Thin Places in Hard Concrete

The son of a dictator living in exile visited by vengeful spirits from his country's past.

The ghost of a music hall singer trapped forever in the tape loops of a haunted Mellotron.

An official report into the exit from a motorway interchange that should not be there.

And seven more stories set in cemeteries, super basements, alleyways, apartment blocks, holiday flats, high streets and town centre temples that didn't exist yesterday.

Ray's books are masterpieces of uncanny atmosphere, claustrophobic, tautly plotted, exquisitely evocative prose, written with an artist's eye for detail and architecture, an M.R. James or Robert Aickman of crumbling concrete and civic buildings. His incredible eerie tales of the urban weird will haunt you in the most welcome way. - Rose Ruane, author of Birding

Ray Newman is an M.R. James for the 21st century. His haunting stories unfold in familiar, even banal settings - a rented flat, a holiday let, an inexplicable motorway interchange, the corner of a room. Things happen, or seem to happen, just out of sight, and beyond comprehension. Admirers of the cult TV series Inside No. 9 will love this collection. - David Collard