Cold Hand in Mine

Robert Aickman (1914-1981) was a British horror writer whose unique short stories (he called them “strange tales”) go far beyond typical stories in the genre. They are unsettling, dreamlike, and deal with issues of death and sex in ambiguous and fractured ways. Cold Hand in Mine is one of his best collections, comprised of eight very good stories. The best are “The Hospice” (the story of a strange rural inn that seems to be a stand in for the afterlife), “The Swords” (involving a circus performance where the audience participates in a violent sword show), and best of all “The Snow Dog” (one of his most complex and multi-layered stories involving a boy and girl who come across a gruesome dog in the forest). While Aickman’s prose can be a little stiff, these are atmospheric short stories that reward multiple readings. (The book was reissued by Faber and Faber in 2016; the new version includes a foreword by the English writer Reece Shearsmith.)