Rothery (Cows!) expertly blends 15 short and crisp thriller, fantasy, horror, and science fiction stories by three authors whose work disturbs and unnerves. Vivid descriptions, melancholy atmosphere, and creepy characters propel fresh stories spanning Colonial days to alien invasion. Hunt’s devious escapades of manipulative psychopaths feature in “Geoff,” a story of an estate manager who goes too far protecting the mistress of the house, and “Miss Hate,” about a cantankerous nursing home resident due for a comeuppance. Rathe (the pseudonymous Rothery) explores fantasy with a ghoul who feeds off misery meeting its match in a clever school teacher in “Shadow of January Gloom”; a blackjack player succumbing to personified playing cards in “Lady Luck”; and ghosts from a preindustrial society clashing with modern progress in the standout “Community Spirits.” Kenneth Frank excels with “The Beast,” whose title character vows vengeance on the interplanetary invaders who destroyed his kind. The office drone in “Redundancy” systematically removes his competition. “Eyes in the Dark” is an extraterrestrial angle on the classic Dracula story. Unfortunately, the promising “Sensation Seekers,” in which immortal aliens inhabit human bodies, ends much too quickly. Illus. (BookLife)