JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile
Cargill’s stories unfold like nightmares, starting with the familiar and believable and rapidly transforming into the phantasmagorical, the horrible, and the weird. Narrators James Cronin and Vikas Adam follow him every treacherous and terrifying step of the way. Neither attempts to lend unnecessary drama to his narration. Instead, their calm, even deliveries provide the perfect environment for these twisted tales to flourish. Their subtle accents and nuanced characters feel tangibly real, even the wildly creepy clown that Cronin conjures in the title story. Those unfamiliar with Cargill’s QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS may be a little lost during the novella “The Soul Thief’s Son,” but fans will find it a welcome addition to the collection. B.E.K. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
04/23/2018
Cargill (Sea of Rust) explores the thin line between the living and the dead, and more, in this entertaining collection of 10 tales that embrace the best elements of old-school horror and dark fantasy. In the eerie, atmospheric “The Town That Wasn’t Anymore,” a dying, fog-drenched West Virginia town hosts the angry shades of more than 200 people killed in a mine collapse, and they now seek to inhabit the living. A sheriff, a priest, and their small posse try to keep the spirits at bay in an increasingly futile battle. In the terrific, terrifying “Hell Creek,” a triceratops and an ankylosaurus team up to fight a hoard of zombie tyrannosaurs and other undead dinos after a mass extinction event. In “The Last Job Is Always the Hardest,” someone who intends to bomb a passenger train gets a very unusual job offer, and in the title story, a girl finds a door in her wall leading to a place of dark wonders. Not all of the tales work: “Hell They Call Him, the Screamers” is simply stomach-churning. But Cargill has a gift for haunting imagery as well as exuberant gore, and most of his horror has a beating heart, albeit a bloody one. His fans will be thrilled by this strong collection. (June)
From the Publisher
Cargill has a gift for haunting imagery as well as exuberant gore, and most of his horror has a beating heart, albeit a bloody one. His fans will be thrilled by this strong collection.” — Publishers Weekly
JANUARY 2019 - AudioFile
Cargill’s stories unfold like nightmares, starting with the familiar and believable and rapidly transforming into the phantasmagorical, the horrible, and the weird. Narrators James Cronin and Vikas Adam follow him every treacherous and terrifying step of the way. Neither attempts to lend unnecessary drama to his narration. Instead, their calm, even deliveries provide the perfect environment for these twisted tales to flourish. Their subtle accents and nuanced characters feel tangibly real, even the wildly creepy clown that Cronin conjures in the title story. Those unfamiliar with Cargill’s QUEEN OF THE DARK THINGS may be a little lost during the novella “The Soul Thief’s Son,” but fans will find it a welcome addition to the collection. B.E.K. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
