These tales are sharply written and wickedly enjoyable.
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Dark Steps
Written by Martin Pond
Genre: Horror, Short Stories
Book Synopsis
A collection of short stories, a series of twist endings, and one author's dark steps back into writing...A teenage boy waits to take a sinister test he may or may not pass; a new father hears a strange voice on his daughter's baby monitor; a poisoner's best-laid plans go terribly astray; an enigmatic man gets as close to death as he can; a young boy wonders why Christmas just doesn't feel right this year; after the year from hell, a man is driven to extreme measures; a dying man reveals a black secret to his son; and, after four years in limbo, a man's life starts to unravel...
These dark tales of the unexpected are for fans of the short fiction of Stephen King, David Morrell and Dean Koontz. Step outside of the every day and take dark steps into a shadowy place...
Wilma's Rating
Wilma's Review
I’d like to thank Martin Pond for making this book available to me free of charge for review.
Let me start off this review by saying that I’m not really a fan of either short stories, flash fiction or horror. It’s always been hard for me to care about the characters when there isn’t a lot of exposition. However, this collection might just have changed my mind.
These tales are sharply written and wickedly enjoyable. These are not stories with happy endings, and the horror in them is, for the most part, very subtle. For example, the first story, WAITING ROOM, is a bit hard to understand – until you think about it, that is, and then it’s a nasty cautionary tale about expectations. Without revealing its twist, DREAM FEED is very scary – and it’s every parent’s worst nightmare come true. EGG is pure horror, and so is A BIT CHRSTMASSY. I wasn’t too fond of RESOLUTION; it dragged a bit in places, and the resolution was, I thought, a bit weak. Of all the tales, INHERITANCE is my favourite. The story is slowly paced, marvelously scary, and the ending is completely unexpected.
Mr. Pond is a Brit, and it shows in his writing. Most of the stories are not transplantable – and after all, why should they be? He does have a unique voice and perception. I got fully invested in all of his characters in all of the stories, because they are interesting and multi-dimensional. The writing is crisp, the dialogue believeable, and the editing is very good.
I highly recommend this book to anyone that is a fan of horror stories and short stories as well. They are the hardest venue to master because they demand the same concentration and devotion that a longer novel needs. I’d say that, judging from this collection, that Mr. Pond is a master at this particular form of writing, and I’m looking forward to reading more of his work.
Disclaimer: May not be appropriate for children due to mature themes.
