Review: Nowhere To Go
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 07 27, 2012
I first read Rowan's short fiction in his superb collectionIce Age, a book of stories in the horror/weird fiction mode. The stories in Nowhere To Go are more fimrly rooted in the crime genre, and without exception they are all expertly plotted and stylishly written: Rowan's prose is always clear-cut and effective, and never more so than here.Of the eleven stories here, my favourites were:'One Step Closer' - great characterisation in a piece so short, and Rowan's sympathies with the *victims* of crime rather than the criminals themselves is on display in a story of a robbery gone wrong...'One of Us' - the short story from which his excellent novel of the same name grew. Interesting to read it in its original form.'The Chain' - quite simply because I did't predict the twist...'Moths' - a side-order of Ice Age-esque weirdness in amidst the crime. The closing imagery is to die for.'The Remains of My Estate' - a masterful description of a sink-estate and the loan-sharks who bleed it dry.'Nowhere To Go' - another one with a hint of the supernatural; possibly my favourite and a great closing story.