The Year's Best Horror Stories 2 (1974) edited by Richard Davis
“The agony of a crossroads at midnight”
Readers unfamiliar with The Year's Best Horror Stories 2 may prefer to read these notes only after reading the anthology.
Aurelia Cord turned the book over slowly in her hands. "Where did Claire get this?"
"She said she found it in a book store somewhere off Ventura.".
The woman shook her head slowly, making the dark red hair sway. "I thought all of these had been destroyed long ago." She looked up at Paul. "Mr. Fielding, as certain people do, your wife has an intense affinity for the supernatural. I sensed it when she first came here. Were she to apply herself, she could very likely function as a medium or become most proficient in one or more forms of ESP. Her interest in the subject was, however, merely superficial. There is nothing wrong with that, you understand. In fact, it is probably better that way for her peace of mind. To devote your life to the practice of the occult calls for many sacrifices. Few women are willing to make them. But my little class is quite harmless. I teach bored housewives a little bit about love philtres, a little bit about charms, and a little of the history of witchcraft. Then they can go home and call their bridge club a coven and really feel that they are doing something, well, 'kinky' was your word. This book, though, is something else again. It con-, tains black knowledge that should never have been made available to people like your wife. It was written and printed by an unspeakably foul man. Fewer than two hundred copies were ever released, and they were hunted down and destroyed by those of my kind who knew the horror they contained. Somehow, this copy survived and your wife found it, probably not coincidentally. She may have been drawn to it."
"Then the book is for real," Paul said.
"As real as the teeth marks on her flesh. Apparently she followed the instructions given here and summoned this monster into being. That is when it stopped being a kinky game." Aurelia Cord passed a slender hand across her eyes. "What people cannot seem to realize is that there is always a price. Given the proper circumstances, it isn't terribly difficult to summon a demon. But for every demon there is a price. Your wife is paying hers now."
“The Price of a Demon” by Gary Brandner
“Thirst” by Gerald W. Page
The boy's grandfather stopped eating and looked up at his daughter, the fork poised in mid air above the beans that were his supper. "He ought to know. A boy lives this close to Overhill Mountain ought to know about the things that go on up there.”
Protagonist Sam Coleman is attacked and left for dead in a cave. He survives the attack but is turned into a vampire.
Page handles Sam's sensory overload during transformation in a series of subjective juxtapositions. The down-on-his-luck husband and father struggles with his thirst and the consequences of his new nature.
“Thirst” is a richly compelling depiction of a rural mountain community and its folkways.
“David's Worm” by Brian Lumley
Coming-of-age fiction. Lumley is a master of this subgenre of horror, as witnessed in stories like “The Picnickers” and “The Viaduct.” Dangers aimed at kids are also at the heart of “David's Worm.”
Plot: Young David saves a flatworm from dad's workplace radiation experiment. The worm grows rapidly and matures intellectually by replicating traits of creatures it consumes. The story's final line is not easily forgotten, whether the reader's response is laughter or revulsion.
“The Price of a Demon” by Gary Brandner
Moral I: Every solution has its price, so don't create crises.
Moral II: Women make trouble
Plot: Claire Fielding summons a demon while amateuring a spell from an old green-bound book.
“The Knocker at the Portico” by Basil Copper
Plot: Edward Rayner, haunted by a mysterious knocking sound, becomes increasingly paranoid and suspects his wife and doctor of conspiring against him.
Copper’s non-pastiche horror fiction often strikes me as slightly out of focus. In “The Knocker at the Portico” this fuzziness relates to the “when” – the time in which the story takes place: Copper never provides the reader necessary guidance.
Moral: Gentlemen of middle age: don't spend all your time over “crabbed Hebraic texts” when your twenty-four year old bride wants your company.
“The Throwaway Man” by Steve Chapman
Plot: A clockwork machine made of junk comes to life in a junkyard. It is opposed by a creature formed from the filth under a wharf.
Chapman does a fine job of distancing with this tale free of human characters.
Cf. “The Rag Thing” by Donald A Wollheim! Wyrd and Other Derelictions by Adam Nevill
“The Woman with the Mauve Face” by Rosemary Timperley
How would we react if we met our future selves, and found out it was all going to end in penury, loneliness, and addiction?
“The Woman with the Mauve Face” is another masterpiece in miniature from Timperley, who excels at walking the familiar/uncanny border with her increasingly dehumanized protagonist.
“Shadows of the Living” by Ronald Blythe
He was in the study doing the farm accounts but the door was ajar and he could see all the to-ing and fro-ing; Sophie heaving the furniture about and Mrs. Blanch helping her. They were making a space in the library so that seventeen clergymen, including a bishop and an archdeacon, might robe. Through a series of doorways like those in a Velasquez, Faulkner was also able to see the darting movement in the Great Hall as the village ladies spread an enormous parish tea.
Plot: Faulkner, the landowner, is disturbed by the arrival of a new rector, Mr. Deenman [a name that comes out sounding like “demon” when spoken]. He witnesses strange occurrences and learns a dark secret about the village's past.
Blythe is a superb stylist, and this acute “cathedrally” antiquarian tale is perfection.
“The Animal Fair” by Robert Bloch
Dave, a hitchhiker, gets a lift from Captain Ryder, a former Hollywood stuntman who now runs a seedy animal show. Ryder tells Dave a disturbing story about his past and his obsession with revenge.
“Napier Court” by J. Ramsey Campbell
A subtle game of haunting/mental breakdown.
Alma Napier, a young musician, is left alone in her family's house while her parents are on holiday. She experiences strange occurrences and learns a disturbing story about the house's previous owner.
“Haunts of the Very Rich” by T. K. Brown III
"I am dumbfounded that an elaborate establishment like this could simply disintegrate in a few days into nothing."
Six wealthy individuals arrive on an exclusive island resort called Paradise Plage. Electricity, amenities, and staff quickly fail, a la Michael Crichton. But this is no techno-warning. The resort is cut off from the world and apparently heck is other people.
Cf. “Elsewhere” by William Peter Blatty;
I'm sure “The Price of a Demon” by Gary Brandner is the most 1974 of the stories in this collection. Relations between spouses and sexes, and brittle social roles among the West Coast petty bourgeoisie: all are examined. And a green-bound demon spell book makes itself right at home.
I would recommend “Thirst” by Gerald W. Page to anyone who enjoys Swiss watch plotting and an invisible prose style. “Thirst” is Manly Wade Wellman's Appalachia, and the story goes to the heart of just how dangerous vampirism would really be. The attention paid by Page to the color line in his rural community enriches and broadens the scope of the tale.
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Jay
11 July 2024
DaVinci aimage
Those stories (and the authors) sound wonderful, and I especially like both the cover art you show. Plus the price of the DAW paperback made me sigh.