The stories in this collection contain a mix of horror tropes, including ghosts, monsters, werewolves, the walking dead etc.

The style of the writing dates the stories, setting them in the past. Each story is well told, propped up by the sense of atmospheric menace that marks a good ghost story. They give us the impression that we are safe, but only just.

Some of the stories display self-awareness of horror as a genre. A narrator in one story describes Lovecraft as his favourite author. Over and over, we also see rationalists realizing and acknowledging that ghosts exist.

1) The Angry Ghost: Five members of the Ghost Club tell each other ghost stories that they make up. Michael, who is wheelchair bound following an accident, offers to tell a ghost story that is all too true. He claims that on a recent visit to a Cornwall village to find an unusual flower, he came to know of a ghost. A woman who jumped to her death in the icy lake on her wedding day when her beloved fiancé failed to show up for their wedding. For the last 20 years, the ghost has been haunting the lake on the anniversary of the wedding. While the basic story was something I’d heard before, here it was elevated to a tender love story.

2) A Strange Occurrence: Four friends, a judge, a psychologist, a Cambridge physicist, and a rationalist, gather at the Archive Room of a library. Samuel, the rationalist, talks about the sighting of a ghostly hound. The hound belongs to Fr Bryan James. The previous story had a group of friends that enjoy ghost stories. Here we have friends who debunk them, preferring to believe in evidence. The tone of this story counters our scepticism, reminding us that stranger things have happened.

3) The Ghosts of Kilronan: A rationalist, Monty, visits his birthplace at the invitation of Fr Ardal Fitzpatrick to talk about a case where a young child’s actions resulted in the death of their sister. Monty too is burdened with guilt at having caused the death of his younger sister, Rosie, when they were kids. The priest also wants him to investigate the presence of ghosts in the village.

4) Flowers and Butterflies: was written from the PoV of an unlikely and unusual rescue worker.

5) Happy Hallowe’en: The walking dead crew, Frank, Lucy, new boy Linus and narrator Michael, meet for a Halloween party where they compete for the best dressed character. This one was quite entertaining.

6) A Dog Needs His Walk: A man says goodbye to his wife, and heads out for a walk with his dog, only to be struck by a realization.

7) Back for Him: The narrator takes his grandfather, who has dementia, to an old lifeboat station from his past, to help him recuperate after an illness. There the old man is reminded of five of his friends who went out on a rescue mission during a storm and never returned. The descriptions in this story were so good, I actually visualized the scene. This story was about friendship, tenderness and old friends dearly missed.

8) Rachel and the Beast: Rachel, a young police cadet, is out staking a criminal, a man known for brutally killing prostitutes, when the unexpected happens.

9) The Trial of Gerald Blake: Gerald, a man who has killed several times, is led to the punishment he deserves. This story had a reference to the afterlife, but I wasn’t sure if it belonged in this collection.

10) Always April: A ghost unable to leave the cemetery in Queenstown, Ireland, tries to find out why the place has a hold on him. This story stresses that love is more powerful than death.

11) The Gift: A despotic ruler receives a gift, a living painting, from the pagans he is most cruel to.

12) Under Isis: Ash returns home after years to avenge the murder of his parents and the burning of their home, and to find out who killed his uncle. He is no longer the boy of eleven who was afraid. Now he is a thing to be feared himself, if only he would acknowledge the truth about himself.

13) Superheroes: This was a sweet tale about a young boy, Davey, who can’t understand why his older friends are slighting him. I loved this one.

14) Number Eight: Nine-year-old Alex is Number Eight in an eight-member group studying rock caves as part of a tour. Afraid of monsters, she worries that she will be the first to be eaten. Midway through the tour, she needs to pee.

15) The Museum of Fabulous Monsters: A watchman, working at the Museum of Fabulous Monsters and suffering from physical deformities himself, shows us his vulnerable side and the care he takes in ensuring that his pet is well fed. The story raises important questions about how society denies the humanity of those it sees as imperfect and hideous.

