7/4/26
Women In Horror Year: Day 73
The Dead Hours of Night by Lisa Tuttle
In a career spanning almost 50 years, Lisa Tuttle has proven herself a master of the weird tale, and now this new collection of twelve unsettling stories - some never previously collected - offers readers a chance to discover some of her finest work.
In 'Replacements', a woman adopts a monstrous pet, with unforeseen consequences. In 'Born Dead', a stillborn child mysteriously continues to grow just like a living one. 'My Pathology' (whose ending Thomas Tessier has cited as one of the best in the history of horror) explores the sinister results of a couple's alchemical experiments. And a book lover in 'The Book That Finds You' has her life changed in strange ways by the discovery of a rare horror book at a second-hand bookshop. In these weird and chilling tales, Tuttle is at her diabolical best.
This edition features an introduction by Lisa Kröger, and each story is specially introduced by the author.
We talked here in this space a few days ago about “writer’s writers” — authors that all the other authors read. because they’re so damn good. Lisa Tuttle is the perfect example of a writer’s writer. Her exemplary novel Lost Futures, which was released as a paperback by Dell/Abyss back in 1992, was one of the best of that entire line, and it is bewildering to me that the book is apparently now out of print. Crossroad, Valancourt, Sub Press, etc all — when you’re done reding today’s entry, somebody please get on that and release a new edition. Please and thank you.
(And if I’m wrong and it is, in fact, in print, then somebody correct me in the comments).
The Dead Hours of Night is cause for celebration — a solid collection spanning her entire career, running the gamut from folk horror to the supernatural to surrealism, with not a single dud amongst the table of contents. I don’t know which Lisa selected the tales included here (Tuttle or Lisa Kroger, who provides a great Introduction and who, along with Melanie Anderson, oversees this imprint for publisher Valancourt Books) but as far as career retrospectives go, this one shines bright. Her prose, as long-time readers know, is sharp and tight, and her characters have an emotional depth that is incredibly difficult to pull off in the limited length of short fiction — owing to her gift of narration. I am reminded of a barroom conversation at a World Horror Con years and years ago, where a bunch of folks were debating who was best at writing women, and someone (it may have been Mary, Regina Garza Mitchell, or Rain Graves) said, “Duh… Lisa Tuttle.” And that was pretty much the end of the debate.
What I like best about this particular collection are the Story Notes, because, as you all know, I always love seeing how the sausage gets made. If you do, as well, then you’ll find some fascinating behind the scenes craftwork here.
The Dead Hours of Night by Lisa Tuttle (with an Introduction by Lisa Kroger) is available in hardcover and eBook from Valancourt Books.
