A Sliver of Darkness by C. J. Tudor.
Join a group of survivors who wash up on a deserted island only to make a horrifying discovery. Meet a cold-hearted killer who befriends a strange young girl at a motorway service station. Travel along eerie country lanes in a world gone dark, enter a block of flats with the most monstrous of occupants and accompany a ruthless estate agent on a house sale that goes apocalyptically wrong.
Brilliant read. Gave me goosebumps. I do love this author. 5*.

Wow! This really is a chilling and creepy set of short stories from the mistress of all things dark and deadly, out just in time for those All Hallows eve nights when things go bump in the dead of night…

These are tales of mystery and imagination (as they used to say on TV) many written during the pandemic. A mixture of horror and mysterious goings on, each of these stories gives you an insight into the mind of C.J Tudor, who gleefully tells us in her individual introductions, what inspired each one.

Here there are tales which will scare you, stories to send a chill up your spine, sometimes with a dystopian feel, sometimes in a different time and place, and sometimes scary as hell and rooted in the here and now.

There’s menace and a warped sense of humour, alongside mistaken identity, spooky tower blocks and butterflies that gave me the creeps.

From Butterfly Island to Gran Canaria; from a copy shop to a cruise liner, these are nightmare making stories that surprise and scare, make you laugh and have you squealing. This is a collection of the dark and the macabre; of love at its worst and revenge and its best.

C.J. Tudor has written a collection of eleven short stories which all are all original and most of which are completely unpredictable. Not a single dud which is no mean feat. Runaway Blues, her tribute to Stephen King, is a brilliantly written, dark and creepy tale, but honestly, each of these stories has something to offer and everyone will have different favourites according to taste and mood at the time.

Verdict: This really is a great collection of weird and wonderful stories from a writer with wonderful powers of imagination and the ability to turn that imagination into something that will steal its way into your soul (and then probably harvest it).

Highly recommended (and that’s from someone who doesn’t really like the short story format).

I always hear really good things about this author’s writing and now I can see why! Completely gripping, dark, tense and had me on the edge of my seat!!

Well, this really does what it says on the tin, or the cover for want of a better phrase. These 11 short stories really are a sliver into the darkness that is CJ Tudor’s mind.

I love Tudor’s books - they can always be relied upon to provide a good helping of the macabre, with a sinister sense of humour and this is an aperitif to Tudor’s deliciously dark main courses such as The Burning Girls and The Other People.

I’m not usually a reader of short stories, as they tend to somewhat lack what I personally need to invest in a story (I’m a huge lover of all things dark, sinister and thrilling, so perhaps I’m desensitised…) but there are a few out there that I have enjoyed. And I enjoyed this one, and enjoyed all 11 individual stories. I had my favourites (Gloria, Dust, The Final Course and The Block to name a few). There’s nods to S King, there’s dystopian vibes, there’s that wonderfully wicked dialogue and humour that Tudor nails expertly. Her introduction was incredibly emotive, and I liked the short intros to each story.

I particularly loved Gloria and the idea of two characters from two of her separate books meeting each other in Tudorverse! I want more of this! I want baddies from other books meeting up, clashing, and causing utter carnage haha! I can daydream.

If you want a taster of CJ Tudor, then have a read. But be prepared to get reading her other books, cause you’re gonna wanna!

Short stories are usually a mixed bags as some are better than other. In this case they were all at high level and it was a matter of taste.
My favorite was The End of Liner, a dystopia and a claustrophobic story with a great twist.
I loved the other, had fun, and read the book as fast as I could.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Back in 2021 the author announced the death of her beloved dad, she'd found it particularly tough as visiting at his nursing home had been restricted to snatched moments through perspex shields due to what was going on around the world, and the first time she got to hug him was the day he died. This, of course, had an effect on her writing, she struggled to continue the book she'd started and put it to her editors that she write a selection of short stories instead, this is how A Sliver of Darkness was born and is dedicated to her dad.

This collection of eleven short stories are a mix of the macabre, with some dark humour thrown in. Some of them were intriguing, others teetering on the edge of impossible but all very entertaining in their own way. Some of my favourites were End of the Liner featuring Leila who had lived on the cruise ship for the last fifty years, thinking that was her safe place; The Block, a derelict block of flats that a bunch of teenagers thought would 'be fun' to break into, without considering the consequences; The Copy Shop, wouldn't it be fabulous to be able to take all your broken treasures and receive them back restored and 'better' than the original! And on top of all this, at the beginning of each story Tudor treats us to an introduction explaining what inspired her to write each one. I've loved all of her previous books and this little gem was no exception, I'm looking forward to reading her next full length novel, The Drift, which is released early next year.

