Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense (audiobook) by David Morrell


Originally published in 1999.
Audiobook cassette version published in 2001.

David Morrell's Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense is a collection of horror short stories. This is a change of pace from Morrell's normal fare of action/suspense/thriller novels, but this is a strong collection that is a great read and will be especially rewarding for Morrell's fans.

There are 7 short stories in this collection. The weakest by far is the first one, "The Dripping". I'd rate it 3 stars. But the rest are 4 or 5 star short stories which is high praise from me since I am not normally a fan of the short story format. Of especially high quality are "But At My Back I Always Hear" and "Orange Is For Anguish, Blue For Insanity." Those stand up with the best short format horror stories that you can put against them, from Poe to King.

Each story is introduced by the author who includes plenty of details about how he started writing, what was going on in his life when he wrote the stories. These introductory pieces are, in some ways, the most enjoyable parts of the book. I very much enjoyed his tales of what inspired him and of the authors who pointed him along the way to being one of just a handful of authors in the country that completely make a living by writing.

Audiobook details:

Approximately 6 hours. Each story is read by a different narrator. The introductory pieces are read by David Morrell himself and are quite good.

Highly recommended - 5 stars out of 5.

 This audiobook can be found on Amazon.com here: 
Black Evening: Tales of Dark Suspense

Reviewed on April 20, 2009.

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