This Is Halloween (2016) by James A. Moore

“There were rumors, of course. Always rumors.”

Readers unfamiliar with This Is Halloween may prefer to read these notes only after reading the collection.

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“The Dry Season” (2015)

  On Harper Street, the kids wandered mostly in groups, sometimes closely supervised by parents and sometimes barely watched over, but always with at least a token amount of adult supervision. 

  No one liked to talk about it, but everyone liked to make sure that the sins of the past never happened again. 

  There were rumors, of course. Always rumors. The man they caught, the man they arrested, the man they killed. Some people said he was innocent. Most people knew better. Some claimed he was a drifter. Some said he was a local who almost never came out of his house. In the end it didn’t matter. He died for what he’d done to three children. That was enough. 

  Most days. 

  People felt differently on Halloween. The anniversaries of atrocities are often remembered better than the celebrations of happier things. 

  There were ten of them that moved closer to the house where the children were killed. It had been a long while back, since the adults in the group were children themselves, and the legends of what Martin Lundgren had done were little more than legends any more. That was for the best. 

  There were differences this year, however….

Plot: A group of adults and children trick-or-treating on Halloween night are stalked. 

Setting: A suburban neighborhood..

Characters: Linda, Nancy, their children, and other trick-or-treaters; the vengeful spirit of Martin Lundgren's mother.

Location: The fictional town is unnamed.

Themes: Guilt, memory, the lingering impact of past crimes, fear, and paranoia.

Point of View: Third person.

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“Harvest Moon” (1994)

  It was just after ten that I had finally started noticing the changes that had rippled through the crowd, when I heard the laughter that came rushing from the West, from the direction of the farms and the ruins of Summit Town. God help me, I swear I’ve never heard laughter like that before. It sounded insane, filled with malice and with a cold hatred that sent shivers through my whole body. I tightened my grip on Helen’s hand and turned my head to ask her what the hell that sound had been. One look at her face told me that she wouldn’t be listening to anything I had to say. She was lost, looking expectantly toward the direction of the laughter and smiling. Her face looked twisted and mad, far worse to me than it would have to anyone else, because I knew her face so well, had studied her face whenever I could. Helen managed to look excited and frightened, happy and appalled, all at the same time. The look was so alien to her normally serene face that I tried to pull away from her; her fingers clenched so fiercely at my hand that the only way to escape would have been to forcibly pry her fingers away from mine. 

Plot: Retiree Ben moves to idyllic Summitville. Naturally, there is a civic secret involving scarecrows, a harvest moon tradition, and human sacrifice.

Setting: Rural Summitville, surrounded by farmland and forests.

Characters: Ben, Helen Crasworth, Ned Graber, Albert Miles (Stoney), and the townspeople.

Location: Summitville

Themes: Small-town secrets, folk horror, the darkness beneath idyllic facades..

Style: First-person narrative, suspenseful with elements of mystery.

Point of View: Ben's first-person perspective.

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