reaching any climatic explosion. However, the book did have its moments of brilliance in making my hair stand up. Perhaps the stories needed to be better followed through with more coverage, needing perhaps 10 to 20 pages more on each short story to give the stories more oomph, punch and bite. The final endings almost always left me un-satisfied and hung in mid-air, not with suspense of horror, but actually a wanting to be thrilled.

Would I recommend this book to you : An easy read for a plane ride, may be. I certainly did not feel I wasted my time here. But if you're looking for atmosphere, blood, dare and un-stoppable actions, try Anne Rice's The Witching Hour and her Vampire Series.