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.

Stories (in order of arrangement)

 * 1) Invitation to Murder
 * 2) The Grab
 * 3) Saving Grace
 * 4) Barney's Bigfoot Museum
 * 5) Herman
 * 6) The Champion
 * 7) The Maiden
 * 8) A Good Cigar is a Smoke
 * 9) I'm not a Criminal
 * 10) Oscar's Audition
 * 11) Into the Pit
 * 12) Spooked
 * 13) The Good Deed
 * 14) The Direct Approach
 * 15) Good Vibrations
 * 16) Phil the Vampire
 * 17) Paying Joe Back
 * 18) The Fur Coat
 * 19) Blarney
 * 20) Dracuson's Driver
 * 21) Roadside Pickup
 * 22) Wishbone
 * 23) First Date
 * 24) Stickman
 * 25) Mop Up

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."