As editor Charles Grant writes, "These stories are variously graphic, quiet, oriented toward the supernatural, aimed at the psychological; some are bludgeons and some are razors; some will ask you for more work than others, and some will do their work more than once--like the shock of a virulent poison entering your system ... and the aftertaste that lingers." Horror fans should jump at the chance to pick up this reprint of the 1983 Dodd Mead Gallery of Horror: the 20 stories include several classics not readily available elsewhere, such as Joseph Payne Brennan"s singularly creepy "Canavan"s Back Yard," and Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann"s powerful World War II story, "Down Among the Dead Men." Stephen R. Donald"s "The Conqueror Worm" has a great shocker of an ending; Michael Bishop"s wacky werewolf tale is hilarious; and T. E. D. Klein"s "Petey" is one of the best city-folk-in-the-country stories ever written. Grant has won multiple World Fantasy Awards for his horror fiction and editing/publishing work in the field; he edited the acclaimed Shadows anthology series from 1978 to 1991.