by Brian James Freeman
“Screaming wouldn’t open doors, wouldn’t extinguish flames, and it certainly wouldn’t put the demon back in the basement.”
This is a concise collection of short stories, like Dreamlike States and Weak and Wounded, and packs a nice punch into a small package. More Than Midnight consists mainly of traditional horror, dealing with madness, psychosis and no small helping of the supernatural: young workers navigate a dilapidated and haunted basement, a vengeful husband gets his chance, the secret behind powerful lawyers, an escaped mental patient, and a funereal guardian protecting against the lingering spirits of the evil dead.
Some may feel this collection is stronger than Dreamlike States, containing not a single ‘meh’ story. The weakest of these 5 tales still ranks as good, and two stories in particular were excellent. “The Final Lesson” and “Answering the Call” were both superb, but each of the 5 tales is readable and interesting.
With a concise nature, this is solid, fear-inducing storytelling with a lack of fluff that sometimes populates collections.
4 stars
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