Customer reviews:
http://www.feoamante.com/Stories/Reviews/ABC/Around_adark_Corner.html
AROUND A DARK CORNER is a
new collection of short stories by Jeani Rector from Turner Maxwell
books. Each of the nine tales (and one novella) are quite different in
tone - some of them soaked with blood and gore, while others fall into a
more subtle category.
The best story in the collection by far is “The Golem”, a retelling of
the Jewish legend. Rector’s description of the monster coming to life
was actually the best I have seen of this tale. Her attention to detail
is remarkable and you can really tell that a lot of research went into
this work.
Another standout tale was “A Medieval Tale of Plague”. The story is
about a young woman trying to survive the bubonic plague as it hits
London. This story was vivid and so well researched I actually forgot I
was reading and completely fell into Rector’s haunting world. It was
refreshing to see this story done from a character driven perspective.
Some of the tales have banal or sudden endings, but Rector’s talent lies
in the smaller moments. Sometimes the details of these moments are so
rich and vivid that the reader truly feels the impact. For example, in
the story “The Dead Man”, Rector’s attention to the most minute details
of dismembering a body seemed fresh despite the fact that we have seen
this sort of thing before. There are some clunky moments in the dialogue
where it feels as if the author is educating the reader rather than
simply letting her characters talk, but that can be forgiven given the
quality of some of these stories.
I would definitely be interested in seeing Jeani Rector’s future works,
especially a novel. If Rector can harness these great smaller moments
into a larger work I have no doubt the impact would be profound. I
recommend AROUND A DARK CORNER.
3 BookWyrms.
Review by
David Whitman
"Dread, consternation and
trepidation….simply, a great collection of horror stories"
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a Book Review by Dr. Dume
There is only
one thing in the world better than a
good book, and that is a free good
book. Not quite free, of course, since
I only have it on condition I review it
but that was hardly an onerous task. As
near free as possible, then.
Around a Dark Corner
, published by Turner Maxwell Books
in the United Kingdom in 2008, contains
ten tales; nine short stories and one
novella. The book opens with a tale of
murder, or rather the tale of a
murderer. I found myself wondering who
the victim was, and why they had been
murdered but soon realized the story
wasn’t about that. It was about the
murderer.
Oh, the ending was clear enough but its
very inevitability was what kept me
reading. Would there be a last-minute
change of heart, an escape in the final
seconds? I won’t say. That would spoil
the fun.
What I hoped to
see in these stories, more than
anything, was novelty. That spark of
imagination that fires the darker
aspects of the mind, and separates the
horror writer from the psychopath only
by the means of expression of that
darkness. Here, in this collection of
sometimes twisted, sometimes predictable
stories there burns such a spark. The
world can breathe a sigh of relief:
this author has chosen the keyboard
rather than the filleting knife to
release her inner demons. For now.
With any
collection of short stories, I find some
I like and some I don’t. There were a
couple I didn’t really take to, but you
can’t please all the people all the time
and as Senga often reminds me,
it’s hard to please me any of the time.
Others will choose different favorites
but I especially enjoyed the
mysteriously cyclic nature of
In Any Language,
the deranged researcher of
Maggots,
and the author’s take on the old story
of
The Golem.
While it would be nice to describe these
stories in detail, it would also ruin
the surprises for many and Dume Towers
has to endure enough pitchfork-wielding
mobs without encouraging more. Read
them for yourselves.
Other stories
didn't grip me so well.
The Spirit of
Death—I
guessed what would happen after the
first few paragraphs but I won’t say
because maybe other readers won’t catch
on so fast. I failed to understand the
horror aspects of ‘light
529
or
Lady Cop,
but that doesn’t make them bad stories.
Just not my cup of blood—I mean, tea.
What really
surprised me was the final tale. I
confess that the title,
A Teenage Ghost
Story,
made me wince. I expected to read
another of those ‘belligerent boys and
mini-skirted girls find empty house in
the dark and scream a lot’ stories.
There was none of that clichéd stuff to
be found. Nobody died. Nobody ran
shrieking into the night. Teenagers
were not picked off one by one, Texas
Chainsaw style. The story is
written for a teenage audience but I was
mesmerized. It’s more of a ghostly
detective story, nicely worked out and
with an ending that avoids any form of
sneaky twist or paranormal escape
route. It’s logical. It makes sense.
