Dark Delicacies

If, as Howison writes in his afterword, "Horror has always been the blues of literature," then this anthology of 20 new tales of the macabre is an all-star concert whose performers work haunting riffs on gutbucket themes. In "The Reincarnate," Ray Bradbury makes a reanimated corpse the focus of a poetic reverie on death and loss. Clive Barker serves up a pastiche of the antique penny dreadful in "Haeckel's Tale," but with the traditional subtexts of sex and death unapologetically exposed to view. Supernatural and psychological horror interweave seamlessly in John Farris's "Bloody Mary Morning," a tale of modern horror with a classic Ambrose Bierce–style twist. In Ramsey Campbell's fiercely funny "The Announcement," a writer's psychological meltdown plunges him into a paranoid conspiracy distilled impurely from The Da Vinci Code . Howison, the proprietor of Burbank, Calif.'s Dark Delicacies horror bookstore, and Gelb, co-editor of the Hot Blood anthology series, have plundered their Rolodexes to recruit a formidable lineup of horror's top creative talents. Agent, Jabberwocky Literary Agency. (Oct.)