After his amazing debut collection Putting the Pieces in Place and his intriguing novella Bloody Baudelaire (both published by Ex Occidente Press), RB Russell returns with a new volume of short stories, mostly never published before.

If you’re not familiar with Russell as a writer (he is the proprietor of a renowned small imprint) then you’re certainly missing an author whose work is devoted to introspective, exquisite tales featuring gentle ghosts and quiet horror. One could compare his fiction to that of the late Charles L Grant, but Russell’s narrative style, albeit equally unassuming, is much more elegant and fluid.

A fine example of Russell’s storytelling ability is “Loup Garou”. In spite of its title this is not really a werewolf story but a splendid tale where horror is more subtle and appealing and where the memory of an elusive French movie reveals a possible, different reality.

“Asphodel” is a slightly Kafkaesque, evocative story featuring a mysterious writer whose first and only book sold out unexpectedly and whose tragic disappearance suggests a different outcome than death.

Russell is a master of subtlety, as in “Blue Glow”, an engrossing, enigmatic piece in which two men end up exchanging flats, women and lives. The reason remains tantalizing obscure, explanations are left to the reader’s guess. Pirandello (and Robert Aickman) docent.

And what impossible secret lies in the loft of a council house? It’s so hard to imagine that you can discover it only by reading the intriguing “A revelation”.

In the dark and disquieting “Another Country” a trip to meet a foreign author results in a veritable nightmare for a representative of a publishing company who gets trapped in a bleak, unexpected reality.

The atmospheric “Literary Remains” features a young girl recalling a peculiar, mildly erotic ghostly experience occurred in the apartment of a deceased writer irresistibly attracted to her.

In “An Artist’s Model “ an art student harassed by a stern tutor discovers that the man at night is drawing portraits of a beautiful model and becomes tragically involved. The narrative suddenly moves forward to a future time when we discover that the events had actually a different development. A lovely tale, even though quite disconcerting.

“When They Cannot Be Seen” , a delightful comedy revolving around three married couples spending a holiday together, is a tale about infidelity and love attraction with an original supernatural side.

Last, but not least, my two favourite stories .

“Llanfihangel” firstly appeared in the anthology Strange Tales II under the pseudonymous Elizabeth Brown and I wholeheartedly praised it at the time, unaware that Russell was its true author , as an extraordinary mix of crime, supernatural and weird fiction. A second reading only confirms my previous view.

“Una Furtiva Lagrima” is a compelling piece graced by musical prose and great characterization. The supernatural element makes its appearance unobtrusively only in the last pages. Up to that point the story is just the delicate, insightful report of the ambiguous atmosphere surrounding the meeting between a young man and the former mistress of his late father.

At any rate, regardless of my personal preferences, all the stories are elegantly written, clever, classy tales apt to delight the reader throughout the whole volume without a single moment of boredom.

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