The Dead Boxes Archive is a horror story collection which contains seven stories. Five hundred print pages of delightful darkness, a tasty selection of quiet horror in easily digestible chunks. Well, it’s quiet horror in some places. In others, it gets a little louder. Tales of horror and the diabolical, chilling diversions to darken your day …in a thoroughly enjoyable way.

“5 out of 5 Lingering stars for this one!

I would give The Dead Boxes Archives my highest recommendation to all adult readers. However, do yourself a favor and keep the lights on while you read it.”

The Dead Boxes Archive ∙ Horror Story Collection

Perhaps this routine invisibility is just as well. The Dead Boxes are as far from ordinary and everyday as you can get. They hold miracle and mystery, horror and salvation, answers to questions best not asked and directions to places better left unfound.

This collection offers an insight into some of these delightfully eerie articles. A stunning omnibus of old school inspired horror, the brooding and ominous variety. Not to say that there isn’t a little gore and gruesome in the mix. But one of the beauties of horror is that it comes in many forms. Blood and guts don’t need to be stars of the show for a story to be dark and disturbing. Something that will stay with you long after the reading is done.

There are five tales that are available to buy as individual books and two more with limited availability. The exceptional Linger is previously only published in the charity horror anthology, Diabolica Britannica. The Screaming Mike Hawkins Story is new for this collection.

Our diabolical banquet opens with Call Drops, a deliciously dark look at second hand shops, car boots and the infernal treasures which sometimes lurk within them. It might give you pause for thought about our ever-increasing reliance on the ubiquitous mobile phone.
“10 out of 5 stars” – Erik Henry Vick, author of Demon King.

Next up is the rather beautiful and deceptively innocent Doggem. In many ways, this short story defies description. It’s about a toy dog and school days and so much more. Ordinary families with folklore legacy, mundane existence amidst vaguely mythical settings, witchcraft and the supernatural. All mixed with apocalyptic undertones.
“The Velveteen Rabbit meets Rosemary’s Baby” – Barb Taub, author of Do Not Wash Hands In Plates.

A Plague of Pages is a nightmarishly enjoyable look at the perils of writing fiction. Betrayal, revenge and instruments of ultimate evil are blended into a mesmerising and horrific cocktail. Written well before the terrible events of 2020, it also touches upon historic pandemics and the prospect of present day apocalypse.
“ a wonderfully creepy read” – Gingernuts of Horror, premier UK horror review site.

Night Service is a tale of travel and terror that quickly gets up to speed and then doesn’t slow down until the haunting finale. A warning for all the night owls out there who use those last dance, last chance darktime buses. It can sometimes be a helluva ride!
“ flies by …excitement, chases, tension and bloody gore galore” – Char, leading Horror Aficionado and Vine Voice.

The ghostly Burntbridge Boys might initially appear to be about professional football. Don’t be deceived. When a Dead Box is involved, fraud and corruption in sport are only the tip of a demonic iceberg that spans dimensions and stretches into the dim and distant past.
“Sammy’s meeting with Burntbridge’s Chairman Millicent is stunningly good” – Terry Tyler, author of The Devil You Know.

The spooky old house, a gothic horror staple, gets a fresh lick of paint in Linger. Inheriting lots of money and a gothic mansion from a father you never knew sounds like some sort of dream come true. This revisit breathes new life into a horror classic.
” the Gothic …concentrated to its essence, with the richness this implies ” – Ramsey Campbell, British Horror Legend.

We conclude with The Screaming Mike Hawkins Story, a darkly inventive final twist from a mind filled with bleak and creative twists. Part author’s note, part biography, the life and times of Michael Hawkins take the Dead Boxes to another level. Singer, songwriter, guitar legend, the shadowy career of Screaming Mike is a mystery wrapped in more than one conundrum. From the shadows without ever really leaving them seems like a good way of describing both artiste and the Dead Boxes Archive.
New and exclusive to this collection.

The stories in this first volume of The Dead Boxes horror story collection were written between 2017 and 2020. Each stands alone on merit. Seen together, they form a beautifully sinister picture and serve as an excellent introduction to the Scaeth Mythos.

Writing The Dead Boxes Archive

The first Dead Box appears in my novel Bad Pennies, but the first official Dead Boxes story was Call Drops (the book I published in November 2017 on the heels of Bad Pennies).

The Dead Boxes as a concept had been floating round my head for most of my adult life. Seeing one of them become a ‘reality’ in Bad Pennies was something akin to revelation. One that was doubled by writing and publishing Call drops in the space of a month or two. All of those sketched Dead Boxes could enjoy the same fate. They could move beyond me.

It was time to get cracking, as my dear old mom would have said. Over the next few years, several more Dead Boxes left my head and took up residence on Kindle and in paperback. Novellas of varying lengths which shared a theme. The inanimate and ordinary could be cleverly disguised vessels for miracle and misery. Doggem was very personal and it was a joy for me to see it in print. A Plague of Pages and Night Service a genuine blast to write. Burntbridge Boys fulfilled a long felt need to write something which combined horror and football. Screaming Mike Hawkins deserved his story to see the light of day. Linger felt perfect for the Diabolica Britannica charity horror compendium.

After a while, it struck me that these stories would work even better collected together. Each was different in tone and atmosphere, but they formed a satisfying picture when sat side by side and read one after another.

Will there be more? Well, I sincerely hope so. There are lots of them, ugly and lovely little squatters in my skull. It’s just that serving the eviction orders can be easier said than done.