The Long Way Home

March 25, 2019
This collection assembles 20 mostly recent pieces by horror writer Chizmar into a whole that engages despite occasional discordant notes. As illustrated by the two reprinted essays, “My Father and Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine” and “Stephen King at 70: A Tribute to the Gunslinger,” Chizmar is at his best when waxing nostalgic. The strongest piece is the title story, which lacks horror elements but movingly depicts a complicated relationship between a troubled young man and his father. Chizmar’s penchant for capturing the past can muddy his worldbuilding, as in “The Meek Shall Inherit...” and “A Nightmare on Elm Lane,” which have an air of being set decades ago but also show adolescent protagonists using cell phones. Additional flaws mar a number of other stories, including the opener, “The Man Behind the Mask,” which subjects female characters to rape and torture and builds a plot around their helplessness. Still, Chizmar’s longtime fans will be excited about the handful of stories resurrected from the distant past—including 1997’s “Dirty Coppers,” a futuristic noir story cowritten by Ed Gorman—and will appreciate the breadth of the collection.