Title: The Camp Creeper and Other Stories

Author: Dave Jeffery

Release date: October 31, 2019

Dave Jeffery has quickly turned into an author that I look forward to hearing a new book is coming out soon!

I’ve read a number of his works but I could’ve sworn I’d already read this release. Yesterday (December 28th, 2020) my dog had dental surgery. As night came around, he wasn’t doing so well coming out of anesthetic, so I wasn’t falling asleep. Looking through my Kindle, I came across this. A one sitting read that I could plow through and knew it’d be a great read.

I didn’t even know today, the 29th, was Dave’s birthday! What a double bonus.

What I liked: The Camper Creeper and Other Stories features three quick blasts of dark fiction, all featuring very different story ideas.

The first story is The Camp Creeper. We’re introduced to a summer camp that has a legend where something creeps each night. Of course we get a kid who won’t listen and has to just see what the truth is.

Jeffery had me guessing with this one until the very end. The story was quick but it felt like I knew the characters and it really made the tension ramp up.

The second story was a brutal tale of outback survival with Guess What We’re Having For Dinner. A group of hikers is lost when something in the dark starts hunting them. This was great. I loved the setting and how even in a short page count we see them start to come apart at the edges.

The last story was Cross Your Heart. This was a story revolving around the reality of a young child’s death and what happens on the first anniversary of the events. This was a really bleak story. I really liked the young kids and the way they each exhibited their own regrets from that day.

Jeffery is a master at short story fiction as well as novella and novel length works. This is a great grouping of three dark pieces.

What I didn’t like: I loved the first two stories but did find the ending of the third to read a bit jumbled. I had to reread it a few times to catch what I missed, but that truthfully could’ve been me getting more and more tired.

Why you should buy this: Jeffery is a fantastic author and this is another example of his ability to really craft great dark fiction. Demain’s Short! Sharp! Shocks! Series is full of fantastic collections and Dave’s is easily one of the best of the bunch.

5/5