Don't Go to Sleep in the Dark

Book excerpt: “Here are thirteen harrowing tales by the indisputable mistress of horror,” the Edgar Award–winning author of The Hours Before Dawn (Chattanooga Times Free Press). Sometimes the things that go bump in the night are our own thoughts coming out to play. Celia Fremlin, an expert on portraying the inner turmoil of everyday people, captures both the psychological and the supernatural in thirteen horror stories, her first collection of short fiction. Playing “The Quiet Game” with her boisterous twins drives one young mother to seek refuge in their favorite place—even if it is a land of make-believe. When her dying former lover makes his last request, it’s one demand too many for the woman he kept under his thumb in “The Betrayal.” Jealous of her husband’s young love, a middle-aged woman tries to remain “For Ever Fair,” until she sees the living proof of a doctor who can turn back the clock. A date night for a busy couple transforms into a living nightmare when they leave their daughter in the care of “The Baby-Sitter.” And after a rage-filled stranger comes to call, a teenage girl finally bonds with her obsessively tidy mother in “The Hated House.” Tales of twisted paranoia, passion, and despair reside in this “outstanding collection . . . all are well-written and all are possible and none should be read when alone in a dark house” (Savannah Morning News). Praise for Celia Fremlin “Few people can chill the blood like Celia Fremlin.” —The Daily Telegraph “Fremlin is here to stay as a major mistress of insight and suspense.” —The New York Times “Britain’s Patricia Highsmith.” —The Sunday Times