I’ve been a fan of annual Best Ofs since I started buying books in WH Smith’s in the early 1990s and came across Best New Horror edited by Stephen Jones and Ramsey Campbell, which was my only source of reading short horror stories back in the pre-internet days. Of course there was an abundance of other horror anthologies around at the time in second hand shops – the Pan Books of Horror were everywhere, as were the teen horror collections edited by Peter Haining, the Dark Terrors series edited by Stephen Jones, the Ghost Books edited by Rosemary Timperley, and Robert Aickman’s Fontana Books of Great Ghost Stories.

But it was the annual Best Ofs that really excited me, because these were living proof that great horror stories were still being written, and these books collected together the editor’s favourites from the previous year. I bought and read them religiously. Once the internet became a thing I realised that there were several American versions, one of which was the Year’s Best Fantasy and Horror edited by Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling (until 2002 when co-editorship switched to Gavin Grant and Kelly Link). This ended in 2005, at which point it changed to Best Horror of the Year edited solely by Ellen Datlow.

These are an annual highlight, gathering together the creme de la creme of dark fiction published in the previous 12 months. Each entry is a delight, and this one, Volume Fourteen, is no different.

This anthology features 23 stories/novelettes and one poem, pulled from various sources, each of them dark, all of them superb. As with all collections or anthologies, some work better than others. I’ll mention a couple of my favourites, but it’s only fair to say that the quality is of such a high standard, there are no real bad tales here, it’s just a matter of individual taste. In The Offering by Michael Marshall Smith an American couple go on vacation with their teenage son to Copenhagen, only to find that the AirBnB they are staying in has a very demanding guardian. Steve Toase’s Dancing Sober in the Dust details a series of grotesque costumes created by a husband and wife team who became notorious for a grisly crime a century before. The detached nature of the descriptions left a chilling fascination in the pit of my stomach. The Strathantine Imps by Steve Duffy might not be the most original story that this fantastic author has ever written, but it’s a beautifully told tale up to his usual high standard. When Amanda and Euan’s mother dies, they are left in the sole custody of their father, in his isolated family estate on the coast of Ayeshire, Scotland. Dark forces are at work, and Amanda’s worst fears come true when a weird visitor to the house brings with him an omen of death.

Eoin Murphy’s Three Sister’s Bog is a dark unsettling fairytale set in the remote depths of Ireland. This is one of the best short stories I’ve read all year, creepy and sinister – almost nightmarish in tone. When the family dog gets lost in the nearby bog, Michael sets out from his farm with his young son, Charlie, in an effort to recover the lost pet. What they encounter is something I haven’t been able to get out of my mind for days. Eric LaRocca’s I’ll Be Gone By Then is a compelling conte cruel, heartbreaking and nasty, but threaded with a stark element of honesty in its telling. Both these stories are the first I’ve read by these writers, but I guarantee that I’ll be seeking out more of their work.

Shards by Ian Rogers at first seems like a riff on the old ‘cabin in the woods’ trope, but Rogers’ writing elevates this tale beyond the normal into the realms of excellence. Simon Bestwick’s Redwater follows a small group as they journey by boat into a swampy flood-land in search of an elusively vague MacGuffin. This one is pulpy fun, brilliantly paced and features some great action scenes.

All Those Lost Days by Brian Evenson is another highlight. When two brothers visit a theme park and take a trip on the Time Machine ride, they have no idea what the experience will do to one of them, and the impact it will have on the rest of their lives. In Carly Holmes’s Trap a mother and her two daughters set up a motion-detector camera in an effort to catch a glimpse of wildlife in the surrounding countryside. What footage is recorded is unsettling and disturbing. Another writer who is new to me, but one whose work I will look out for from now on.

Ellen Datlow has an amazing knack of getting the right balance for her selections for Best Horror of the Year. Horror is a broad church, and every year she manages to showcase stories covering the furthest reaches of the genre. Monster tales sit side by side next to literary disquiet, dark crime stories mingle with subtly grim fantasy. None of it matters. All that counts is the quality of the writing. This year’s is no exception. Long may this series continue. Highly recommended.