MOONLESS NOCTURNE

A collection offers chilling stories by a Bram Stoker Award–winning horror author.

The 10 tales in Schwaeble’s evocative volume draw from the sinister nature of situations and how that darkness influences the characters closest to them. In his introduction, the author writes of his interest in the “slow-burn kind of fright, the kind that is often scary in retrospect more than in the reading,” and this is evident right from the opening yarn, “The Yearning Jade.” This Chicago-set noir stars private detective Milo Chance, who is hired by a shadowy woman to find a highly coveted, mystical, but gravely cursed artifact. The author masterfully combines the supernatural with the psychological in “Household,” a haunted house tale narrated from a distinctly unique perspective, as the property itself details the melodrama of the residents living inside it and its manipulative puppeteering role. The disturbingly dystopian yet intellectually titillating “Everything not Forbidden” contains creative, futuristic worldbuilding. The tale paints a horrific backdrop where an artificial intelligence company’s version of “supreme consciousness” is being developed to perfect humankind. Two of the most effective stories are quite short: “Shifty Devil Blues” is a take on the Faustian bargain complete with a dirty demon and a clever customer who hopes to outsmart him; “Payday” involves two young boys, a gigantic plant, and a slimy creature in a forest that becomes the perfect vehicle for repeated revenge. The impressive titular novella is the collection’s lengthiest tale, offering a supernatural mystery set at the dawn of the space age. The story features a hard-boiled private eye, a murder, and a cameo by Carl Sagan, boasting about a (fact-based) project to detonate a bomb on the moon. This versatile volume encompasses a wide swath of time periods, atmospheres, and settings while remaining true to the suspense/horror form. One entry, “Deepest, Darkest,” introduces readers to Jake Hatcher, the special military operative and combat veteran who headlines Schwaeble’s long-running noir/supernatural thriller series. This twisty action-adventure story is set in Africa, much like the cinematic closing tale, “Zafari,” in which a community of hungry zombies is the target of a rowdy troupe of heavily armed hunters. Strong writing, imaginative themes, and a gifted, gloomy sense of what frightens readers most permeates this assortment of dark fantasy, noir mystery, SF, horror, and suspense stories.

A devilishly tempting, contemplative volume of haunting tales.