Speak Of The Devil
Guillaume Roos

Garden Press
Paperback, $14.56
Reviewed By Fred Gillain

Guillaume Roos is a young French author I discovered back in 2003 when he had one of his short stories published in the well-known but unfortunately late periodic anthology “Emblèmes.” I really enjoyed the sense of mystery in his story, his “graphic” way of describing the atmospheres of a crime scene, the final twist. All this made me want to purchase the short story collection he had released a little earlier, and I was not disappointed, believe me. So when I saw that this really enjoyable author had just released the same collection in English, I wanted to tell English speaking readers about this book.

Speak Of The Devil consists of 12 short stories covering styles from sheer horror to fantasy, passing by mystery and science fiction. “Alone” describes the endless walk of a half-dead man, in an unknown desert. The mystical tale of “The Anteroom” deals with a man who dies in a car accident during which he may have killed a woman. Now, he has to wait for his judgement in the anteroom of the afterlife. The gothic “In The Danger Zone” follows the conversation between a psychiatrist and a captive vampire in an abandoned section of a hospital’s basement. “Save Our Souls,” perhaps my favorite story of this selection, takes place on an outer space mining station where the dead rise to kill the living under the eyes of the chief of security. I really enjoyed this one. You can tell the author was strongly influenced by George Romero’s “Dead Trilogy” in the way he describes he walking corpes, yet he still manages to integrate his own mythology into the story.

I could go on describing the other stories but I think I made obvious that I really enjoyed this book. The stories are varied in style and subjects and each one is a real page turner (if I had to be completely honest, I’d still say there’s one weaker story: “The Devil’s On The Run.” Maybe a little long and a little too classic for my taste).

For those who would want a sample, the story entitled “Until Death” is available for free download as a pdf file at: Until Death

Please check out this author from my home country: Speak of The Devil

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