I’ve said it before, but it’s absolutely true: Ed Gorman is one of the best short story writers in America. So for a multivolume series to be created to collect every one of his pieces is well-deserved. It’s just sad that it took a foreign publisher – PS Publishing in England – to have the foresight to do it.

The first two volumes of this ambitious undertaking are now out, with the premiere being OUT THERE IN THE DARKNESS: THE COLLECTED ED GORMAN – VOLUME ONE. The 19 stories within aren’t chronological, but they all appear to be in the realm of mystery and crime, though it’s no secret Gorman also works wonders with horror and Westerns. Perhaps Lawrence Block’s introduction makes sense of the theme, but it wasn’t in our advance review copy. No matter: There’s literally not a bad one in the bunch.

It begins with a novella, “Moonchasers,” in which two boys bordering on juvenile delinquents in the late 1950s take care of a wounded bank robber by bringing him food and supplies, despite the danger posed to them by him and the crooked cop on the hunt for the suspect. Like so many of Gorman’s tales, it’s heavily nostalgic for childhood’s simpler times, yet doesn’t pull any punches, making it heartbreakingly realistic.

Dealing with the past also surfaces in “The Reason Why,” in which two friends are brought together again at a high school reunion, and decide to confront their former fellow students who they believe were responsible for the death of another. People’s darker side show up in the likes of “The Ugly” and “Mom and Dad at Home,” with twist endings that shock you with an abruptness for which you are ill-prepared.

Gorman’s an expert at such last-second turns – perhaps none more effective than the chilling end to “En Famille,” or maybe the expectation-subverting “Beauty,” recently featured in the recent THESE GUNS FOR HIRE anthology. And he’s also an ace with dialogue. Witness “Dancers,” an almost pure-dialogue exchange between two people who just had a one-night stand. It’s dripping in self-loathing and sorrow – in other words, real feelings shared by real people.

For a lighter tone, there’s “Our Kind of Guy,” which details how a couple of money-hungry advertising executives scared of losing a client resort to felonious ways to keep from doing so, with the inevitable opposite result. And though darker, the most escapist is the book’s closer, the titular “Out of the Darkness.” This suspenser aptly demonstrates Gorman’s skill in eliciting goose bumps, as a group of suburban guys find their weekly poker game interrupted by burglars. One is caught, whom they torture, but another gets away, which they’ll soon regret … assuming they live. This one’s begging to be made into a movie.

There is no “wrong” place to start with Gorman if you’ve never read him before, but with such a solid at-bat record, OUT THERE IN THE DARKNESS offers you more for your money. I don’t know how many short stories he’s published in his long, prolific career, but certainly each volume in PS’ series will be stocked with treasures. –Rod Lott

Buy it at PS Publishing.

OTHER BOOKGASM REVIEWS OF THIS AUTHOR:
• THE ADVENTURE OF THE MISSING DETECTIVE AND 19 OF THE YEAR’S FINEST CRIME AND MYSTERY STORIES edited by by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
• BLACK RIVER FALLS by Ed Gorman
• DEAN KOONTZ’S FRANKENSTEIN: BOOK TWO – CITY OF NIGHT by Dean Koontz and Ed Gorman
• DIFFERENT KINDS OF DEAD AND OTHER TALES by Ed Gorman
• GHOST TOWN by Ed Gorman
• GRAVES’ RETREAT by Ed Gorman
• GUNSLINGER AND NINE OTHER ACTION-PACKED STORIES OF THE WILD WEST by Ed Gorman
• INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS: A TRIBUTE edited by Kevin McCarthy and Ed Gorman
• THE WIDOW OF SLANE AND SIX MORE OF THE BEST CRIME AND MYSTERY NOVELLAS OF THE YEAR edited by Ed Gorman and Martin H. Greenberg
• WOLF MOON by Ed Gorman