Hotel Midnight

by Simon Clark

Review by Stephen Clark

This is Simon’s third collection of short stories to grace our bookshelves (well mine anyway!) Being a fan of his work for many years I was eagerly anticipating the quality I have come to expect from one of the leading British writers of Horror and having recently finished reading it felt drawn to pass on the torch (as it were).

Hotel Midnight collects stories from the last nine years, most of them published in hard to find collections and limited editions though there are notable fresh stories here that make up for purchasing the book. From the magnificent ‘The Burning Doorway’ to ‘Jack of Bones’ Simon’s stories are imaginative, some eerie some pretty hard to forget and would make for a pleasant evening’s read on a stormy night. Simon’s first collection ‘Blood and Grit’ has become very hard to find nowadays and demands silly money to get hold of. ‘Salt Snake & Other Bloody Cuts’, being the second, contains twenty-five shorts to ‘Hotel Midnight’s ten so for value for money ‘Salt Snake’ takes the prize.

I’d say ‘Hotel Midnight’ is more for the collector and the first-timers who want to dip their toes into this darkly talented writer than for the mass followers.

Publisher – Robert Hale

ISBN 0-7090-7819-6   Hardback - 221 pages