This book was pretty weak. It is hard to believe that this is the same guy who wrote [b:Finishing Touches|287641|Finishing Touches|Thomas Tessier|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1348371040s/287641.jpg|279070] and [b:Fog Heart|1490104|Fog Heart|Thomas Tessier|http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1312029869s/1490104.jpg|1056147]. This book is neither literary nor are the stories (there is a novella entitled "Scramburg U.S.A" included) very good.

Wicked Things, the main novel, is a sort of Philip Marlowe pastiche with an occulty undercurrent. Jack Carlson is a private insurance dick (like "Your's Truly, Johnny Dollar," without the itemized expense account). It is poorly written, poorly edited, and just plain padded and boring. The payoff sucks too.

Scramburg is unbelievably even worse. The story is a sort of juvenile delinquent mayhem and revenge thing. The supernatural payoff is so bad and so tacked-on that the last two chapters are pretty much laughable.

I would have never expected Tessier to be so variable after reading the other two novels, both of which are very literate, original, and creepy as hell. ( )

"Wicked Things" is a pulp-noir story about an insurance investigator assigned to look into a series of suspicious death & dismemberment claims in a remote town. There he encounters shady cops, a possible cult, and more than one femme fatale. Tessier's prose kept me turning the pages, which made it all the more disappointing when the story suddenly ended, resolving nothing. It was as if the author simply decided to quit.

This edition also includes another novella called "Scramburg, USA," about a war between a group of juvenile delinquents and the police. It isn't particularly satisfying, either.

A note about the Cemetery Dance limited edition: it is rife with proofing errors, ranging from simple typos to wrong words to one instance where an entire passage appears to have been cut from a later chapter and pasted into an earlier one. If you are releasing a signed collector's edition, shouldn't you take some care putting it together? ( )

Thomas Tessier is a good writer and that shows in both the title story, Wicked Things and the bonus novella included in the book, Scramburg, U.S.A.

In regards to Wicked Things, this story had a nice flow, a noir type detective and I had great hopes for it. Unfortunately, it just fell short of what it was wanting to accomplish. In the blurb I read on the book, it brings up questions about what is happening in the town of Winship and what is happening to its citizens. Absolutely nothing is fully realized in this story. Not one odd or interesting scenario is ever satisfyingly answered.

While many best selling, fantastic stories leave us guessing, this wasn't about that. There were so many situations and characters that were introduced -- intriguing shiny things dangled in front of our eyes -- it's like he forgot that he had to actually tell us a story. And I never ever got the Norman Rockwell feel that the press release touts.

Besides not really staying focused, there was one thing that irked the holy hell out of me. Jack Carlson, our middle-aged private investigator, picked up a couple of partners while in the town of Winship.

So, ho hum, we had to get through those scenes. BUT, one of our young girls rolling in the sheets with him kept calling him daddy. I swear to God, I was about ready to start my own hashtag: #MeTooNauseousToKeepReading.

If any of you call your man daddy, get over here so I can barf on you. And stop. Please.

The second story Scramburg, U.S.A was also well written. There is no doubt Mr. Tessier knows the mechanics and the formula for a good story. But, that doesn't necessarily translate into a satisfying story. This was better than the first entry in the book, but never felt fully fleshed out.

Both stories had elements left hanging like kite tails, just there for decoration.

Overall, disappointed, but I don't judge this author by this one book, he's written many so I would definitely give him a try on something else.

James Higgins Photography did the cover photo and it is a beautiful composition. But it doesn't go with either story at all.

The feel I get for the photograph is a beautiful European City, very cosmopolitan -- which Winship and Scramburg were not. ( )

I wasn't that thrilled with the story. More like Sam Spade ( )