Best of Shadows

For a decade, Grant's annual Shadows anthology has been one of the two best showcases of quality original short horror fiction (the other being Stuart Schiff's Whispers series). This satisfying collection contains 13 selections, among them: Ramsey Campbell's ``Mackintosh Willy,'' about a formless murderous entity with rags for clothes and bottle caps for eyes, haunting a squalid English fairground; Lisa Tuttle's ``Jamie's Grave,'' a taut, disturbing tale of a woman whose maternal instincts lead her to nurture a monster; Tanith Lee's ``The Gorgon,'' a beautifully written tale of a writer whose encounter with a horribly disfigured woman leaves him psychically paralyzed; David Morrell's ``The Storm,'' in which a man finds himself dogged by an unending hurricane; and Stephen King's predictable but engagingly told ``The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands,'' about a man cursed with a touch that kills. There are also good stories by Avram Davidson, Nancy Nolder, Marc Laidlaw and Steve Rasnic Tem. (October)