In 1996, Richard Chizmar's debut short story collection, Midnight Promises, was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. Publishers Weekly called it "a sterling collection" while singling out "The Silence of Sorrow" as "an understated masterpiece."

Two years later, Subterranean Press published a mini-collection from Chizmar entitled Monsters and Other Stories. In his introduction, acclaimed genre critic Edward Bryant said, "When all is said and done, this book should leave you in utter silence, giving you time and opportunity to contemplate what you just read. Tough storytelling from a tough writer; but a writer who is not calloused. Chizmar possesses a finely honed gift of empathy. With utter grace and loving kindness he'll put you right inside the life of the monster."

Now, nearly two decades later, Chizmar assembles thirty-five stories, including a previously-unpublished novella, and presents us with A Long December. This massive new collection features more than 150,000 words of Chizmar's very best short fiction and includes 8,000 words of autobiographical Story Notes.

Eerie, suspenseful, poignant, the stories in A Long December range from horror to suspense, crime to dark fantasy, mainstream to mystery.

As New York Times bestselling author Scott Smith notes: "It's an idyllic little world Richard Chizmar has created. Boys fish in the shallows of a winding creek. A father tosses a baseball with his young son in the fading light of a summer day. There's the smell of fresh-cut grass. And then, well...just beneath the surface? There are those missing pets whose collars turn up in a shoebox. Or the disturbing photos the dead can leave behind. Or the terrible thing you might find yourself doing when a long lost brother suddenly returns, demanding money. Chizmar does a tremendous job of peeling back his world's shiny layers, revealing the rot that lies underneath. His stories feel like so many teeth: short and sharp and ready to draw blood."

Reader Reviews

Ron

(4/5)

May 07, 2024

This is a hefty, yet very readable, collection of short stories that for the most part has secured me as a Chizmar fan. The stories included here run the gamut of topics (crime, death, life, folklore - to name only a few), many of them owing or paying respects to the horror writers of Chizmar's childhood, some of whom can now be called friends. But the cool thing is the way he does it without copying those others, or rehashing that same old plot (the horror subjects that everyone has tried or re...

Oftenevil

(5/5)

How could I be such a self-proclaimed “avid Horror hound” and NOT have read this critically acclaimed and insanely popular treasure trove of short stories by master genre writer, Richard Chizmar? That’s the appropriate question to be asking here, folks. It’s not how great this collection was, and so obviously remains years and years since many of the tales included were first birthed into the world – no, it’s more like, “Dude, Oftenevil, what was SO important during the past several years of you...

James Pyne

I enjoyed every story in this solid collection. The one that left the biggest emotional impact on me was "Ditch Treasures." If someone told me what it was about, I would never have expected such an emotional punch in the gut, but it had impact! "The Box" was another dandy of a horror tale. What I love about Chizmar's style is he infuses emotion into all his stories.

Bill Gauthier

Richard Chizmar’s collection A LONG DECEMBER kicks ass. What? You want more? All right, all right. Chizmar os best known, I think, as the editor and publisher of CEMETERY DANCE MAGAZINE as well as Cemetery Dance Publishing. In other words, one of the best and most important magazines and publishers in horror and dark fiction. I expected this collection to be good, what got me is how bloody good it is.Is it horror? Some of the stories are, I guess. Some are crime fiction, but I honestly didn’t ke...

Mommacat

Fantastic! 35 dark fiction stories from the publisher of Cemetery Dance. The title - A LONG DECEMBER - comes from the final story, actually a novella length piece about a serial killer. These stories are classic dark fiction, not necessarily horror, and show the influences of Robert Bloch and Richard Matheson among others. One story, which shall remain nameless (for your reading enjoyment!) clearly showed a Stephen King influence in a "what if?" kind of way.I received my copy of A LONG DECEMBER

Rob

(2/5)

A big book of "Meh". Saw the outstanding reviews and comparisons to King's short stories. Don't understand the good reviews and as for similarities to King, not even close. These were not horror stories per se, but rather people doing evil things or atoning for mistakes & sins. A lot of the stories had what you could say were "twists" but most were somewhat lame and predictable. No real variation in stories; just a lot of the same old, same old but committed by different members of the family et...

Stephanie M. Wytovich

An excerpt. Full review coming soon via Nameless Digest:http://www.namelessdigest.com/A Long December, a short story collection by Richard Chizmar, published by Subterranean Press, is a superb assortment of snapshots into the psychologically and emotionally-intense lives of various characters who teach us about loss and suffering, about the unthinkable and the grotesque. What I liked most about the collection overall is that Chizmar isn’t afraid to go there. He handles taboo topics and scenarios...

Lois Griffin

A Long DecemberLoved this book of short stories. I could picture the woods with children running from imaginary monsters not knowing that real monsters were around the next bend. Loved that many of the stories took place in Maryland and were so close to how things were when I was growing up there. It does what I expect a book to do move me out of today and move into another place and time where monsters are real and ghost are real too! I love this authors writing I am reading chasing the bogey m...

David Veith

Overall a very good read. Most of the stories were very good as well. Some were a little off for me, and too short. I know they were short stories, but a couple of pages is not a story, it is a summary. The writing style was well done though in all of them. Also fun as these were mostly not "spooky" scary, but more like things that were more plausible.

Josef Hernandez

A very good short story collectionFor a full review, please go to http://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/2... and follow me on Twitter @josenher

Richard Gerlach

For years, I've always seen Richard Chizmar's name appear and I've wanted to read him for a while. Finally, we have a collection hand picked by the author to be kind of his 'greatest hits' so to speak. I won't review all 34 of the stories here, way too many. I will say, While I didn't love all of them, I enjoied all of them. Very few of these stories will stick with me for years to come.Richard Chizmar is a master of the short story form, if you enjoy dark literature, horror, or speculative fict...

Carol Irvin

4 and a 1/2 stars ⭐️ Short story collection (over 500 pages) by Richard Chizmar- love his books 📚

Michael

Wonderful collection of 35 of Richard Chizmar's (darker) short stories from the last twenty years or so. Since I read it in spurts over two+ weeks I can't really give a breakdown of all of them by this point, but I wouldn't really want to give anything away anyway because Chizmar has a knack for giving a lot of these stories an ending that satisfies... but isn't really an ending because he still has you wanting to know more. In other words, the killer might be identified by the end, or the monst...

Debra

Stephen King recommended book. He said: "Powerful…I love it…Richard Chizmar writes clean, no-nonsense prose…sets his tales in no-nonsense, middle class neighborhoods I can relate to…and writes terrific stories served with a very large slice of Disquiet Pie."

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A Long December

A Long December

A Long December

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Gwendy's Magic Feather

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Widow's Point

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The Best of Cemetery Dance, Volume 1

Reader Reviews