Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolatory Horror Edited by Jacob Steven Mohr
I would like to thank the editor for a copy of this collection in exchange for a fair and honest review
Publisher – Crystal Lake Publishing
Published – Out Now
Price – £13.45 paperback £3.95 Kindle eBook
Some horrors were never meant to be unearthed.
Evil lurks within the pages of Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horror...
A video game walkthrough harbors sinister secrets. A grieving sister’s letters blur the line between alive and dead (and alive again). A chain of frightening emails is the only evidence that a young woman ever walked the earth. And a series of journals pursue a dwindling wagon train marching into Hell—or someplace worse.
Haunting podcast transcripts. Blood-soaked police reports. Bewildering court findings. Brace yourself for an anthology that resurrects the chilling power of epistolary fiction—where ordinary documents transform into vessels of absolute terror.
Spanning 21 original tales blending the classic gothic horror of Stoker’s Dracula with the contemporary dread of Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca, Dead Letters contains both short sharp shocks and prolonged sojourns into the macabre—and promises to haunt your sleepless nights.
Featuring thrilling contributions from Gemma Files, Ai Jiang, Gordon B. White, J.A.W. McCarthy, and Red Lagoe, and curated with precision by Jacob Steven Mohr (The Unwelcome and Nightfall and Other Dangers) Dead Letters: Episodes of Epistolary Horrorsolidifies its place among the pantheon of must-read horror anthologies.
On the web he other day someone asked how found footage could work in a book form. There is a long tradition of stories using imaginary documentary material to tell a story. A fictional diary, news reports and many more. Dracula is a story that mixes character diaries with telegrams and even recorded voice entries. The use of these items adds the illusion of reality but also, they help create gaps in the narrative – what adds up, what doesn’t so a mosaic of the real truth can emerge. In Dead Letters – Episodes of Epistolary Horror Jacob Steven Mohr as the editor has crafted a fine set of inventive tales where authors use a variety of formats to tell some truly dark and scary tales.
In this collection I enjoyed these tales
The Parthas UFO Incident by TT Madden – creates a new urban myth around the concept of a ‘double man’ that is being seen in Nevada. 911 calls, news reports, camera footage description creates something truly weird and unsettling.
“…” by Patrick Barb – This smart and also sombre tale uses text messages, but one character is alarmed as the recipient is already dead. Its both a mystery and has moments of genuine poignance that turn darker as the reason for these calls becomes clearer and the final paragraph adds a much darker cast to events.
Next of Kin by Sandra Henriques – a famous author dies and her estranged daughters get to finally read her diary. The last few entries are strange, boriding on mental illness and yet signs of something else appear. There is a neat final revelation to suggest this story is just beginning.
Echo Chamber by Gemma Files – a series of emails and podcast recordings on the dark web create this tale of a famous goth singer’s last song. One that has a mysterious secret history. The innocence of someone who just wants to hear the song and the nastier history connected to it make the final revelations very powerful. Plus, we do get to read the lyrics!
The Night Nurses of Verdun by Gregg Stewart – A very evocative description of WW1 via diary form as a family’s favourite aunt and uncle vanish the answer to their disappearance may exist in the past. Stewart cleverly brings the scenes to life then layers in supernatural elements. The finale is not fully explained but we start to guess what actually happened.
Family Dirt by Justin Allec – this is one of the creepiest tales. Two estranged parents are texting each other with issues. The father’s mysterious behaviour gets more erratic and dangerous and starts to impact the wider children and family. Its troubling without ever being too explicit about what is going on which makes the feeling of horror more powerful.
Dear Kelli by Ai Jiang – a fascinating dual narrator approach with text and struck out text telling different sides of a family story. Its increasingly sinister as to what is going on and the messages get more angrier and nastier as it continues. A disturbing tale
PFC Nathaniel Hart Has Died by G Nicholas Miranda – a very dark tale of a secret Vietnam experiment where a dead man apparently keeps writing to his parents. The truth emerges in a series of medical recordings and witness statements and it feels an incredibly eerie tale. Very unsettling as what the experiment is becomes more apparent.
In The Event… by Liam Hogan – A mischievous final letter from a dead spouse to his widow is being read in real time. He offers her from beyond the grave a further piece of his fortune but as the reader expects its not that simple. I loved the voice of the husband dark but whimsical and the growing sense that things are about to get very wrong for the widow. It works neatly and has a few further surprises in store.
Something Cool Behind the Waterfall by Nat Reiher – this is one of my favourites in the collection. We have a retired PI emailing an FBI agent. Our narrator has taken to video games as a form of exercise. She has happened to get hold of one of the worst ever games in history and yet it compels her to finish it. This game named Brightguard occupies her life and then she finds out there is a secret easter egg portion of the game. What we then find it a whole section written as a gamer’s walkthrough of the section and its…scary. Reiher creates a truly eerie set of game images that do not fit the game we heard this was. The finale though is what this then led our narrator to which is excellently delivered and shocking but more of all quite scary.
Re: The Hand of God by J A W McCarthy – another of my favourites. It’s a set of emails and messages starting with a simple one where a manager asks an employee to clean a mess up. Our main character Katie is in the wrong place at the wrong time and things get stranger and this story looks like it will be funny but then the weirder things get bigger and start to change reality. Katie’s honest reflections on her life feel heartbreaking and impressively the story doesn’t give us any simple answers.
Queen of This Carnival Creation by J Rohr – A combination of postmortems, police statements with then the hint of a bigger folk horror mystery create something eerie and strange that I really enjoyed as it took the reader on unexpected journeys.
The Second Death by Christina Wilder – a very powerful disturbing tale of a notorious rock band. Forum entries, video clips and court testimony create a very weird and nightmarish tale of a song taken perhaps too far that has horrific consequences.
Dead Letters is full of rich surprises, great horror and delivers a powerful set of chills in invetive ways. Highly recommended for horror fans!