I'd like to thank Michael Joseph, Penguin Random House and Netgalley for the approval, I will post my review on Goodreads now and Amazon on publication day.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of A Sliver of Darkness which has in no way influenced my review.

C.J. Tudor has fast become one of my 'must read, everything stops for them' authors. Her blend of crime and creepy is a wonderful thing which I can guarantee I will always enjoy. When I discovered that Tudor was about to publish a collection of spine-tingling short stories I, of course, jumped at the chance to read it. I thoroughly enjoy the short, sharp, intensity of a crime or horror short story collection but find I only read one or two collections a year, making them a real treat! A Sliver of Darkness delivered on every count. Not only did I get to indulge my love of short stories, but I got to read a collection penned by one of my favourite authors, one of THE most exciting writers out there at the moment.

But C.J. Tudor, like the rest of us, is only human, so A Sliver of Darkness starts with a very honest, very heartfelt explanation as to why the author and her publisher are opting to release a short story collection in 2022 rather than a full-length novel. My heart really went out to Tudor and I appreciated the honesty in her opening introduction.

A Sliver of Darkness is a collection of eleven twisted, chilling and twisty stories, each one worthy of its place in the novel. It's all killer and no filler, that's for sure. Each story is preceded with a short introduction from the author giving a little background or a fascinating insight into the inspiration behind the piece. One of the things I enjoy the most about Tudor's writing is that there is always a completely unexpected, jaw dropping twist to the tale. I was a little concerned that that wouldn't be achievable in short story form, but my concerns weren't necessary. Each and every story delivers. Each and every story sings with Tudor's trademark thrilling style and I loved how dark and addictive it was.

Would I recommend this book? I would, yes. You can't go wrong with a C.J. Tudor novel or short story collection, and I cannot wait to read The Drift when it is published in the New Year. My favourite stories were End of the Liner which is set on a cruise ship. Leila, a woman approaching her 75th birthday, reflects on times gone by and those she has lost. When a close friend opens Leila's eyes to the reality of their situation, Leila isn't sure she's ready to face it head on. But is the alternative really any better? I loved how sinister this story was. The presence of the cruise ship's 'always happy, always smiling' characters throughout, there to keep a watchful eye on the kids....and the adults...gave the story a chilling, creepy edge. The utter hopelessness the author conveys to the reader is palpable. I felt my heart sink to the floor for the characters.  I also really enjoyed The Completion which stars Dan Ransom, a brash and egotistical estate agent who thinks he's God's gift to women and selling houses. He's on the brink on completing the biggest sale of his career but his client has a bit of a reputation. Only Dan doesn't know the half of it... This story was so dark and twisted, it took me places I never expected to go and probably never want to go again! Brilliant storytelling as usual from the author. But my favourite of the entire collection was Final Course. A group of old college friends gather in a manor house following the apocalypse. Harry, the privileged host, has invited 'the Infamous Five' back together one last time before the end of the world comes a-knocking. Tom and his young daughter, Millie, join Alex, Michael and Josh at Berskow Manor for one last terrifying, unforgettable night. This story gave me goosebumps and since reading it (a few weeks ago) I've been unable to get it out of my head. Eerie, unsettling and seriously dark, it was the cherry on top of a fantastic collection of well-penned stories. All in all, I loved A Sliver of Darkness. I hope Tudor publishes more short story collections in-between her full-length novels in the future because this is the best, most exciting collection I have read to date. If you're a fan of the dark and dastardly, if you're a fan of the author then please make sure you pick up a copy of this unsettling but utterly compelling book. You won't regret it! Highly recommended.

I chose to read and review a free eARC of A Sliver of Darkness. The above review is my own unbiased opinion.

Both of these covers are good, but I feel like the UK cover has the edge! It's more subtly creepy, the US one feels more in your face. Just my opinion, though!

Short story collections can be hit and miss, although with the same author writing everything I expected these to be all on the same level. I was almost right. A couple of them, I thought, could have done with more explanation, but they were all a lot of fun (I'm still not sure what was happening at the end of 'Lion at the Gate' but that might say more about me than it does about the story!) One or two ended quite abruptly too, but I often feel like that about short stories. I'm very greedy when I'm enjoying a story!

