I have only recently been introduced to the work of Andrew Lennon having read and enjoyed immensely Twisted Shorts. I was therefore hoping that A Taste of Fear would produce some of the same frightening and macabre tales to while away a few restless hours and create some sleepless nights.

These are chilling stories from the mind of a very original author which entrap you from the first page and refuse to let you go. The pace is unrelenting and the imagery although at times explicit, and possibly disturbing, is also highly enjoyable and essential to the execution of these finely crafted tales.

A collection of short horror stories is an unusual and difficult exercise for an author to achieve. The action must be immediate, the stories not over complex but exciting enough to thrill and shock. My own particular favourites were; Apartment 2B where a taxidermist introduces his loving wife Emma to his part time butchery; Killing Christmas where our hero Jeff bemoans the excesses of the xmas stampede "It's only the beginning of November!" He shouted. "Shut the hell up"; Bad Day where Walter is having the day from hell, entombed in motorway traffic and running dangerously late for a meeting with his boss Brendan....something has to give"

With such unforgettable phrases as "The maggots of fear within me squirm to the surface yet cannot gnaw their way out" and a final brilliant sentence "I do not have schizophrenia. I am the monster in the dark"....I highly commend both the mind and the intellectual writing ability of this emerging author. ( )