Title: Where the Dead Don’t Die

Author: Ronald J. Murray

Release date: May 31st, 2024

*Huge thank to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC!*

I’d not yet read any of Murray’s short fiction, but having read a number of his poems and finding them visceral and engaging, I jumped at the chance to read this collection of short fiction. When you couple that with the phenomenal cover, it really hyped me up for diving into a pit of blackness and wondering if I’d be able to claw my way out from the depths.

What I liked: The collection is made up of short stories and novelette’s, which I can safely say, nothing feels bloated or overly forced to be boxed in by word count restraints. The longer stories flow well, not dipping and the shorter ones bite hard and immediately engage the reader.

Murray doesn’t dance around phrasing, this isn’t a poet filling the paper with purple prose, which we tend to see, and I was very happy to discover wasn’t the case here. If this was your first experience with his writing, you might even be surprised that he writes poems, as the format and pacing here is spot on.

Stand outs for me were;

‘Jealousy’ – the opening story starts this off with a bang. A chaotic story about Riley, who struggles to remember what happened in a traumatic moment and has to swim through his mind putting bits and pieces in front of him. It was a perfect story to start off with, one that sets the stage for the darkness that takes place after.

‘A Letter to My Future Corpse’ – one of the darker, bleaker stories within, Murray gives us a story about a despondent painter who desperately wants to be reunited with his family. This one was the closest story within that I could see beginning life as a poem and being transformed into long fiction, especially with some of the phrasing choices.

‘Cornelia’ – one of the more brutal stories, this one starts off with a man drunkenly challenging the world to strike him down while he raves in the middle of a snowy road. Ironically, he gets hit by a car, waking up under the care of a man and a woman. While Murray doesn’t keep the ‘twist’ that secretive, it still is absolutely unnerving as the story progresses and ultimately we get the big reveal.

‘In the Labyrinth’ – easily the highlight of the collection, Murray channeled his inner Lovecraft to deliver a story that was so cinematic and claustrophobic, that I was very sad when it ended. The story opens with Mitchell, a sleaze ball at a bar, looking to find a woman to hook up, even though he’s married. When he finds someone, they head to her place, where things seem straight forward. Hook up, leave, deal with his guilt. Until he gets drugged and wakes up in an odd labyrinth. We get a stunning dose of cosmic horror and Barker-level brutality from there on.

Throughout, Murray showcases his ability to seemingly ‘flick the switch.’ And what I mean is essentially block out the stories light and take us dark, take us to a place where there’s no hope in sight.

What I didn’t like: Overall, I enjoyed all of the stories, but some were definitely more to my taste than others, which is the case with every collection. Readers will always find which stories work for them and which don’t.

Why you should buy this: Murray is a talented poet and this collection shows that he can easily transition to a mastery of short fiction as well. His characters are flawed, well formed and push the story forward, which makes for a more connected experience for the reader.

Really solid release.

4/5