cover image The Night Bazaar

The Night Bazaar

Edited by Lenore Hart. Northampton House, $14.95 trade paper (257p) ISBN 978-1-937997-78-6

In this dark fantasy anthology, editor Hart invites 11 authors to explore the concept of the Night Bazaar, a place where the magical intertwines with the everyday. The setting is reminiscent of The Twilight Zone in scope, and throughout the anthology there is the ever-present sense that something nasty is lurking around the corner. Jim Scheers’s wonderfully unsettling “Weekly Pass” follows a man who sees his own alternate lives unfold on an endless train line. Rich in creativity, “Whirl Away” by Carol MacAllister details the decline of a 40-something businessman as he relives the past in a series of haunted rental tuxedos. The most stunning piece is Edison McDaniels’s “The Least Detailed Plans of a Great and Complicated Apparatus,” a tale of a series of possessions convened by an ancient magical skull with the help of an overeager doctor. There are no pieces that seem out of place; all the stories contribute to a sense of otherworldly dread. Appealing to those who like their fantasy served with a side of psychological horror, this anthology is sure to entertain. (Feb.)