The Taste of Fear

Description

Hardcover – Published in 1976 by W. H. Allen.

Hugh Lamb’s latest collection offers a splendid repast of choice tales by thirteen new and old masters of the supernatural.

The bulk of the stories in this volume have never before been published and include suitably chilling contributions from some of the most skillful writers in the genre, among them W. H. Hodgson, Ramsey Campbell, John Blackburn, E.H. Visiak, and Frederick Cowles, as well as L. T. C. Rolt and A. C. Benson.

Whether the theme is a dead necromancer and his mysterious missing papers, or the strange things deep beneath the Sargasso Sea, or a terrifying monster spider in a health resort—these selections provide a genuine feast of horror certain to satisfy anyone with an appetite for the macabre.

Contents

Introduction – Hugh Lamb
Three Shall Meet – Frederick Cowles
The Fetch – David Sutton
Manfred’s Three Wishes – H. F. W. Tatham
From the Tideless Sea – William Hope Hodgson
Benjamin’s Shadow – Michael Sims
The Final Trick – John Blackburn
The Queen Of Beauty – E. H. Visiak
The Uttermost Farthing – A. C. Benson
Ash – Ramsey Campbell
The House of Vengeance – L. T. C. Rolt
Late – Les Freeman
The Crab Spider – Erckmann-Chatrian
Interim Report – Roger Parkes

Praise

“Get comfortable, leave a window slightly open so the wind can billow the curtain and the door ajar so it can creak on its hinges. Make quite sure you are quite alone and the lights only just strong enough to read by, then start on these 13 stories at one minute to midnight…

Actually, even at midday with plenty of chatter around you could still feel the odd chill wind at your neck. It’s the usual brew of ghosts, madmen, murderers, monsters, rats, reveenge and horrid twists, but on the whole very well chosen.”

DMK
The Star (Johannesburg)
September 1976

“A collection of spooky horror stories for those who like to scare themselves to death. And there are plenty of those if sales of The Exorcist, The Omen and all the other frighteners are taken into account.

Hugh Lamb is one of Britain’s foremost horror anthologists, along with Michael Parry and his choice of material maintains a level of perception and plausibility. If you like this sort of reading material (and it’s very much a personal choice, a book like this), then it’s a winner.”

Good Reading
November 1977

Other Editions

Paperback – Published by Coronet in 1977

Hardcover – Published by Taplinger in 1976

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