It’s a good read. This story, I
thought, might have been better expanded
and released on its own. Never mind,
I’m sure this author will write another.
The only
downside was that in places, the author
talks too much. The mechanics of the
putrefactive process, for example, are
not widely known, and it is clear the
author has researched the matter in
detail. The reader won’t know how much
work went into finding out those details
and shouldn’t know. It is, I admit,
frustrating to spend many days or weeks
grasping the intricacies of a subject
only to find that it warrants no more
than a passing mention in the story—but
the story comes first. If people in
general don’t know something, then the
characters in the story aren’t likely to
know either. Narration that goes beyond
the character’s knowledge is the sound
of the author’s voice and that should
never be heard. A couple of times, it
did leak through.
There were few
such episodes, however, and they did not
detract significantly from the stories.
I only mention it because it was my only
real criticism. The writing style, the
process itself, the preferred style of
editors and readers changes with time so
there’s no purpose in commenting on it
in depth. The root, the basis of
storytelling, the important part is that
devilish imagination and that is present
in abundance here.
Overall, I
enjoyed this collection of tales and
would say this author is one to watch.
Long may she wear the letters off her
keyboard, and long may that darkness
flow from her fingertips.
In fact, if she
ever stops writing . . . hide the
knives.
author, Jeani Rector
So where do
your find this book?
So far you can
find it on sale here in the U. K.
through the book's website at
www.AroundaDarkCorner.com.
The website offers delectable teasers on
each story in the collection, other
reviews on the book and
Jeani Rector's
bio and the bio of the cover artist,
Sierra Peterson. |
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Jeani Rector,
Around a Dark Corner. Turner
Maxwell Books, 2008. Pp. 310. ISBN
9780956188403. £8.99.
Reviewed by Terry Grimwood
This
is Jeani Rector’s second collection
and an example of an author who is
steadily improving and developing
her style. She has definitely
corrected some of the weaknesses
evident in her first collection and
moved from the some of the
traditional horror tropes it
contained to the grey-shadowed, more
subtle regions of that gothic land
inhabited by the writers of dark
fiction.
The anthology
opens with a gruesome, amoral and
enigmatic tale involving ‘The
Dead Man’ and his killer. The
reader literally stumbles on an
unnamed narrator who is trying to
dispose of the corpse of the title.
There is a lot of medical detail and
the protagonist’s plight is engaging
and unnerving, right up until the
final, shocking moment.
Following hard on its heels is the
rather clumsily titled ‘A
Medieval Tale of the Plague’. As
a story it is compelling and tense,
the atmosphere of fear, the filth
and horror of medieval London in the
midst of the Black Death is well
described and vivid. Tension is
cranked up relentlessly as the
feisty young heroine first tries to
hide from the contagion, then escape
the capital. A cracking good yarn,
but the effect is spoiled by
some very anachronistic and jarring
transatlantic language; “I
figured...”, “Next street over...”
and “Hi...” for example. Not terms
used by medieval English - as far as
I know. This is a shame because the
research and the ambience of the
story were authentic up to this
point.
‘The Spirit of Death’ is a
corker; a tale of seduction and dark
and very bloody rituals. Nicely
atmospheric this one, and filled
with a sense of encroaching doom. In
‘Horrorscope’ we have a
disturbed son who is determined to
make sure his horoscope comes true
at any cost. Again, tightly plotted,
well-written and nasty. ‘In any
Language’ takes us to Mexico at
the time of the American civil war
as a deserter comes face to face
with a very different violence to
the one he has fled south to
escaper. The actual horror is
traditional, but given a fresh lick
of paint by its setting and a
lively, energetic telling.
Another disturbed gentleman with an
unhealthy interest in ‘Maggots’into
a horror of rotting flesh and
obsession. There is enough detail
and sensory description to make this
a story to be avoided at meal time.
‘Flight 529’ is an oddity, a
card Rector first revealed in her
last collection Open Grave
and one I like - the retelling of a
true story. In Open Grave it
was a personalised version of the
genesis of the Ebola epidemic, this
time it is the first-hand experience
a man involved in a plane crash. The
description of the awful realisation
that something was very wrong, the
terror of the descent, the
preparation for imminent impact and
the desperate fight for survival
that follows all draw the reader in
and puts you, white-knuckled, into
that seat. The final act of great
human courage is both inspiring and
as good as any fictional account.
