GHOSTS goolies

There’s a cold winter wind blowing through the trees outside your window; time to curl up on the couch with a good book of creepy stories and scare the willies out of yourself. Those of you old enough to remember ‘Tales of the Unexpected’, will know what to expect from Bend Sinister, the latest collection of short stories from The Gay Times. Although wide-ranging in style and theme, these stories have in common a leaning towards situations and sexualities that are somewhat ‘queer’.
Twisted twins, vengeful ghosts and mysterious strangers stalk the pages. Often starting out as straightforward stories, they always veer off to the left-of-centre, ending up somewhere unexpected and undesirable. The tension mounts, and

and it’s often sexual. Standouts for me include Neil Bartlett’s mysterious encounter in ‘Famished’; Jack Dickson’s tale with a twist, ‘Fog Over Amsterdam’; and Neil Powel’s peek into the mind of a serial killer in ‘Just Curious’.
Given the wide range of era, location and genre, it is the out-of-kilter nature of these stories that binds the book into a cohesive whole. If you like your fiction spooky, erotic and mysterious then this will keep you entertained. John Clarkson
Bend Sinister: The Gay Times book of disturbing stories, edited by Peter Burton, published by GMP, £8.99 in paperback.