The Night Marchers and Other Strange Tales

The 12 tales in Braum’s neat debut collection range from the fantastic to the deeply unsettling. In his introduction, Braum aptly uses the term “quiet horror” to describe his work. There’s little gore in these tales but there are plenty of uncanny images that will burn into reader’s minds: a dead saxophone player sits rotting amongst musicians who play a song that might bring about the end of the world in “Music of the Spheres,” and a deluge of poisonous snakes and frogs fall in place of rain in “Across the Darien Gap.” Music is almost always at the forefront of these stories, or at least hovering nearby, with characters ranging from musical celebrities to kids waiting in line for a set of concert tickets (“A Girl’s Guide to Applying Superior Cat Makeup and Dispelling Commonly Found Suburban Demons”). The prose itself has rhythm, making one want to read it aloud—perhaps around a campfire on a crisp autumn night. Readers looking for a comfortable dose of the uncanny will find this well worth settling into. (May)