Despite having started in as a sf fan reading mainly short fiction it has really become my least favourite medium. I do still acknowledge that it is a highly important medium for sf just that I prefer something a little longer. Not too much longer mind you, endless series of doorstep thick novels fill me with dread - but when I read I like to be able to visit with a set of characters for longer than a short story tends to allow you.

Etchison's series of stories in this book though offer somewhat of a bonus for me, as these are all linked by common theme. Etchison lives in Hollywood, and these stories all concern one aspect or another of Hollywood, the film industry and the associated insanity – but all with a twist.

These tales are not that easy to classify though. There is a dark heart to the stories, quite an unsettling sinister undercurrent running throughout. It's not always horror as such, but it's probably a little too unsettling to sit in the mainstream of fiction. It's not the people though – at least not in general.

We meet some of the characters you expect for Hollywood. Wannabe actors/actresses and the agents they are hoping to impress – as well as the adult filmmakers looking to pick up the actresses that don't make it big. We meet fading stars trying to maintain past glories, and a producer of a TV show reading through a script, and the scriptwriters eager to push their work.

The quality of the stories in this volume is high – I cannot think of a tale that lets the side down. But for me there is one definite stand out story – "The Dog Park". This is a creepy tale – probably more so because it is so normal for most of it's fourteen pages. The park in question is just what it sounds like – an area of land where people go to exercise their dogs.

But being Hollywood there is motive to the presence of some of the dog owners – for aspiring actors/actresses and screenwriters view this as a chance to cut through all the layers of Hollywood and be in the presence of the producers and directors that also have dogs.

This was a good introduction to Etchison's work. I am impressed with the ease at which he sets a scene with the minimum of fuss and efficiency. He just says what needs to be said in a straightforward way. When we meet someone we don't need to know the colours and styles of their shoes, it's no necessary so Etchison does not tell us.

Hollywood as an entity has its own well-known dark side so I guess that it makes it a good backdrop to psychological horror. Etchison uses this common knowledge well, he scatters entertainment references and standards throughout to ground his tales in the unreality of the film industry. On the strength of this collection I must try more of his work, and I would heartily recommend your delving into this collection.

Synopsis
Welcome to the most dangerous intersection in Hollywood - the razor's edge between fantasy and reality. The house lights dim, the curtains open and the veil of illusion is finally lifted as both dreams and nightmares come true. Here truth is under contract to ambition, morality is left on the cutting-room floor and life and death are the ingredients of a storyline from which no one escapes.

Fine Cuts is a new collection of tales about Hollywood by a three-time winner of both the British Fantasy and World Fantasy Awards, in a volume destined to become a classic of modern horror.