Let me issue some warnings. Horror (as I’ve recently discovered) is one of those tricksy catetories that means too many different things and you can cause a lot of offense if you make the wrong assumption! So you need to know what this book isn’t or you may be disappointed. (By which I possibly mean appalled.)

This isn’t a book of slightly spooky ghost stories written for nice middle-Englanders who like a little frisson now and then (if you want those, try [a:Rayne Hall|4451266|Rayne Hall|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/f_50x66-6a03a5c12233c941481992b82eea8d23.png]). Nor is it a book that goes for horror by piling on the blood and gore (there are lots of them, but for a decent one you could try [b:Follow Him|52618826|Follow Him|Craig Stewart|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1570494993l/52618826.SX50_SY75.jpg|73676886] by Craig Stewart). It’s not gross out. It’s tough but not "horror for it's own sake", not "extreme horror". (See www.goodreads.com/topic/show/292322-gory-disgusting-revolting-novels). Nor is it classic stuff like Bram Stoker or Edgar Allen Poe or Mary Shelley.

So what’s the right shelf for this book? I think I’ll put it with [a:Miles Watson|14988570|Miles Watson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1465444760p2/14988570.jpg]’s “[b:Devils You Know|32706702|Devils You Know|Miles Watson|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1476943184l/32706702.SY75.jpg|53284299]”, on that very small shelf called “Hard Core Horror Stories by Seriously Intelligent Authors who I’d Like to Write a Different Sort of Book”. (Miles Watson has done so, several times in fact, so come on Sawney, your turn to step up to the mark...)

What he gives us here is a really interesting set of stories, using horror as a vehicle for asking questions about the lives we actually lead. There are several stories about unachievable obsessions. An ageing husband so obsessed with not dying that he isn’t living either. A loving carer throwing away her own happiness to protect an unsavable patient. The infatuation of a ghost for a living woman. And there are several stories about the lure and fascination of cruelty. A couple, possibly, about madness. The author doesn’t pile it on: he has an admirable lightness of touch and the stories have plenty of humour. But they all – most gruesomely in the penultimate The Dark at the Deep End – point to a terrifying darkness just below the surface of what others can see.

Through his well-quoted title the author is gambling with the possibility that he’s not alone, that other people also have heads that seethe with unspeakable thoughts as his own clearly does. It’s a brave thought to admit to. I’m not saying whether I think he’s right – too much of a coward, me – but I have a theory… It's a book worth reading. A question worth asking.