We Are Where the Nightmares Go and Other Stories

Cargill (Sea of Rust) explores the thin line between the living and the dead, and more, in this entertaining collection of 10 tales that embrace the best elements of old-school horror and dark fantasy. In the eerie, atmospheric “The Town That Wasn’t Anymore,” a dying, fog-drenched West Virginia town hosts the angry shades of more than 200 people killed in a mine collapse, and they now seek to inhabit the living. A sheriff, a priest, and their small posse try to keep the spirits at bay in an increasingly futile battle. In the terrific, terrifying “Hell Creek,” a triceratops and an ankylosaurus team up to fight a hoard of zombie tyrannosaurs and other undead dinos after a mass extinction event. In “The Last Job Is Always the Hardest,” someone who intends to bomb a passenger train gets a very unusual job offer, and in the title story, a girl finds a door in her wall leading to a place of dark wonders. Not all of the tales work: “Hell They Call Him, the Screamers” is simply stomach-churning. But Cargill has a gift for haunting imagery as well as exuberant gore, and most of his horror has a beating heart, albeit a bloody one. His fans will be thrilled by this strong collection. (June)