16) Demosthenes: An investigation is initiated into the curious case of eight Greek students securing 100 percent in a plethora of subjects. Since the man who conducted the investigation, Silas Zacharias, has suddenly taken ill, his colleague, Trevor St John is asked to report the findings to a committee. St John, who has a pronounced stammer, begins to talk eloquently. How is that possible? This story was very entertaining.

17) Just One Dear Friend: The body of Alphonse DeMara is found at the Museum, where he works, in the Hall of the Afterlife. It turns out that he had a heart attack, but Bobby, the narrator, knows that his dear friend, Alphonse, got some help from someone in the afterlife.

18) Thick as Thieves: A security officer, Chris Gibson, connives with three thieves to steal some paintings from the place he is assigned to guard. Unfortunately for him, the plan goes awry. The paintings don’t get stolen, and the thieves end up killing one another. When Chris begins to see the ghosts of the thieves, demanding their payment, he wonders if it is because of the tumour in his head. This story was hugely entertaining.

19) Alice and I: Fourteen-year-old twin sisters, Alice and the narrator, are playing on the branches of a tall tree when the branch snaps. The narrator breaks her sister’s fall and dies. Their parents, heartbroken, erase all evidence of her. The narrator, still haunting the house, can’t understand why. This one was poignant.

20) Legend: Members of an ancient tribe are being ruthlessly hunted by monsters. The tribe has honour, courage and loyalty on its side. The monsters are brutal. It was only halfway through this story that I realized who the tribe is and who the monsters are.

21) The Magic of Seagulls (As if in Her Shadow): Is she a beautiful woman or is she a seagull?

22) The Corpse: A clever story of a murderer, who killed three young women, facing punishment. I was pleased when I guessed the identity of the narrator in the very first paragraph of the story.

23) In Lepsa: Lowell, a former soldier and subsequent caretaker of wolves, is now a bestselling author of fantastic fiction in which the hero, named after his good friend, Ryker, battles vampires, zombies, demons and devils. Lowell is called to Lepsa to save the people from a werewolf who is terrorizing the village.

24) The Twin: A very interesting story about a dead twin, who goes about killing every person responsible for taking away his right to live.

25) That Difficult Age: A 15-year-old girl has just had an experience, her first, and is filled with anguish. We think it’s teenage hormones but it’s not.

26) Echoes of Chronus: An elderly man has a heart attack on seeing a blast from the past surface in the present.

27) Dreams and Maybe Hallucinations: A warm and tender story of a family able to pass on the gift of life thanks to a supernatural encounter.

28) Chinese Whispers: This story is written in the first person PoV of Lucifer.

29) Fire and Flames: The woods close to a village are supposed to be haunted because of a number of deaths that have occurred there. The lines between the sacred and the profane get blurred and it appears that the one has become the other. This was one of the longest stories in this book and it took its own sweet time coming to the point.

30) Let the Rats Feast: The story is written in the perspective of an unnamed narrator, who doesn’t remember who, much less what, he is. Beside him lies a wolf cub for whom he feels unexpected yet intense love.

31) Fish and Reminisce: A man has an encounter with a ghost but it isn’t quite how he thinks it is.

32) The Case of the Reverend Taplow: A reverend with a thirst for the forbidden. The story is written in the 3rd person limited PoV of two characters. There was a fantastic twist at the end.

33) The Red Plains of Vigrior: I will not comment on this one as I don’t read fantasy.

34) Terminus; A befitting end to this series of short stories, this story is an interesting take on the afterlife.

The stories I loved were Superheroes; Thick as Thieves; Alice and I; The Twin; Dreams and Maybe Hallucinations, and Fish and Reminisce.

The stories that didn’t work for me were: Flowers and Butterflies; The Trial of Gerald Blake; The Gift, and The Magic of Seagulls (As if in Her Shadow).

All in all, a good collection of short stories with far more hits than misses.

With thanks to netgalley and the author for allowing me to review this collection of short stories

The angry ghost and other stories is a collection of short horror/spooky stories that I enjoyed. Perfect for a cosy winter reading.

