The Lurkers in the Abyss and other Tales of Terror

by | Feb 8, 2014 | Reviews

David A Riley is a veteran British author of horror fiction. His first professional sale was the acclaimed “The Lurkers in the Abyss”, originally appeared in The 11th Pan Book of Horror Stories and reprinted here as the title story of the preset book. Since then Riley has penned countless horror tales, included in the major genre magazines, but, oddly enough, his work has been collected only quite recently.

His very first short story collection His Own Mad Demons has been published in 2012. This second collection assembles other seventeen horror tales by the prolific Riley.
Among the various stories – all good enough and scary enough- I’d like to pinpoint those which strike me as the more accomplished and memorable.

“After Nightfall” is creepy, atmospheric piece where hungry, evil creatures haunt a small village’s nights, while “Terror on the Moors” is a solid, traditional tale where a man lost in the Moors while driving in a blizzard has to face an ordeal in an abandoned farmhouse.
In the fascinating “Soft Little Fingers” we experience dread and anguish about a child face which keeps appearing in a car’s back window, and in the cruel but enticing “His Pale Blue Eyes” a brave young girl fights hard to save her parents from the attack of a bunch of zombies.

The very horrific, supernatural “Writer’s Cramp” depicts the terrible vengeance of a plagiarized writer , while in the Lovecraftian “Fish Eye” the retrieval of a weird statue from the sea brings about terror and death.

A group of excellent dark pieces of traditional horror includes “The Shadow by the Altar” (a tale of necromancy), “Inside the Labyrinth” (featuring a history teacher who has to deal with an ancient, dangerous myth while visiting Crete) and the frightening “Out of Corruption” (where the cellar of a dilapidated mansion once the venue of unholy rites still hosts evil phantoms from the past).

For the fans of classical horror fiction, a very interesting collection by a modern but classical author David A Riley is a veteran British author of horror fiction. His first professional sale was the acclaimed “The Lurkers in the Abyss”, originally appeared in The 11th Pan Book of Horror Stories and  reprinted   here as the title story of the preset book. Since then Riley has penned countless horror tales, included in the major genre magazines, but, oddly enough, his work has been collected only quite recently.

His very first short story collection His Own Mad Demons has been published in 2012. This second collection assembles other seventeen horror tales by the prolific Riley.

Among the various stories – all  good enough  and scary enough- I’d like to pinpoint those which strike me as the more accomplished and memorable.

“After Nightfall” is creepy, atmospheric piece where hungry, evil creatures haunt a small village’s nights, while “Terror on the Moors” is a solid, traditional tale where a man lost in the Moors while driving in a blizzard  has to face an ordeal in an abandoned farmhouse.

In the fascinating  “Soft Little Fingers” we experience dread and anguish about a child face which keeps appearing in a car’s back window, and in the cruel but enticing “His Pale Blue Eyes” a brave young girl fights hard to save her parents from the attack of a bunch of zombies.

The very horrific, supernatural “Writer’s Cramp” depicts the terrible vengeance of a plagiarized writer , while in the Lovecraftian “Fish Eye” the retrieval of a weird statue from the sea brings about terror and death.

A group of  excellent dark pieces of traditional horror includes “The Shadow by the Altar” (a tale of necromancy), “Inside the Labyrinth” (featuring a history teacher who has to deal with an ancient, dangerous myth while visiting Crete) and the frightening “Out of Corruption” (where the cellar of a dilapidated mansion once the venue of unholy rites still hosts evil phantoms from the past).

For the fans of classical horror fiction, a very interesting collection by a  modern but classical author