In “Something in the Water” Randy Plourde and his girlfriend Cindy steal a sly bit of skinny-dipping in Demore Lake until the latter dives under the water and emerges with more than pond scum stuck to her facial skin. Two “rock n’ roll rejects” are passers-by customers whose snarkiness and fondness for five finger discounts nudge the reader immediately onto the side of the antihero, psychotic station owner Orson Allister, even as the action high-tails it into full throttle Tarantino splattergore.

The opening story, “Orson’s Gas n’ Go” takes place in the late 1980s at an out-of-the-way fill-up station. However, Nocturnal wastes little time in heating up to a high-octane level of unsettling gore with its first entry, and the book maintains that steady pace over the majority of its fifteen tales. Despite Glenn Rolfe’s prolific career in terror, I hadn’t read any of his previous work, and the artwork on the cover of his newest short fiction collection-an owl haunting an overgrown thicket at night-didn’t give me much of a clue. When I first sat down to read Nocturnal Pursuits, I didn’t know what to expect.

When the shadows fall upon the day and the living are fast asleep, Glenn Rolfe is wide-awake wrestling with aliens, demons, and the ghosts that take up the dark corners of his mind. Be it a suicide woods, a crazed gas station attendant, or neighborhood enigma throwing a party, you won’t soon forget these encounters. Nocturnal Pursuits takes you on a journey into the heart of an author both obsessed with and afraid of the macabre. Whether dealing with werewolves in “The Dead Brother Situation”, a vicious cult in “The Devil’s Kin”, an evil doll in the Splatterpunk Award-nominated “Molly”, or gut-wrenching loss in “Gone Away”, these fifteen dark tales promise to entertain, cause your skin to crawl, and make you feel a little more. Synopsis: Glenn Rolfe ( Blood and Rain and August’s Eyes) is back with a new collection of deliciously frightening, thought-provoking horror.

Blood and Rain by Glenn Rolfe