Keeps You Up All Night

Pumpkin Jack Skull and Other Tales of Terror
Jacob M. Drake
Smashwords.com (2010),
Kindle Edition
Rated 4 stars of 5 possible

Pumpkin Jack Skull and Other Tales of Terror is, obviously, an anthology of horror stories, perfect for reading on Halloween, or, for that matter, at any time one wishes to read tales of terror bordering on the supernatural. Most stories in the anthology are unrelated to each other, but there are a couple that, if read together, do seem to connect. One of them clarifies events in the other.

I'll admit to being somewhat hurried when I was reading through these tales, so I didn't take notes, nor do my usual one-liner synopsis of each story with a short comment afterwards... sorry for that... and for the fact that I don't have time to read through them again right now to make up for that lack of time earlier... This collection is a worthy read. Unlike lots of independent authors, Jacob Drake has taken the time to track down most of the errors in his work to show that he cares about quality as well as quantity of work produced.

As with most anthologies, this one has some stories that are better than others...  my favorites come near the end of the sequence. Those last two or three stories really do reach out and grab you, just like a good horror story should.  Interested readers can claim their copy of Pumpkin Jack Skull and Other Tales of Terror on Smashwords in a choice of several ebook formats, all of which are unencumbered by digital rights management and free of cost. 

This review appears on Dragon Views, LibraryThing, Amazon.com and on other sites which are determined by the reviewer to be appropriate.