Re: John Metcalfe
Posted by:
jimrockhill2001 (IP Logged)
Date: 9 October, 2016 10:09PM
JUDAS contains the following stories: "Judas", "Mortmain", "Funeral March of a Marionette", "Time-Fuse", "Face of Bassett", "Salvage", "Mr. Meldrum's Mania", "Seven on an Island", "No Sin", and "The Spanish Hat".
Four of these ("Mortmain", "Funeral March of a Marionette", "Time-Fuse", and "Mr. Meldrum's Mania") are included in Ash-Tree Press's NIGHTMARE JACK. Of the rest, "Face of Bassett", "Seven on an Island", and "No Sin" also feature Metcalfe's elusive brand of supernaturalism. The first and third of these are very good. Unfortunately, "Seven on an Island" (like "The Flying Tower" in THE SMOKING LEG) is vague to the point of frustration - to me it read like a long-winded retelling of L.P. Hartley's "Podolo". I cannot recall much about the other three, except that "Salvage" is one of those sordid slice of life stories popular at this time.
I am glad you have THE SMOKING LEG, because you can see for yourself that several of the stories not included in the Ash-Tree collection are quite good - especially the recurrent, premonitory nightmare in "Proxy", the suspense story "Paper Windmills" and the conte cruel "Crowcastle".