Good collection of short horror and mystery storie

Wind Down the Chimney and Other Eerie Tales is a collection of 10 short stories, written by A.C. Cargill.

This is quite a good mix of varied stories, that mostly centers around the horror or mystery genres. Generally the stories are well written, and I found several of them to be above average. Some are quite simple, while others have a more complex structure, which I enjoyed. The stories are as follows, with no major spoilers:

Wind down the chimney - Rating 4/5
A couple buys their dream home. Turns out the house has a history, and that her husband knows about it. I quite enjoyed this one, as it build up quite nicely, and had a few twists.

The Rube Goldberg Murder Club Club - Rating 3/5
A friend group makes up pretend murder scenarios, but apparently not all of them think it is just for fun. A bit of a weird story. I didn’t find it as convincing as some of the other, simply due to the reasoning of the characters.

Sand And Snow - Rating 3/5
Kara is the keeper of the black stone, for a tribe in the Sahara Desert. Kara has witnessed a disease pass through her tribe, and she knows the black stone can fix it. But it can also destroy the world. I quite liked the story here, which was very different from usual horror stories. I did find the ending somewhat hollow though.

Not All VR Goggles Are Greated Equal - Rating 2/5
A set of VR goggles seem to be cursed. The premise was fine, but the overall story was weak. I found it pointless to be frank.

The Cornfield - Rating 3/5
A cornfield is hiding a secret. I quite liked the setup for this one, and how it played out. I wished this one had been longer, and more fleshed out, as it could have been much more!

Sisters Of The North Wind - Rating 4/5
An orphan girl has an unknown past, and she might be than what she appears. A sweet story which I quite liked. This is the least horror infused story of them all.

Mr. Dilby’s Library - Rating 4/5
A local library has been passed down in the family through generations. There are some questionable happenings which have been associated with the library, where people have disappeared. Overall a quite enjoying horror story, with some build up, some great characters, and a contained story. My only complaint is that the ending had somewhat of a deus ex machine approach, which I think could have been avoided by the author quite easily.

The Boy Who Lives On A Mountain - Rating 3/5
Two mountaineering friends have been around the world, but on one particular mountain, one of the friends sees a strange boy on multiple occasions. A bit of a shallow story perhaps.

Madame Destiny - Rating 4/5
The wife of our main character dies under mysterious circumstances, and while he quickly finds a new wife, it seems that not everyone has forgotten about his now dead ex-wife. A good murder mystery story, with supernatural happenings, shady characters, and love. I enjoyed this one!

The Bat King - Rating 3/5
At a university campus, people are found dead, with apparent bat bite marks in their throat. It is a nice twist on the traditional vampire myth. We get a complete info dump on bats. The story was okay, albeit not too exciting. I enjoyed the characters!

I listened to the audiobook version, and found the narrator to be good. He was very deeply voiced though, so it was a bit confusing for the first story, which has a first person female character! He also had a bit weird pacing in the first story to make it more scary, which was a bit annoying, but for the later stories he was much more coherent, and did a fine job.

Overall a good collection of short stories, above average in my opinion, and can be recommended for most people looking for something scary or just thrilling.

I received this audiobook for free in return for a review. I have no affiliation with the author, the narrators, the publisher, or their pets (Although I am sure the latter are quite nice!).

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