A Long December

PowerfulI love it Richard Chizmar writes clean no-nonsense prosesets his tales in no-nonsense middle class neighborhoods I can relate toand writes terrific stories served with a very large slice of Disquiet Pie. Stephen King Chizmars stories are hard-hitting spooky suspenseful poignant harrowing heartbreaking and most of all very well-written. Excellent work! Robert McCammon In 1996 Richard Chizmars debut short story collection Midnight Promises was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Publishers Weekly called it a sterling collection while singling out The Silence of Sorrow as an understated masterpiece. Two years later Subterranean Press published a mini-collection from Chizmar entitled Monsters and Other Stories. In his introduction acclaimed genre critic Edward Bryant said When all is said and done this book should leave you in utter silence giving you time and opportunity to contemplate what you just read. Tough storytelling from a tough writer; but a writer who is not calloused. Chizmar possesses a finely honed gift of empathy. With utter grace and loving kindness hell put you right inside the life (and soul) of the monster. Now nearly two decades later Chizmar assembles thirty-five stories including a previously-unpublished novella and presents us with A Long December. This massive new collection features more than 150 000 words of Chizmars very best short fiction and includes 8 000 words of autobiographical Story Notes. Eerie suspenseful poignant the stories in A Long December range from horror to suspense crime to dark fantasy mainstream to mystery. As New York Times bestselling author Scott Smith (A Simple Plan The Ruins) notes: Its an idyllic little world Richard Chizmar has created. Boys fish in the shallows of a winding creek. A father tosses a baseball with his young son in the fading light of a summer day. Theres the smell of fresh-cut grass. And then welljust beneath the surface? There are those missing pets whose collars turn up in a shoebox. Or the disturbing photos the dead can leave behind. Or the terrible thing you might find yourself doing when a long lost brother suddenly returns demanding money. Chizmar does a tremendous job of peeling back his worlds shiny layers revealing the rot that lies underneath. His stories feel like so many teeth: short and sharp and ready to draw blood.