THE CHILLING HOUR

A snowed-in, freezing family almost makes the mistake of climbing into the Black Van that stops for them...a locket with an old photograph becomes a slow, deadly trap...a substitute teacher returns to his hometown after many years to take revenge on the children of his tormentors...a seemingly ramshackle house proves to be a gateway to past and future. Readers who enjoyed (if that's the word) the author's Nightwaves: Scary Tales for After Dark (1990) will find these eight simply told stories similar, if somewhat milder, fare. Despite occasional flashes of bone and blood, McDonald relies on irony or shock, rather than explicit grue, for his effects, and not all of these tales have a supernatural element: in ``The Diving Bear,'' Karen watches a sad circus animal escape its captivity with a fatal fall, and Billy drives away his brutal stepfather in ``Deadly Warm'' by putting rattlesnakes in his bed. Plenty of unsubtle shivers. (Short Stories/Fiction. 10-13)