Night Visions 8

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From Booklist *Starred Review* The three stories in the new number of a long-running horror anthology series are examples of what editor Sheehan says "is among the most satisfying of all narrative modes," the novella. Whether a form can be a mode is questionable, but that these yarns satisfy is undeniable. In "Swellhead" Kim Newman revives a paranormal investigator from other stories set in early 1970s London and sends him, now in his sixties, with a team assembled by British intelligence to a far North Atlantic island, where they discover a huge installation set to blast the world into submission to its creator, a version from another dimension of a member of the team. Call it absurd, but this is never-a-dull-moment, white-knuckle reading. Ditto Tim Lebbon's spectral "In Perpetuity," the headlong impetus of which is powered by the desperation of its hero, who suddenly loses his four-year-old son in a mysterious shop and is told he will get the boy back only if he brings the shopkeeper proof of his love. That anyone could top those barnburners is incredible, but Lucius Shepard does the job with "Hands Up! Who Wants to Die?" about a smart Florida lowlife who lucks on a hot piece o' tail and then a trio of rich scuzzballs from God knows where. This is Jim Thompson-in-Hell stuff. Funny, too. Ray Olson Copyright American Library Association. All rights reserved