Terror Is Our Business: Dana Roberts’ Casebook of Horrors

For the first time, readers can find all the adventures of “supernormal” investigator Dana Roberts and her occasional sidekick, Jana, in one collection. Joe R. Lansdale (Jackrabbit Smile) created Roberts by mixing his trademark brand of horror with hard-boiled investigation. In “The Case of the Lighthouse Shambler,” Roberts, a special guest at a story club, shares striking details about banishing a malevolent presence. This ominous first tale makes a convert of the resident skeptic and sets the tone for Roberts’s further cases. Each one involves an intriguing, horrific oddity. Lansdale makes great use of imagery and irreverent wit to detail Roberts’s evolution as an investigator, and her rather eccentric take on the supernatural and inexplicable. When Kasey Lansdale introduces Jana in “Blind Love,” the storytelling delightfully takes on a lighter, sharper edge. The anthology ends with an entertaining new Dana and Jana case, “The Case of the Ragman’s Anguish.” Fans of the Twilight Zone or creepy tales will find this collection quick and pleasurable to read. Agent: Lauren Roberts, Smith Publicity. (May)