There are a lot of stories mentioned in this book and while some of them were fun to read, quite a lot of them were predictable and were not too scary. For instance, some of the stories like "The Twin" and "The Corpse" was interesting, however, other stories like "Alice and I" and "Superheroes" were predictable and didn't hold my interest.

While I liked this book overall, I felt like it tried to combine too many stories into one book, and it would have been better had this book been split in multiple volumes. Overall, "The Angry Ghost and Other Stories" is a good read which has some decent spooky tales.

This book contains a collection of ghost stories. Some long, some short, some good, some bad ones too. It starts out great, especially the first story was enjoyable. The best scary story is one where the outcome is hard to predict. This was one of those, however many of the others weren't anything like that.

There is certainly a sense of variation, however the feeling that many stories were just added as bulk doesn't do the quality of the book any good.

I usually love short story collections, especially scary stories. However, this one just didn't live up to my expectations. The stories were slow and predictable, and I often found myself asking "Where is the scare?"

Definitely better "ghost story" collections out there!

**I was given this ebook via Net Galley, in exchange for an honest review**


I thought it was pretty good. Some of the stories were really weird and there was one i could not get into so I just skipped it. I would have finished it earlier but my father-in-law passed away and I just got into a reading slump so that is why it took me so long to finish this book.

My Opinion:
I really enjoyed reading all these short stories about ghosts and men with dogs that aren't really there. I liked the authors writing and found myself gulping a bit with some of them. I like how you can read a few or just one and come back and get a chill from them. I enjoyed how the author talked about horror legends like H.P. Lovecraft and Vincent Price. I really enjoyed those little snippets. This writing is in a style that would remind me of The Twilight Zone or the old Alfred Hitchcock series on tv. I got immersed and enjoyed these stories.

This book has all kinds of ghost stories from Women by lakes to campfire tales to Men & Dogs. I feel like there is something for everyone in this book. You are bound to like a story or if you are like me you will enjoy them all. I would recommend this for your bedside for a spooky read before bed. If you are like me you won't get nightmares for these easy and ghouly tales of ghosts. I totally enjoyed this and would recommend!


I give this book 4 of 5 stars!

Here is a review by Angela: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2332554766

I have a secret love of horror stories, and so approached this collection of short stories with excitement. Clocking in at just under 400 pages, Peter Spokes' The Angry Ghost and Other Stories is on the larger side for a debut collection and at times, unfortunately, the reader feels every bit of that length. Spokes works in the traditional style for short horror fiction and certainly delivers some very satisfying chills and suspense. The stories that work best are the shorter tales that dominate the book, and had Spokes stuck to those with this collection, I would be happy to say that he had put together a very satisfying read for lovers of this type of short horror fiction and an impressive debut. The title story is a charming Gothic ghost story that will keep you guessing for at least the first two thirds of the tale, and The Ghosts of Kilronan is similarly excellent. Spokes also shows some real talent for writing very human characters and there are some genuinely touching moments in tales like A Dog Needs His Walk and Back For Him. Always April is a neat combination of ghost story and time travel narrative but I'll say no more about that for fear of spoiling the fun. But this collection is not as carefully curated as I would like, and many of the longer tales start to drag after a while. At least one tale, Fire and Flames, should really have been kept aside and published as a standalone short novel, or perhaps even with some expansion, a full-length Gothic fantasy. The characters in that story are very likeable and I was somewhat sad to say goodbye to them so abruptly. Spokes also has the somewhat annoying habit of dividing each and every one of his tales into scenes or chapters. This is an awkward editorial choice and one which really creates an uncomfortable distancing effect for the reader and interrupts the flow of the shorter stories. Overall, the collection carries too much flab - a good edit would have a left a few of these stories on the cutting room floor as well as pruning some of the length from some of the stories that seem to drag. This might have produced a slightly leaner, meaner collection. There is a lot to like here, and certainly enough for me to add Spokes to my 'horror writers to watch' but there's not enough for me to wholeheartedly recommend this collection. If you like a good horror story, perhaps consider picking this one up, but be choosy and if you find yourself feeling frustrated or bored with one story or another, skip to the next one. There are plenty to choose from!

