Peter Crowther (1) (1949–)

Like one of those old films that put together a quartet of spooky tales, this book promises a dip into the same chills and thrills territory, though I’m unsure whether it fully delivers. There’s poor old Gerry who finds an apartment best left unrented; Vic, who can’t leave his friend Paul, to rest, but questions the accident that killed him on a dangerous road; Mary, who’s lived in the wilderness too long, her story leading us to question what’s most poisonous — the belladonna that grows or the man she once knew; and Bridget and Colin, who may have moved to a house with a dark secret. All leave the reader a little disorientated, questioning what is and isn’t there, but the stories also feel somewhat disjointed and incomplete, even though I imagine that’s intentional.… (more)

Touch Wood is an anthology about superstition. For those of us on this side of the pond it means the same thing as "knock on wood."

This book was just average-good. There were some problems. First themed anthologies of "all new stories" are a dodgy affair. Do authors submit these or are they personally solicited by the editor? I suspect a lot of the latter occurs with themed anthologies, so you are not necessarily going to get an author's best work. Everyone horror/fantasy writer likes [a:Peter Crowther|38592|Peter Crowther|https://www.goodreads.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-e89fc14c32a41c0eb4298dfafe929b65.png] so when he asks you to submit something to his new themed anthology, a lot of authors are going to bite, especially the hungrier ones. The author has to tailor the story to the theme so there is already a constraint on inspiration. So we don't get the author's best current stories, we get the best stories the authors could write today focused around superstition.

The second problem is many of the writers here are decidedly second tier. Except for a few, these are not (were not) the lights of their time. Half of these authors I have never seen before and this was published in 1993, so many must have faded away.

So, there are a couple of above average, a bunch of average, and a few well written but virtually plot-less stories. Describing someplace really well and evocatively but having virtually nothing happen in the setting is not a story, it is a drawing.… (more)