TALES NOCTURNAL

Foley offers a horror short-story collection that explores the shadows of everyday reality.

A middle-aged writer on retreat is haunted by predatory snowmen in “Snowman, Frozen.” In “Room 413, Silver Spruce Hotel,” a ghostly bride attaches herself to a visiting journalist. A tech support agent in “Beetles” becomes convinced that the titular insects are crawling under his skin. These are just a few of the paranormal tales in Foley’s compilation, each crafted to evoke a sense of dread amid the ordinary. From the haunting guilt of “Aneurism” to the demonic taxi of “Flowers Along the Seawall,” each story reveals how terror can manifest itself in the most banal moments. Across the collection, the author deftly delivers sharply drawn, multifaceted characters, whether a story is depicting a strained marriage (“The House Opposite”) or a man’s brief, grief-stricken vision of ghostly kids in “The Sound of Children Playing”: “Two of the swings were moving, leaping upward, shapes riding in the saddles. On the monkey bars, shadows seemed to tumble and flow.” Overall, the author’s attention to emotional nuance gives these chilling stories a rare tenderness, grounding surreal elements in believable emotion. The unnamed narrators of “Galen’s Closet” and “Emir” are especially memorable, rendering their accounts believable, even as the lines between reality and delusion begin to blur. Other entries forcing readers to question their own perceptions with the surreal language of “The Figure on the Sidewalk” and “An Effect of the Moonlight.” Most tragic of all are the doomed spirits of “Nineteen Sixty-Five Ford Falcon” and “The Ghost of Niles Canyon,” whose spectral suffering lingers long after the last page is turned. Foley doesn’t shy away from hard topics, either, confronting such concepts as the psychological aftermath of war with restraint and compassion. Some stories feel less developed than others—most notably, “On the Pier at Midnight” and “A Hitch”—but they are exceptions in an otherwise remarkable collection.

A haunting set of tales that balances horror with heart.