Eight mild spine-tinglers, each with a twist at the end: Helen sells magazine subscriptions to a ""Fortune-teller,"" then learns that the woman has been dead for weeks; terrorized by an oncoming tidal wave in his ""Dream World,"" a teenager is admitted to a mental hospital and later found dead in his bed, lungs filled with seawater; a macho hunter becomes ""The Hunted"" when he callously kills a deer and is transformed into one himself. The author stays away from explicit gore or violence in these simply written stories, and his themes -- just desserts, and the dangers of arrogance -- are developed unambiguously. Though more sedate than Jennings's Unreal! (1985) and its sequels, this collection will also appeal to reluctant and less practiced readers.