This is followed by my favourite,
‘Lady Cop’. This piece is
Terry’s Favourite (I always have
one) and a longer, first-person
narrative that takes us into the
world of a woman police officer.
What makes this story stand out is a
sense of authenticity and a strong
emotional engagement with the
protagonist. The cop is a rookie,
anxious to impress but treated with
disdain by her male partner and
colleagues. The case is a nasty one,
a murder. Step-by-step the story
takes the reader through procedure,
emotion, the tension surrounding the
case and its brutal dénouement and
aftermath. There was a sense of
truth about ‘Lady Cop’.
Next is ‘The Golem’ about...
well, it does what it says on the
tin, and more so because it is a
retelling of a Jewish legend. Set in
the Prague Ghetto in the 16th
century, the story centres around
Rabbi Loew who is forced,
reluctantly, to take desperate and
supernatural action to protect his
people from yet another wave of
brutal persecution. The problem is
that it is very hard to close the
door on what comes through from the
darker regions. This one is a good
historical piece, with no
anachronisms or jarring
Americanisms. Leow’s dilemma is well
presented and the story moves at a
cracking pace.
The collection ends with a novella
called ‘A Teenage Ghost Story’.
Again, a clumsy title that gives too
much away because essentially it is
about a teenager and... well... a
ghost. That said however, the story
itself is another compelling,
engaging tale that keeps those pages
turning. The teenager at the centre
of the tale is, thankfully, not the
kind of whining, Oh-My-God princess
Hollywood throws at us with its
endless High School and
then-there-were-none slasher movies,
but a very personable young lady who
quickly wins the reader’s affection.
The supernatural element is perhaps
not entirely original but the
page-turning narrative does draw you
in as it races neatly towards this
dramatic conclusion.
The cover art is suitably gothic and
provides the right feel for the
collection. However, I’m afraid the
publisher has messed up, certainly
with my copy. The spine text is
upside-down and off-centre. While
not detracting from the stories
themselves it doesn’t give the
sharp, professional feel necessary
to sell a book. And it is unfair to
an author who has done her part in
laying down some good prose and fine
stories. Hopefully this has been
rectified.
At her best, with ‘Lady Cop’ for
example, Rector displays a keen eye
for detail and an ability to engage
the reader emotionally with her
characters. The same, though to a
lesser extent is true of the closing
novella. There are some fine dark
moments and enough morbid detail and
nasty surprises to keep most horror
fans happy. There are some
predictable endings, but even they
can be forgiven because the prose is
friendly, likeable, the book is an
acquaintance, relating some terrible
and dark things that they heard
about or experienced.
So, an immensely enjoyable
collection of well-plotted and
readable stories. There is a mixture
of original and traditional–in the
horror sense–work, but even the
familiar monsters are given a fresh
feel and there is no trace of
tiredness to them. The historical
and real-life re-telling is an
interesting string to Rector’s bow,
and one I hope she develops further,
providing the research and attention
to detail–particularly the
dialogue–is sound. This is different
and works well. Another admirable
quality of Rector is that she has
taken criticism of her first book on
the chin and acted on it to produce
a much improved and enjoyable work.
http://lattitudezine.com/?tag=jeani-rector
http://www.fright.com/edge/around_corner.htm
http://www.cafedoom.com/forum/index.php?topic=2490.0
Around a dark corner by Jeani Rector
Reviewed by Geoff Nelder
Jeani Rector writes noir fiction in an original way. Don’t expect gore
and axes to leap into your face from her pages but you will squirm with
discomfort. Luckily, the gore is on her characters’ faces and yet it is
under your skin that the real horror lurks. You could walk away but
instead you will feel compelled to read on.
There are nine short stories and an intriguing novella – a ghost story
in which a teenager reluctantly walks through a graveyard she finds the
expected terror but not without being fascinated by it.
