The White Hands and Other Weird Tales

This critically acclaimed first collection of strange stories by contempo¬rary writer Mark Samuels is drawn from the great tradition of the twentieth-century weird tale.. . . a treasure and a genuine contribution to the real history of weird fiction . . . - Thomas Ligotti An impressive debut collection, The White Hands is an unexpected dark miracle of invention, tradition, and archetypal revision. . . . The author exhibits in this carefully arranged onslaught of weird fiction individualistic taste, thoughtfulness, and a strict control of literary subtlety. - William Simmons, HellnotesIf you thought The White Hands sounded like a lost story by Arthur Machen you would not be far from the truth. . . . One can also detect the influence of Kafka, of Christopher Fowler’s urban nightmares, perhaps even Becket at his most surreal. Samuels articulates brilliantly what modern man secretly fears most about death: not that it is extinction, but that it is an eternity in which the utter meaningless of life is fully revealed. -- Reggie Oliver, All HallowsThe stories have an old-fashioned feel about them, owing some¬thing to the sinister atmospheres evoked by Poe and Lovecraft, but without the torture and slime. . . . Much of the writing is subtle with sinister undercur-rents. -- Jeff Gardiner, PrismAnd who wouldn’t be satisfied with a book written to this standard? I found this collection of stories totally stunning! It’s a book that Machen, Lovecraft, or Ligotti would be proud to have written. The stories are beauti¬fully dark nightmares that mix escapism with strange, haunting qualities, fascinating and always compelling. -- John B. Ford, Terror TalesSamuels is an extremely talented writer, his stories are superb and the present collection highly recommended.- - Mario Guislandi, Supernatural Tales