And these are all fantastically written. In general, the background is given cleverly without seeming like an info dump, the story is tightly written and the language is lovely. None of these left me unable to sleep, but they are certainly thought provoking! I was reminded of the old British comic Misty on a couple of the stories.
Definitely a good read, one I'll be recommending, and I'll be looking out for more by CJ. I like her style.

Not having read CJ Tudor before, I was unsure what to expect with this short story collection. Luckily, I was pleasantly surprised. The stories run from all-out horror to psychological thriller, but are all deliciously creepy with The Block the standout story for me. I also very much enjoyed Tudor’s short introduction to each story. Fans of John Connolly’s particular hybrid of thriller and horror will find much to enjoy here.

I'm not the biggest fan of short stories but I am a big fan of this author so I thought I would take a punt on this, a collection of stories written over several years. And I'd have to say that I actually enjoyed the most of them. I will single a few out for special mention...
I'm not Ted was brilliant - I loved the way that human nature was investigated and tested.
Copy Shop was so funny - I nearly made a list of things to be copied!
Butterfly Island was creepy - I read behind a pillow!
My favourite would have to be End of the Liner - set on a ship with an ending that completely smashed it for me! Although I did guess a few things early.
Not that the others were sub standard compared to these, I just think that a review of a collection of short stories should end up being nearly as long as the stories themselves.
Whether you are a fan of this author or shorts in general, you should find something herein to whet your appetite and probably also sate it!
I'm now hanging for the next full size book! My thanks go to the Publisher and Netgalley for the chance to read this book.

⭐️ 4 ⭐️

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC, in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

I’m a huge fan of C.J. Tudor’s work so I was extremely excited to get my hands on a copy of A Sliver of Darkness,

The personal introduction to the collection is heartfelt and brought a tear to my eye. Each story has its own short introduction; these enjoyable little snippets of information give an interesting insight into how the ideas to the stories came about.

I love a short story and I thoroughly enjoyed dipping in and out of this collection. Although I wouldn’t say any of the stories were particularly scary, there’s definitely an eerie, creepy sense of atmosphere to be had in some of them with a few excellent twists that gave me a Tales of the Unexpected vibe.

A Sliver of Darkness is a well-written selection of entertaining short stories, featuring some that I’d love to read more about if they were expanded upon and made into full length novels (fingers crossed!).

Well not what I was expecting at all!!! More contemporary type chills and strangeness than I thought it would be. And a good dolop of sick humour thrown in. Quite apocalyptic and maybe I was expecting more gothic haunting tales. But that aside a nice little collection of stories to send a chill down your spine, although I generally found myself smiling at the end rather than feeling perturbed!!!! I think C J Tudor fans will appreciate this collection of seasonal short stories!

Each of the short stories comes with an opener on where the idea came from, whether that was a real life moment or just the thought process that spawned it. I think this is a great idea, but I am going to be controversial and say that I hated that they were at the start of each tale. It felt like spoilers to me and I’d have much preferred them to be collected at the end of the book.

As for the stories themselves they are a mixed bag in both style and quality(for me) and while reading I tried to summarise each in a sentence, which led to things like “snowpiercer on a boat” and “dead woman purgatory”.

There was a couple of stories that felt very similar to things I had already read, which doesn’t mean they weren’t good, but I think lost the impact as a result.
‘End of the liner’, ‘i’m not Ted’ and ‘Dust’ stood out as some of the better tales but for me ‘Final Course’ was above and beyond the other stories in the book and was easily my favourite.

~ 3.5 stars ~

I am definitely not a short stories lover in general but I am a huge fan of C.J. Tudor so when I got the opportunity to read her collection of short stories ahead of publication, I couldn’t resist.

Easily my favourite thing about these twisted tales is that there is a very helpful introduction before each one - I thought this was a great addition and found it interesting to see where the inspiration for each short read came from. Out of the 11 spooky stories, my favourites were The Copy Shop, Final Course, End of the Liner and Dust. I think there would be something for everyone (who enjoy the thriller/horror genres) as the content ranges from creepy, chilling, dystopian, bizarre sprinkled with occasional dark humour with casts of deserted island survivors, cold-hearted killers, sleazy estate agents and deceptively dark children amongst many others.

