YOU'LL NEVER SEE IT COMING

A short story collection that’s full of fantasy and SF twists and turns.

Many of these 24 tales by Dinsmoor present the reader with a fantastical or supernatural element that takes the story to unexpected places. In “Seeds of Destruction,” 70-something Earl, who’s a former grain-store manager and Public Works department head, receives a box of seeds in the mail and decides to plant them; the U.S. Department of Agriculture gets involved when the resulting plants start running amok and spewing acid. Next, in “Security” a man agrees to a free security system installation and finds himself a prisoner of his own home, rattling the fence and pleading for “someone, even a stranger, to come by and rescue me.” In “The House in the Cul-de-Sac,” Mike and his friend Chuckie break into what they think is an abandoned house, but get caught by the owner, leading to a twisty game of blame. “Mangia Funghi” tells the story of  a woman who forages for mushrooms and finds some that give her a soul-freeing high, but have side effects that affect her dinner guests. This compilation is appealingly unpredictable throughout. However, it can feel somewhat disjointed as the stories shift from SF and speculative fiction to more straightforward historical fiction, such as “A Dog’s Life.” In that story, Dinsmoor truly shows his skill when it comes to dark and graphic detail, as when the narrator tells of his dying pet: “His whole body was convulsing, his left eyeball was protruding nearly a half inch from its socket, and his tongue was sticking out the side of his mouth, as if taunting him.” Still, it’s the twist endings that will keep any readers engaged, whether they’re frightening, depressing, or downright comical.

A somewhat scattered but consistently surprising set of tales.