Description

Beam of Malice by Alex Hamilton

Tradepaperback – Valancourt Books – Jul2014 – 196 pages

Alex Hamilton’s contributions to the famous Pan Books of Horror Stories series quickly secured his reputation as one of the best and most original writers of macabre tales of his generation. Beam of Malice (1966), his first collection, features many of his finest and most unsettling tales and showcases his unique and unusual imagination. In these stories, Hamilton does not rely on ghosts, the supernatural, or the standard machinery of gothic fiction in order to induce his chills. Instead, his horrors spring from the familiar, with ordinary people finding their lives suddenly and inexplicably invaded by bizarre, disturbing, and sometimes deadly occurrences.

Beam of Malice was acclaimed by critics when originally published, earning comparisons with the short stories of Saki and John Collier, and has been championed more recently by Ramsey Campbell, who writes that Alex Hamilton ‘is one of the absolute masters of the sunlit nightmare, the tale of insidious disquiet and relentless unease. He’s a true original, and it’s past time that he took his place in the pantheon of the elegantly macabre.’ This edition contains fifteen stories, including ‘The Attic Express’, which has been recognized as a classic of the genre, as well as a new introduction by the author.

Contents:

Introduction by the author (May, 2014)

The Baby-sitters

What’s Your Problem?

The Jinx

The Words of the Dumb

Only a Game

Dodensraum

Last Resource

A Glutton for Punishment

To Start a Hare

The Attic Express

Recall

The Kiss of Death

Breakaway

Many a Slip

Searchlight