Tartarus Press

publishers

A Maze for the Minotaur

by

Reggie Oliver

 

This is the eighth volume of stories by Reggie Oliver to be published by Tartarus Press and marks the fact that we have published over one hundred of his tales. Oliver’s work is notable for its style, wit, humour and depth of characterisation, and also for its profound excursions into the disturbingly bizarre and uncanny. Behind a façade of classical elegance his stories consistently defy convention.

 

‘The Crumblies’ is a haunted house story, but is the house haunted by the dead, or the living? A retired civil servant is tormented by guilt, but is it guilt about a real, or an imagined event? In the title story, why are the inhabitants of a high-class brothel so terrified by a client who just likes to throw jam tarts at them? In these and other mysteries, we are taken to a farmhouse in the Dordogne, a Suffolk ‘Rehab Clinic’, a private island in the Thames, Victorian St John’s Wood, the Edinburgh Festival in 1979, and many other unusual destinations.

 

 

Contents: ‘The Old Man of the Woods’, ‘Coruvorn’, ‘The Wet Woman’, ‘A Maze for the Minotaur’, ‘Shadowy Waters’, ‘A Fragment of Thucydides’, ‘The Crumblies’, ‘Monkey’s’, ‘Collectable’, ‘Via Mortis’, ‘A Cabinet of Curiosities’, ‘The Armies of the Night’, ‘A Tartarean Century: Author’s note’.

 

Reviews

 

"Needless to say, the book is a total delight both for fans of dark fiction and for any lover of great fiction in general. Oliver is a born,  gifted storyteller and whatever he writes keeps the reader totally hooked and spellbound. Mario Guslandi." Horror World

 

"I have to tip my hat to this man who's given me so many hours of reading pleasure over the last few years, and to Tartarus as well for bringing forth this eighth volume of Oliver's stories.  It is definitely one not to miss whether you are a regular fan of Oliver's stories, or a reader drawn to the realm of the strange or the weird.  Don't be surprised if you find yourself feeling a bit off kilter after reading this book -- it's part and parcel of the Oliver experience." Oddly Weird Fiction