Elissa Drake

“Graveyard Tales” by Elissa Drake is a collection of four supernatural stories. “Night in the Cemetery” sees Amy and Jenna staying in a cemetery and discovering that a serial killer has made the graveyard his home and that that area may also be haunted. In “Premonition” Charlie organises a romantic weekend for himself and his wife, but when tragedy strikes, he finds himself lost far from home. “Vandeveer's Box” features Lois Draper, the busy body, curtain-twitcher of Locust Street. When she sees a strange box being delivered to her new neighbour across the street her curiosity gets the better of her. Finally in “Violet Willoughby and the Book of the Damned” we learn about the witch Violet Willoughby, who was apparently buried with gems and a legendary book of spells. When Erin and her friends decide to dig up Violet’s grave in search of the treasure they encounter more than they bargained for. This is a fine, easily read collection that, given the language and approach, would appear aimed at young adults - the stories appear to be going for mild shudders rather than outright scares or horror. There is little new in the plotlines and the tales resolve themselves rather predictably. All that said this is still a nice, fun wee collection that would probably work best for those who haven’t dipped their toes too deeply into the horror field.… (mere)