This is a book of short short stories. There are 36 tales in here in just 208 pages and many of them are guaranteed to leave you feeling just a little edgy and maybe peering out through that crack in the curtains wondering just what is going on in your neighbours' houses.

John B. Ford does this to you. He has the knack of writing something that will unsettle you and leave you nerves a little frayed. That most of the stories contained within this book are written in the first person makes the stories a little more personal and adds to the creppy nature of the stories.

The Eternally Descending Blade brings to mind the worst in matronly babysitters; The Illusion of Death features a twisted stage act; The Sea of Strangeness/The Things in the Weed centre on two journals written by the same person trapped in the Sargasso; Behind the Painted Face tells of the true evil of clowns.

These are just some of the things we encounter in these stories, we also get 19th Century asylums, haunted houses, cannibalism, demons and a whole host of evil nasties. In short this is a book full of all the things that could possibly go bump in the night.

If there is a downside to this book it is a small one. Thirty six stories is a lot of different directions to take the mind. It does mean that this is not a book to be read in a single sitting, but it does make it a great book to delve into whenever you feel like a little scary tale before bedtime.