This is the second volume of a collection of stories with a remit that seems to include anything that might be even remotely termed supernatural, and hence has a refreshing range and variety. I myself found it much better than the first volume. Like that volume, it contains a couple of weakish stories that tread old ground, and a large group of stories which are more than competent and perfectly readable and entertaining. (And I say this as a person not greatly into supernatural fiction.) But - and this is where it has the edge on the earlier book - there is also a group of really outstanding stories, whatever criteria you apply. Steve Duffy's 'Todhunter's Rock' is a brilliant tour de force, starting off in a metafictional way a la Calvino, then playing with the tropes and topoi of the bunch-of-marooned-suspects detective story, excellent vignettes within the genre, but also adding so much more, bringing in real excitement, and finally standing everything on its head, yet at the same time making you feel that's the way it has to be. Rhys Hughes' 'The Century Just Gone', after a slightly imperfect start - too much info dumping, however cleverly done - then takes off into an amazing concept (about the most evil people in the twentieth century) that only he is capable of, with a denouement utterly unexpected, and horrifically logical (and even throws in a Supermaggot!). Excellent! Steve Lockley and Paul Jones introduce the big boss of all angels in their story 'Gabriel Restrained', and at first I thought 'Oh no!', but they actually made it work, and the image of the angel patiently sitting there on the bed is still with me! (The story does suffer from a common flaw in this sort of thing - why would any god judge a whole race based on the actions of a single person?) Iain Darby has a most original story in 'Phylotas' Tomb' (think perfidious maiden and peculiarly nasty sacrifice!) with another perfect twist at the end, which brings together ancient Greek treachery with modern day error. And William Simmons' 'The Wind, When it Comes' is baffling, haunting, beautifully written. Also highly recommended are stories by Adrian Versteegh and SJ Pinborough (the latter recommended for people dissatisfied with their spouse!) Altogether,an admirably eclectic collection that should satisfy (and in some cases surprise)both new readers, and others already familiar with the editorial work of Maynard and Sims.

If you don't even open the cover, buy this book for theincredibly wonderful/wicked dustjacket depicting a sadistic Punch (ofthe "Punch & Judy" puppet show fame). The jacket is thebest "blurb" for the contents - unexpected. This is Cowles' complete (apparently, this is EVERYTHING) works. This is wonderful in and unto itself since the author's abilities (and Cowles abilities vary from the sublime to the mediocre) can be seen over his entire writing career. These are not your typical modern, overtly sexual (ie-Clegg, Lee, Ketchum) horror stories. By modern tastes, these are not even horrific. Most of stories read with a limit of peversity that reside well in the E.F. Benson or H.P. Lovecraft school of shock/gore. These are wonderfully scary stories (not so much horrifying) without the charged libido. Robert W Chambers and H.R. Wakefield wrote "thinking person's" ghost stories - Cowles' works are exactly in the same genre. It's too bad that college courses do not offer more classes on the evolution and place of horrific literature - if they did, this book would be a definite recommendation to a good reading list. If you want to simply unplug your brain and "vedge" on gore - don't buy this book. ...if you like a more well-rounded view of what horror was in "Lovecraftian" era. You will get ...entertainment out of the small-spaced, tightly packed pages. Then again, I thought the freaky dustjacket was worth the expense !