Dreadful Tales

Dreadful Tales (2000) is a collection of short horror stories by American cult writer Richard Laymon. Published the year before his death it collects twenty-five stories, most previously published in magazines.
Reception.
The collection received positive notices from the horror community, including "Shivers", which said that it "knocks all other offerings for six and presents a consistent collection of tales, almost every one of which manages to shock, delight and horrify through numerous ideas, characters and situations... a breath of fresh air in the stale UK Horror climate... Gets my vote as the best of 2000 by a long chalk." (Although Laymon was an American writer, throughout his career his books were more popular in the United Kingdom, a fact he blamed on a botched, heavily-edited American release of his second novel, "The Woods Are Dark".) "Books Magazine" called it a "terrifying collection of short stories that showcases the dark genius of a true master of the macabre."