From Shadowed Places

Just finished the second of two single-author anthologies I tried out on Amazon's suggestion. This one was far better than the previous. 

From Shadowed Places contains 13 tales. Once again, there were several editing fails, but they were mostly typos and tense switches, not truly distracting things like the last book. 

I'll be putting spoilers in the review below.

58 Minutes: A man brings a dying woman into a diner. She's the victim of a hit and run. It doesn't take long for the diner's occupants to turn on one of the patrons and basically tear him apart with their bare hands because they think he's the killer. However, the woman returns to life and she and the man talk about a bet that he's won. Their names are Adam and Eve...and they're demons who set up games like this to test humanity and then eat souls. Not sure why Adam and Eve are demons, but it's a decent story.

Fate Always Knocks Twice: An old carny woman visits the home of a couple who she recently learned were the people who ran over and killed her grandson four years ago. She offers them a choice to save either their daughter or their son. The couple fight each other, each trying to save the child of their choice, only for the woman to say, as they lay dying, that she never intended to hurt their children...only them. Not sure we needed two hit and run stories in a row. I would have put this one farther into the book. But it's not bad. 

Down the Road: Post-apocalyptic setting. Man travelling with his son and the reveal is that the son has been dead for days. The man finally buries him and lets him go. Not bad, but not unique in any way. 

The Battle at Dayton Hill: Vengeful ghost. Not the best story. 

Sacred: Meat-packing plant on Native American burial ground. Nothing interesting really. 

Perfect Circles: Man doodles a circle and it opens up into this black void. He experiments with it and sees creatures in the other dimension it seems to be a portal to. The entire story is him experimenting with the hole and becoming increasingly dissatisfied with humanity. He ends up using his inherited riches to create a giant hole that will let the creatures from the other dimension through, causing the sixth great extinction, because humanity doesn't deserve to keep on. This one's not bad at all. It's definitely got a King feel to it. 

Nightline: Female cop sets up her partner as the serial killer they've been hunting. She's supposed to have been the killer, but the final scene has her getting the killer's signature pre-murder phone call. Not the best. 

A Devil of a Deal: Typical devil tricking a dumb human story. It was okay.

Dread: Rich guy murderer has his estate caretaker turn on him and leave him at the mercy of the ghosts  formed from dirt that his victims come back as. Meh. 

I Am Dimension: Set in 1938, the descendants of Poe and Usher (from his story) in a sci fi-ish tale with a portal to other places and times. It was okay. 

It's That Thing About Death: Reporter for a paranormal magazine interviews a woman whose husband is a ghost but still lives with her in a benevolent way. He gets creeped out by the helpful ghost, attacks the woman when trying to flee, and then the husband kills him. Not bad. 

Red Hour: Asshole night security guard at a museum gets his hands on a spellbook from Salem. He tries the spells and learns they work. One of his supervisors comes after him, knowing he's a descendant of the witches because only one of them could work the spells. Guard kills him but then accidentally curses and kills himself because he's a fucking idiot. I liked this one. I'm a sucker for asshole museum guards getting their comeuppance. 

From Shadowed Places: Four college friends run their car off the road in a snowstorm and end up with an older couple at a farmhouse. One friend is near death from a bad fever. Then a guy comes in from the blizzard and passes out, but not before saying his patient tried to kill him. This is a large cause for concern and the body of the story is the main two friends trying to save their sick friend while worrying about the mentally ill guy on the loose. The strange man predictably is not the doctor at all but the patient who killed the doctor. The main guys are able to kill him and their sick friend's fever breaks. Very commonplace and predictable story and the female character was an obnoxious bitch. 

Not a bad assortment of tales but once again very amateurish compared to what I prefer. I think I actually liked the subject matter and handling by the female author of the first collection better, but her lack of editing made her stories almost unreadable. These were far more readable, but ultimately quite predictable and even dull at times, though there were some standouts. I really need to pay more attention when I order anthologies and make sure they're not small press by single authors!