Murder and Machinery

Genre: Horror / Sci-Fi / Suspense Anthology

Length: 220 pages / Published: April, 2021
Cover design by Cameron Trost

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The anthology is also listed on Goodreads

Lock the doors and switch the power off at the mains!

Tales of deadly machinery have long fascinated us, from Edgar Allan Poe’s classic pendulum to the Terminator films.

Murder and Machinery pays homage to this tradition, offering you gripping tales following this theme but set in different times and places, from colonial America and London during the First World War to dystopian futures on this planet and beyond. Never before has an anthology brought tales of science fiction and suspense together in such a terrifying way, showcasing the nightmarish imagination of authors who know how to play on the reader’s fears and who share those fears of uncontrollable machines, or perhaps even more frightening, of fellow humans mastering technology for their own evil purposes. A word of advice before you start. By all means, settle down in your living room and let this anthology of technological terror and mechanical madness enthral you, but first, you might want to lock your doors and switch the power off at the mains. Best keep it low-tech tonight. Trust me. I hope you have candles?

★ Crime   ★ Sci-fi / Steampunk   ★ Horror   ★ Suspense   ★ Historical

The Secret Zeppelin - Duncan Richardson
#Selfie - Linda Brucesmith 
Fargan’s Termination - Paul Williams
A Little Kindness Goes a Long Way - Chisto Healy 
The Box - Sarah Jane Justice 
The Wheel - Michael Picco 
The Wedge - Kurt Newton
Tenterhooks - Cameron Trost
Leonora - Danielle Birch
Vanitas - James Dorr
Don - Steve DuBois
Foul Beasts - Karen Bayly
A Whole New World - KG McAbee
Suicide Blonde - Paulene Turner
Driverless - Robert Bagnall
The Screen in the Sky - Kerilee S. Nickles

"THE TERMINATOR'S FAVORITE BOOK! What a great read! While you would expect the stories to be futuristic science fiction, you will be surprised to find out that the stories fall within many historical eras and their corresponding levels of technology. It gives the tales a richness that would otherwise be lacking and kept the anthology interesting all the way through. It's rare for me to like every story in a collection like this but, lo and behold, I enjoyed every story in Murder and Machinery. I definitely recommend this book to lovers of dark fiction."
- Jim X Dodge, author of Theta House and The Bite (five-star Amazon review) 

"Anxiety about machines taking over our existence and eventually becoming the catalyst for our destruction as a species is not a new concept. However, it is one that seems to have been shoved to the back of the fear line in the last decade, the dark fiction genres instead overrun with zombies, serial killers, and spirit possessions. We’ve forgotten, it seems, that the scariest creatures are the ones we usher willingly into our own homes. Luckily, the authors of Murder and Machinery: Tales of Technological Terror and Mechanical Madness are here to remind us. In a potluck of dystopian, steampunk, and sci-fi-inspired horror, Murder and Machinery has something for every speculative fiction fan, especially those for whom creepiness is best served on cold metal...The machines the authors of Murder and Machinery feature are not those of faraway societies: they are the smart phones, surveillance systems, and home monitors on which we’ve become reliant. If it’s true that tech addiction has run amuck, then these writers deliver an intervention that might just scare a reader straight."
- Rebecca Rowland, reviewer and author (five-star review on Ginger Nuts of Horror)

"A fantastic ride through genre diverse but thematically connected short tales. One of the great strengths is that you get everything from subtle weavings to horrifying shocks without ever feeling that any piece is taking you outside of the overall binding experience. There is just so much atmosphere wrapped up in these pages."
- Five-star Goodreads review

"A deadly dance 'tween humans and machines." 
- Excerpt from a five-star Goodreads review