Because Ideas Matter...
The faculty and staff of Butler University's College of Liberal
Arts and Sciences presents
Recommended Readings
The Attic Express and Other Macabre
Stories
by Alex Hamilton
Reviewed by George Geib
Alex Hamilton is one of Britain's foremost
authors of stories of dark fiction. This volume brings together two
of his earlier anthologies plus three more recent pieces. All share
his macabre outlook, placing characters at the gruesome boundaries
between the routine and the fantastic. Again and again seemingly
normal situations spiral out of control as accepted, conventional
responses prove worthless in the face of the ghastly and the
unforeseen. Much of Hamilton's strength lies in his power to evoke
seemingly normal human settings. A very British author, he delights
in public school and university settings, in lazy summer holidays,
crowded London theatres, and daily routines of home and work. Yet
each time he introduces the grim, irrational, or supernatural in
plausible and disturbing ways. His title story is among the best,
as a father builds a model train layout for an unappreciative child
whose fantasies about rail yards become very real and lethal. The
book is an Ashtree imprint, a Canadian small press that specializes
in limited editions of books in the tradition of the great ghost
story writer, M. R. James. The publisher made the good decision to
use the artistic talents of Keith Minnion, a master of dark
fantasy, on their cover. Hamilton's tales, and the full Ashtree
list, deserve your attention if like a good tale of evil
spirits..
- George Geib is Professor of History at Butler University.