The anthology ranges from medieval to modern revealing that the years
have yet to ease the horror potential life has to offer. One of my
favourites is A Medieval Tale of Plague, possibly because I have
researched the era (one of the fifteenth century plagues rather than the
overdone 1665 Great Plague, so kudos to Rector for a wise choice of
plague!). In this medieval plague we experience disease-ridden London
through Elissa. She survives but succumbs to the horrors having to
handle the rotten flesh of her dead employer. She enlists the help of a
street urchin, who could be after her purse; so many bad things hide
around the next corner. Although Elissa doesn’t succumb to the plague
herself, the ordeal of moving around the pestilence is satisfyingly
grim.
Horrorscope (what a brilliant title) is a neat story based on a man who
takes his horoscope too literally and along with his hammer engineers an
unexpected twist.
Lady Cop is a visual story with two main characters as patrol officers
following the discovery of a body in the woods. American setting with an
authentic feel. The lady cop is distinctly different from her initially
sexist male partner but the two create a workable tension right to the
end. Good job.
A clever yet understated story is Flight 529 in which we follow a
passenger going through dire emotions as he faces ‘certain’ death as the
plane plunges.
There’s more subtlety to this collection than in most horror
anthologies. A modern penny dreadful with all the evil we’ve come to
expect from Jeani Rector.
http://www.disdeinen.net/?q=around_a_dark_corner
Around a Dark Corner
Submitted by disdain on March 28, 2009 - 12:03pm. Reviews
Having thoroughly
enjoyed Open Grave: the Book of Horror, I was very pleased to receive a
copy of Jeani Rector's latest book, Around a Dark Corner. This book
follows the same overall structure as the last: a series of short
stories followed by a novella. I am a big fan of this format, each story
adding to the anticipation of the next.
Like Open Grave this book varies in subject matter -- stories
such as 'A Medieval Tale of Plague' (a sort of diary of one persons'
escape from London during the mid 1300s) and 'Flight 529' (based on
factual events) have a restrained quality, while 'The Golem' and 'A
Teenage Ghost Story' are examples of classic horror storytelling. All
have a feeling of "the uncanny", and all are fascinating in a unique
way.
This book adds to my impression that the author is very much
at home in this genre -- the writing is confident, and as a result it is
easy to become fully engrossed in the stories. There is no
sensasionalism here, but instead clever and intelligent writing that
stands out as an excellent example of modern Gothic storytelling.
Be sure to visit aroundadarkcorner.com -- the book can be
purchased directly from the publisher website.
http://www.strangeweirdandwonderful.com/
Spring Issue 09
Jeani Rector’s
Around a Dark Corner,
from Turner Maxwell Books, is a
collection of nine short stories and a
novella. Each story offers something
different, be it time period, plot, or subject
matter. And each shows a growth in her
writing abilities, which had me wondering
what order they had been written.
A Medieval Tale of Plague, is one of the
best in the collection; the story of Elissa, a
young lady from a family of wealthy
landowners who runs away from the good
fortunes of her upbringing only to find
herself in the desolate streets of 14th
Century London, during the early days of
the Black Plague. Elissa survives, despite
the every-man-for-himself atmosphere the
eventually grips London and the rest of
Europe.
Maggots, is another story that easily
held my attention, with just enough gore
and guts along with character development,
to make we want to keep reading.
Lady Cop, takes us into the world of a
rookie, female police officer, fighting not
only the horrific crimes of her small town,
but also for the right to be treated as an
equal by her peers.
With Around a Dark Corner, Rector
shows a knack for portraying the dead in a
way that leaves their image upon you long
after reading the story. Several of her
stories held my imagination, days after I’d
read them. This is done, not with a heavy
hand, but plainly, simply and most
impressively, consistently. Rector is a
young writer, well on her way.
To find out more about Jeani Rector and
Around a Dark Corner, visit her site at:
www.aroundadarkcorner.com
Remember, it’s up to us to support the
small press….
http://www.63channels.com/id106.html
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Around A Dark Corner By Jeani Rector
- Reviewed By Glen Feulner
Nine short stories and a novella make up Jeani's
new book, a collection by a suspense/Horror artist that
should be quickly earning a name in her field.
Spanning several era's, from ancient to modern day,
Jeani keeps each story fresh, never relying on the
same plot tricks twice. While not really straight
out horror, every story here fills you with a
creepiness that only serial killers would be able to
avoid. with "around a dark corner" Jeani has scored
yet again
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