Behind a very drab cover lies some pleasantly fine fiction in HOOK HOUSE AND OTHER HORRORS, a collection of 11 short stories by Sherry Decker, culled from the pages of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine and Cemetery Dance, among others.
As the title makes known, the book’s anchor is “Hook House,” about a mysterious home with ghosts that have plagued its residents for generations. In both subject and style, the story reminded me of Shirley Jackson and Joyce Carol Oates. Even better are the psychologically bent “A City in Italy” and “Hicklebickle Rock,” about a little girl living in a town where several children have disappeared; I didn’t see the twist coming, though I should have. “The Clan” takes a more irreverent tone in its tale of two warring neighbors who happen to be a witch and a vampire. Perhaps the darkest tale exists in “Chazzabryom,” in which a tabloid journalist interviews a jailed inmate who claims to be possessed by his own father, who leaves his body at night to commit murders.
HOOK HOUSE seems to be front-loaded with the best stories, which means entries like “Heat Waves” and “Shivering, We Dance” – while not exactly disappointing – at least fizzle out at ends either anticlimactic or confusing. But one thing never wavers, and that’s Decker’s strong, skilled voice as a writer with a uniquely feminine point of view. For a collection showcasing a taste of the Gothic and the grotesque, check it out. –Rod Lott