There were some stories I didn’t enjoy as much as others and a couple which lacked any atmosphere or tension for me while reading them but overall I had a good experience with this unique collection!

Thanks to Netgalley & Penguin for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

C.J.Tudor has become one of my favourite authors so I was excited to start this book of creepy short stories.
I really liked the introduction to each story with an insight into the authors life and inspiration behind each story.
I particularly enjoyed End of The Liner as I love dystopian fiction. My other favourites were Final Course and Runaway Blues.
Although I love the writing style I would have preferred each of these to be have been longer! I'm actually not that keen on short stories as they end to quickly and the characters/plot do not have very long to develop. As a result this is not my favourite book by this author but I will definitely be eagerly anticipating the next one!

Wow. A stunning collection of short stories, some reminiscent of early Stephen King. C.J Tudor explores the everyday from housing estates to graffiti and puts remarkable twists on them. Also a welcome return of Gloria from one of her earlier works. An excellent collection that I highly recommend.

I don't often read short stories, but what A Sliver Of Darkness has taught me is that they are a great insight into an author's mind. And as a huge fan of CJ Tudor, I couldn't wait to get a tease of some of the stories taking shape in her head which we haven't seen published yet.

Overall, there was something to enjoy about every story and I found every concept really interesting. Some I loved (Runaway Blues, and I’m Not Ted), most had elements that I loved but which I wanted more of (Copy Shop, Final Course, Dust, Butterfly Island, and End of the Liner), and then there were a couple which I liked the ideas of but which I think needed to be longer to get the message across more strongly (The Block, The Lion at the Gate, and Completion).

And then we have Gloria which brings together The Taking Of Annie Thorne and The Other People, and I love how a short story can allow an author to bring their fictional worlds together like this, although it did take some thinking to remember exactly who was who.

Most of all, I loved the mixture of dark humour, sinister twists, and apocalyptic themes. The stories weren't quite as scary as I was expecting them to be, but they each had a dark twist to showcase Tudor's macabre thought processes and courage to step into the morbid and shocking.

However, I'm struggling to get past the short story format because I wasn't 100% content with any story as I was always wanting more. This is both a good and a bad thing, and it's also more to do with me as a reader and a fan of Tudor, as these tidbits were never going to be enough for me.

Still, there's no denying Tudor's talent. And taking into account Tudor's very compelling introduction, I'm grateful for her sharing these stories with us at all, and would eagerly read a full-length version of any of them!

A novelist with a deadline and a plot going nowhere, a potential viral apocalypse, a paralysed world, three possible scenarios for novels. Or, as here, a writer at the peak of her power using the time afforded by the last two to produce eleven short stories that could all become long stories once her groove is restored. This book is the collection of those stories, all different, all unsettling, all disquieting (or many other gerunds that starts with “dis”). A genre title could be ‘Horror-Fantasy-Thriller’, but they don’t really conform closely to any of these. Plots are clever, each story driven by a central idea. One of the most interesting aspects is the origin of these ideas. In this collection each story starts with a short biographical section describing what event in her life triggered the idea. This is very revealing of her process, but also of her dark imagination. Although they are a varied selection certain themes run through: “The End of the World is Nigh”, “Children Live in a Different Reality – and are Scary”, “Evil is always on the Periphery of Normality”.
One thing they do have in common is the quality of the writing, which is very high. The style is a sort of casual, mischievous, patois, which is often amusing and always enjoyable. Fans will be assured that she has not ‘lost her mojo’, and the intimate aspect of the introductions; new readers will find this book a great introduction to her style and range and should seek out her past novels and look out for the next one, due in January. Awarding a rating to short story collections is usually tricky because quality can be inconsistent. In this case I wouldn’t rate any of these as less than 4 and several are an easy 5, so 5 overall.
I would like to thank NetGalley, the publishers and the author for providing me with a draft proof copy for the purpose of this review.

This is a great collection of short stories.
There’s a bit of horror, murder, supernatural and some humour mixed into these stories.
At the beginning of most of them C J Tudor gives a bit of background as to how the story came about which was really interesting.
All of the stories are a good read and some left me wanting more.
A great collection.
Thanks to Michael Joseph and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this book.

I’m not a huge fan of short stories but C J Tudor has come up with a delightful collection of creepy stories, perfect for Halloween telling.