I found this softcover at Savers thrift shop - my first visit since March, as things are just now starting to open up after the COVID-19 shutdown. As is common with anthologies, some of the stories seemed more successful than others - or at least suited my own preferences better. They tend to be domestic horror, sometimes subtle, sometimes pretty ghastly. Among the ones I really enjoyed:

"The Whole Schmeer", in which a team tasked with transporting very special cargo runs into a hijack attempt, and while they recover the goods, there's this teensy little issue with the packaging - which they neglect to mention to the client...

"Bass Hour" is a melancholy tale of the discovery of a strange container at the bottom of a fishing hole, and of its effects on those who opened it. One of the more poignant stories in the collection.

"The Hard Sell" is a delightfully nasty little tale of a very persistent salesperson; this one felt like the old-school Alfred Hitchcock episodes.

"They're Out There" is another one with a Hitchockian twist - and with a more upbeat ending than most, for all the characters but one anyway. Nicely atmospheric.

"Dust" is set in a small rural town suffering from extreme drought. When a stranger turns up and offers to find water, nobody believes him - but he does, and all looks good for the community. But the more greedy among them take steps that the stranger doesn't care for, and things... don't end well...

"Rockabye" involves a man visiting an old prison/tourist-spot, and finding that not all guides are who they seem to be!

Turns out the author's local - born in Boston, residing in Westford MA.

Guidelines for safely visiting and stocking Little Free Libraries during the COVID-19 pandemic, from the LFL site here.

I left this book in the Little Free Library on this lovely autumn day; hope someone enjoys it!

[See other recent releases in MA here.]

*** Released for the 2020 Spooktacular October challenge. ***