The Lord Came at Twilight

by | Nov 20, 2014 | Reviews

New England native Daniel Mills is the author of bunch of horror stories so far scattered in various journals and anthologies and of a novel entitled Revenants, published by the small British imprint Chomu Press. The present collection assembles fourteen stories by this talented new writer, whose previous work has roused the interest of genre connoisseurs, both readers and reviewers.

The book features a fair number of excellent tales and , not surprisingly, other stories which did not  quite work for me. I say “not surprisingly” not only because Mills is still a newcomer, but also because, in my opinion, the perfect collection ( or the perfect anthology) where every single story is top notch and recognized as such by anyone simply doesn’t exist. So indulge me and let me stick only with what  to me is the best material.

“Dust from  a Dark Flower” is an extremely creepy tale where a destructive rot attacks a small village , while “The Naked Goddess” is a superb piece where a man reminisces about an unsettling incident occurred in his youth and “The Tempest Glass” is an excellent story of supernatural horror revolving around a peculiar mirror.

In “The Photographer’s Tale”, a solid, traditional ghost story, a camera provides fleeting images of the darkness surrounding our daily reality and in the atmospheric “Louisa” typical horror clichés such as the femme fatale, the séance and the doppelganger) are effectively blended.

My personal favorite is perhaps “The Falling Dark”, a melancholy, enticing and perceptive piece where the loneliness of our existence and our continuous nedd for love are revealed under the veneer of trivial but disquieting events. Enjoy.