Reviewed by Mario Guslandi

Besides his involvement with Cemetery Dance , Brian James Freeman is by now recognized as  an acclaimed horror writer. A fine example of his writing is provided by  the recent  successful  novel “The Painted Darkness”.

For the numerous readers who have developed an appetite for Freeman’s  charming dark fiction, here’s  a brand new  mini-collection assembling five excellent short stories.

“What They Left Behind” is a scary tale full of tension, set in a dilapidated warehouse ,abandoned since a terrible fire where many people got killed.

In the accomplished, captivating “The Final Lesson” a placid teacher takes revenge on two punks bringing violence and death in a peaceful small village.

“Answering the Call” effectively portraits a young man with a difficult job , namely getting rid of evil souls trying to return from beyond the grave.

The highlights of the volume are two extremely well crafted tales. The first is titled “Among Us” , a great, quite horrific story about the monsters who hide among us and inside us. A frightening horror tale but also a parable about evil lurking in the world. The other story is “Pulled Into Darkness” a tense thriller with a shocking ending  taking place during a violent nocturnal storm.

It is now evident that Freeman is no longer a promising horror writer but an established master of the genre.