Whispers II

Dennis Etchison, Richard Christian Matheson, David Campt, Ramsey Campbell, and David Drake are among the writers represented in this anthology of tales of fantasy, horror, and the supernatural. Review from Kirkus: Further gleanings from Schiff's fantasy-and-horror files: 21 stories of drastically varied merit. The frights here are mostly about as subtle as a buzz saw and as scary as a hangnail. Even such well-known contributors as Russell Kirk, R. A. Lafferry, and Manly Wade Wellman seem to be grinding through their particular standard effects with transparent dullness, and the general level is merely embarrassing. There is a handful of compensations. Dennis Etchison carries off a clever idea about a psychic aiding a police investigation. Richard Christian Matheson and David Campt on are gruesomely and inventively funny in very different veins, Ramsey Campbell brings his usual elegance to a story about a Lake Country ramble, and David Drake contributes the only real chill of the collection with "The Red Leer," in which a couple of greedy farmers set out to plunder the hellish contents of an Indian mound. Slim pickings, but a few rubies among the rhinestones.… (more)