Scaring up some literary spine-chillers

Halloween treats tend to come in small sizes, like those little packets of candy corn or miniature Mr. Goodbars. The eerie tales of these recently published short-story collections also provide delights you can enjoy in a single bite (or two).

“Under Twin Suns,” edited by James Chambers (Hippocampus), bears the subtitle “Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign.” If those last two words don’t elicit a shudder, you need to seek out a copy of Robert W. Chambers’ “The King in Yellow,” first published in 1895 but still frightening readers today. “Under Twin Suns” assembles two dozen new poems and stories composed in the shadow of that earlier book’s proto-lovecraftian terror. For example, in Lisa Morton’s feverish “Robert Chambers Reads ‘The King in Yellow,’” we again encounter that dwarfish being named Mr. Wilde. This emissary from Carcosa explains to Chambers that he represents a consortium, the “Imperial Dynasty of America,” which requires the services of a fresh, energetic writer to replace Ambrose Bierce, who has suffered some kind of breakdown. The terms offered are generous — or are they?

“When Things Get Dark: Stories Inspired by Shirley Jackson” (Titan) was compiled by that nonpareil horror anthologist, Ellen Datlow. In its pages, Joyce Carol Oates, Jeffrey Ford, Laird Barron, Seanan Mcguire and a dozen others deliver tales “filled with hauntings, dysfunctional families and domestic pain; simmering rage, loneliness, suspicion of outsiders; sibling rivalry and women trapped psychologically ... by the supernatural.” As the anthology’s contributors know, disorientation is to Jackson what the gross-out is to lesser writers. In Elizabeth Hand’s “For Sale by Owner,” three women, hoping to recapture the excitement of childhood sleepovers, camp out in an old but strangely clean house in the woods. Consequences ensue.

“Queen for a Day,” a highlight of Albert E. Cowdrey’s wonderful collection “Revelation & Other Tales of Fantascience” (PS Publishing), is more than just the 2003 winner of a World Fantasy Award for short story. It’s absolutely perfect in every way — characters, plotting, dialogue and atmosphere. In modern-day New Orleans, a pair of likable, trash-talking cops investigate a series of stranglings during Mardi Gras. Is it a serial killer — or something far more sinister?