Profane undead slaves
local night-time politics
Booth bumbles along. ( )

This is a small collection of the otherwise uncollected Kyle Murchison Booth stories, a mini-sequel to The Bone Key. I’ve posted about “White Charles” previously; the other stories are “The Replacement,” a short story about a cuckoo-thing and a tremendously isolated family; “The World Without Sleep,” a wonderful longer story about the world Booth discovered (and changed) during a long bout of insomina, and “The Yellow Dressing Gown,” a truly terrifying story that has much less detail than most of the Booth stories but is all the more horrible for it. (Trust me, after that, the creatures on the cover of this book are the most terrifying things you’ve ever seen. I had to turn it upside-down and pile other books on top of it in order to get to sleep.) ( )

Kyle Murchison Booth is an archivist who is, fortunately or unfortunately, somewhat like catnip to the supernatural forces of his world. This chapbook collects four more stories starring the beloved Booth, and all are delightful. I'd already read "White Charles" and "The Replacement," as they are available for free online, but the other two stories were new to me and quite delightful. "The World Without Sleep" is a twisty yet sad tale of arch-angels (not what you think), vampires (also not what you think), goblins (still not what you think), and shadows (I don't know what you'd think, but probably not). This story also used the word "exophthalmos" or one of its variations, which I recently learned in nursing school and was inordinately pleased to see in a story. "The Yellow Dressing Gown" is a very short story exhibiting the dangers of the Parrington and being far too interested in textiles and acquirations.

I will never get tired of reading about our poor Booth and this chapbook was a good way to have some more time with him. ( )