Edited by John Pelan, Dark Arts

Dark Arts

Edited by John Pelan

Cemetery Dance, May 2006, $35.00

ISBN: 1587671247

These twenty-two all new short stories contributed by members of the Horror Writers Association lives up to the title, as these well written tales showcase the DARK ARTS. The compilation contains new stories that somewhat capture the genre's range, but most are some form of psychological terror that can be summed up from a quote in Lorelei Shannon's Kodechrome: "When you photograph a road accident in black and white. The image is stark. Real. Details are crisp and true. A corpse has no color ". This recaps the basic theme of this superb anthology, as the writers provide stark grim exhilarating tales that grip readers, as the arts are treated quite a bit differently in this thrilling collection. The audience will fully appreciate these dark entries as long as the lights remain on, though that will probably not keep out the creeping shadows oozing from this strong collection playing havoc with the reader's mind.