Around a Dark Corner (2008)

By Jeani Rector
2008, Turner Maxwell Books
Author's Website

Jeani Rector's debut anthology of short stories (she's had short stories published individually in outlets like New Voices in Horror and Horrormasters) will be available in the U.S. April 2009 and is already out in the U.K. Spanning settings as different as medieval England, a modern-day coroner's office, a crashing plane, and 19th century Prussia, Around a Dark Corner is completely devoid of fanzine erotica or any other tawdry embellishments. The stories within are unique in the horror genre and show an original voice not trying to jump on any bandwagons of popular genre fiction;

Jeani Rector's stories show a wide capacity for imagination and an original concept of 'horror' that is rare in these paranormal-romance flooded times. Not that there's anything wrong with paranormal romance; it's just that female authors who tackle pure horror are few and far between. Like her contemporaries Sarah Langan and Elizabeth Blue, Rector's ideas inspire terror, pure and simple, and nothing else. Except maybe horror. And panic. And maybe a little fear.

The Dead Man, Horrorscope and Maggots are little Hitchcockian tales of murder by deranged minds seeking meaning in their horrible little lives. These three stories could easily be published in crime thriller anthologies as they could in horror magazines. Their stories begin innocently enough, though as we get to know the main characters we slowly learn how diabolical they truly are and cringe at the ironies that eventually bring them to their downfall (or, horribly enough, their victory).

Sierra Peterson's cover art for 'Around A Dark Corner

Lady Cop is another crime thriller about a female cop struggling to gain respect on a small town, male-dominated police force. As the officer is the first to discover a dead body, she tries to involve herself further in the investigation against her superiors' wishes and the dangers to which she subjects herself. Easily an 'Ashley Judd' movie (Yes, 'Ashley Judd' is its own sub-genre of crime/thriller films), Lady Cop borders the fine line of the Mystery genre.

The Spirit of Death and The Golem are traditional supernatural horror stories that use mythology and religious terror as main plot devices. The Spirit of Death is about an unsuspecting victim of Palo Mayombe (The dark side of Cuban Santeria) while The Golem is a retelling of the traditional story of a 16th Century rabbi in Prague forced to use Cabala (Jewish witchcraft and mysticism) to animate a clay monster (called a Golem) to defend the Jewish people against angry Christian mobs. Both stories have a requisite 'twist' that follows the traditional horror exploration of the occult (i.e. that it will bite you on the ass).

Flight 529 and A Medieval Tale of Plague are not really horror stories. They are more like snippets of real life that involve trying and awful hardship and heroism. Both have frightening moments but ultimately are uplifting stories about human courage, sacrifice, and survival.

In Any Language is the real stand-out in terms of originality and horror. A story of a Union Army deserter in 19th Century Europe who finds himself the victim of the bite of a werewolf. Or does he? A strangely upsetting story, In Any Language crosses many boundaries and is worthy of Weird Tales magazine or other prestigious outlets for original and mind-bending horror stories. You'll have to sit and think about this story for a few minutes after you're done. And you'll wonder if you liked it or not, and why it strikes such a neat note in your brain, because its not like anything else you've read lately.

Sierra Peterson's back cover art for 'Around A Dark Corner

Rector's ultimate problem with most of her stories, particularly Lady Cop and The Golem, is a tendency to over-explain concepts to the reader. For instance, in Lady Cop, Rector makes a point of explaining police procedure to the 'Lady cop' herself. According to the story, she has been an officer for at least two years, yet the simplest of police common knowledge is elucidated in undemanding prose (most likely for the sake of the reader). This trend, which appears in most of the stories to greater and lesser degrees, has a negative effect on the complicated emotional nature of most of the characters. The only place this type of explication has a really great result is in the gem A Teenage Ghost Story. This novella is seemingly written for a young adult audience, with adolescent main characters and toned-down graphic horror. Here the common knowledge isn't common, so any YA reader would not only learn about important subjects pertaining to the story (The Great Depression is a major part of this mystery/ghost story), but would be able to relate to the main character, a 15-year-old girl named Cat, and her lack of understanding about such subjects. Ghost Story also gives an adult reader the impression of being inside the head of the teenager, which is a difficult effect for an author to create.

Sort of along these same lines is the issue that most of Rector's lead characters share a point of view and personality traits. There are very little differences between her innocent heroes and heroines, for instance, or her murderous characters. She's not incredible at creating and maintaining individuality between stories, and only writes from a first-person point of view (Flight 539 and Horrorscope) or third-person narration always from only one character's perspective.

Artist Sierra Peterson's cryptic cover art for Around a Dark Corner is pretty damned cool and it's a pity there couldn't be inserts of her art within the anthology itself.