Cemetery Dance Publications

Dr. Bantham

Dr. Bantham

Town Manager
Staff member
Cemetery Dance Publications is widely-considered the world's leading specialty press publisher of horror and dark suspense. Now celebrating fifteen years in business, Cemetery Dance magazine has won every major genre award and is healthier than ever -- with a higher newsstand and subscriber circulation than ever before, a brand new bi-monthly publication schedule, ever-increasing advertiser support, and a continuing reputation for superb content and design.
 
Peter Crowther

Crowther, Peter - The Longest Single Note

Generous, very generous collection from Mr. Crow, who bears a hybrid of UK and USA styles.
Most of the stories are very good, honing in on isolated and disenfranchised souls, watching death in action.
“Gallagher’s Arm” is overtly Lovecraftian, in setting, in tone, in subject matter.
In “Home Comforts,” father and daughter drive cross country, post epidemic, scrounging food and fuel where they can, yet ever searching for the villain who traumatized the girl.
“Shatsi” observes the kidnapper, actually cat-napper, a smooth planner who knows the score. A hard boiled alley of the deluded.
“Too Short A Death,” one of the longer tales, is haunting. The reporter (fan) tries to find the obscure poet (Weldon Kees) who had vanished mysteriously.
In “Forest Plains,” a tribal member rolls easy into the sleepy backwater. The town is dying, bypassed by the Inter-State highway. Not that all dead, or dying, are at peace.
Mine is a Cemetery Dance edition, published in the 1990’s, when that publisher boasted an impressive run of authors and titles.
 
Edward Lee

Lee, Edward - Operator “B”

Not bad SciFi thriller finds retiring test pilot offered a final gig.
A mission involving the highly experimental craft.
Novella is strewn with aeronautical and military jargon. No idea if any is accurate or if Mr. Lee is letting his imagination run wild. It works, though.
Like I said, not bad. Alright way to spend an hour.
What is bad is how Lee spends so much of his efforts in Horror where he is a mid tier talent.
 
Brian Keene

Keene, Brian - The Girl On The Glider

This reads as part diary, part writer’s journal.
Keene lives hard by an accident prone road. Fatalities are frequent.
After one deadly mangle, a victim appears to linger.
What follows are Keene’s thoughts and fears on the unusual activity.
Keene is honest enough, confessing he earns his living as a prolific, if mid-tier, author.
This novella comes across as a spec assignment.
 
Bentley Little

Little, Bentley - The Summoning

“Classic” horror from the 90’s heyday of the genre.
A tent preacher is called by Jesus to build a church in Rio Verde.
The congregation grows along with the building, and deaths multiply.
As ever, no one quite makes the connection.
Mr. King praises this author, and for good reason; it’s a page turner. Formula, but the pace is full steam ahead. More than that, it reads like a King novel – or Koontz – or Laymon.
Three clusters in the yarn. Preacher Wheeler and his intimates, brothers Robert (sheriff) and Rich (newspaper man), and their assorted family and colleagues, and Sue Wing and her friends and Chinese family. Other characters that crop up from time to time? Dinner is served.
Oh yeah, vampire saga. Sucking dry humans, armadillos, cacti. And the locals? They seem to stick around instead of hightailing their behinds to Vegas.
Empty headed fun, reminiscent of a drive-in movie.
Neither here nor there: I preordered a posh version of this back in 2014. Nine years later, it finally arrived in my mailbox.
May all your preorders arrive, children. If not sooner than mine, at least arrive, period.
 
Ray Garton

Garton, Ray - 411

Kaitlin works in the information call center. Answers questions that lazy phoners cannot look up.
One shift, replying to another, “where is the nearest …” Kaitlin overhears a murder – double murder.
Paranoia kicks in when she fears she just might be next.
By-the-numbers thriller feels like cobbled together scenes and clichés from cheap TV.
Is there a single original idea? No. Nada. Zip.
Our author could, at the very least, have made an effort, instead of this regurgitation.
Don’t waste your time, unless you have a hearty appetite for warmed over reruns.
 
Michael Marano

Marano, Michael - Stories From The Plague Years

Be not misled by the cover. Plague more often refers to AIDs, or drug addiction, instead of cholera or bubonic.
Likewise, do not be put off by the Cemetery Dance imprint, usually associated with pumpkins, Halloween, and coming-of-age nightmares. Breezy beach reads.
Not this outing.
Marano’s prose is dense, his style thickly textured, frequently elliptical with opening scenes returning by the conclusion.

“Displacement” listens to a creative serial killer. Why victims were chosen, and why an especially inventive method of dispatch employed.
The murderer, Dean, is a compelling, if arrogant, study. Unfortunately, the author seemed to tire of him by the end, and the tone shifted abruptly and, to my mind, not for the better.

“Little Round Head” is a stolen infant, probably human, possibly a discarded abortion, fostered by sewer rats. Throughout, I recalled the Harlen Ellison tale, “Croatoan”.

The final story, “Shibboleth”, is prescient, foretelling a global pandemic, the disruption and collapse of the supply chain, armed militias. The youthful pair venture out from the fortified city of Boston, hoping for improved chances in greener environments. Instead, they discover when lack of order occurs, human nature and good will plummets.
An ugly, telling prediction, and one we continue to tread closer to.
 
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