I have really enjoyed the angry ghost and other stories, short stories are not normally my thing but the way Peter Spokes has written each story is fantastic, The stories are very reminiscent of writers such as HP Lovecraft , Edgar Allen Poe and even Charles Dickens, They are the sort of stories that should be told around a camp fire, they are not gory or scary they are just beautifully written and they weave a spell around you and they deserve to stand the test of time like some of the great writers in history.

This collection of short stories delivers chills and chuckles, surprises and "I knew it!" moments. Each story is unique, yet as a whole they work well together. I thoroughly enjoyed them! Please write more!

The narration creates the atmosphere for a gripping horror but it also tests your patience at the same time. This is more like that horror movie, where you ask "when will the ghost come?" Written in a slow style and predictable at times but still interesting. Not very scary but still good to cause you to have nightmares. A very unique and stand out horror collection.

If you like H.P Lovecraft & Poe you will like this. It was nice and refreshing to read good old fashioned horror tales. I'd recommend this book.

For me this was a very pleasant read that had many great short stories, and it was lovely to read the older type ghost stories that most people grew up on this style, not the gore and horror of lots of current reads.

The Angry Ghost was a great read and got you hooked on reading further into the book.

Loved the stories when they don't realise that they are ghosts or the story of the man walking his dog (which he no longer has).

Great book with a really good mix of authors which could be read by many age ranges.

I enjoyed this book. It is short ghost stories woven together to create a great narrative. I found it a little reminiscent of peter Straub's ghost story so it very much appealed to me. If you like ghost stories then look no further. This is one of the best ghost story collections that I have ever read.

I'd have to describe this as just an okay read. The first few stories were good and held my attention. Then I started to get bored with the others.

As with all short story collections there are some stories you enjoy others No so much. I really enjoyed the title story and one or two of the others.

I was fortunate to recently spend a cold winter weekend with an old friend. We each brought books and movies we love and I was pleasantly surprised when she brought some old movies, some featuring Vincent Price. It was my first exposure and I really enjoyed the eerie atmospheres and the throwback to days gone by.
This was the first thing I thought of while reading The Angry Ghost and Other Stories. I am a huge fan of well written short stories where every word is crucial and unlike a book, you can't say it started out slow, then grabbed your interest. The author either has the ability to hook you from the first paragraph or not. There are over 30 stories and my top three favorites were The Angry Ghost, The Trial of Gerald Blake and The Museum of Fabulous Monsters. The atmosphere described in these tales often made me think of the Vincent Price movie marathon I attended and of Edgar Allen Poe's work. There are ghosts and monsters and fantasy stories, and I enjoyed the majority of them. A collection like this to me is akin to going to a 'story buffet'. You can try quite a few things, love some, like some and pass on others, but at the end, you leave satisfied. If these types of stories appeal to you, I recommend trying this author's work.
Thank you, Peter Spokes, Troubador Publishing Limited, and NetGalley for the digital copy to read and review.

This collection had a very old fashioned vibe to it (which for me was not a bad thing.) It felt more like a screen play and in my mind I could picture the roles that Vincent Price and Boris Karloff would have been pleased to portray..
It is overflowing with beautifully crafted tales, a few of which were reminiscent of Poe.
There is a little suspense and a lot of sorrow here. Tales of ghosts and those who mourn for them, and tales of the dead who mourn for the living. Some had more modern touches of humor (wait until you meet Tommy the Tumor)
Not all are ghost stories. There are some monsters, and stories that venture into fantasy (I have a new appreciation for Seagulls now.) A few were just not my cup of tea but that is the joy of short stories, there is something for everyone so take what you like and leave the rest.
4.5 stars rounded up to 5

Not the best book of stories, but not the worst. I enjoyed this in an evening but was expecting a few more chills or thrills. The title story was the story I enjoyed the most.