Kelley Armstrong’s Led Astray hits all the notes it’s supposed to, and quite a few higher ones as well. A short story collection featuring both original tales and smaller bits and bobs related to Armstrong’s various ongoing continuities, it’s an enjoyable read, expertly arranged to provide bite-sized variety all the way through. And while Armstrong’s core following is paranormal romance readers, there’s plenty of content here for those more focused on the paranormal — or in several cases, the post-apocalyptic — than the romantic.
The earlier stories in the collection tend to be constructed with “gotcha” endings, making quick reads.”Last Stand” straddles zombie apocalypse and military SF with a Twilight Zone-style twist at the end. “A Haunted House of Her Own” boasts another twist ending, as the heroine’s dream of owning a haunted bed and breakfast runs into the unpleasant reality of what a haunting really means. And book opener “Rakshasi” is a classic “careful what you ask for” story, designed to coax sympathy for a monster too long in servitude.
Things shift into a higher gear, however, with “The Screams of Dragons,” an extended piece of backstory for Armstrong’s “Cainsville” Universe. Neither happy nor romantic, it’s a look at the horrors of child abuse and how the cycle repeats itself, leavened only by a dose of sad mercy. “Suffer the Children” is another one of the collection’s strongest pieces, an extended and disturbing riff on the notion of the traveling snake oil salesman. Here, the itinerant huckster and his sidekick are selling something more alluring and disturbing, offering resurrection of children lost in an epidemic to a town desperate for comfort. That the cost of that comfort is too high isn’t surprising, but the story delivers multiple unexpected twists along with genuinely affecting moments of loss and pain. “Dead Flowers By A Roadside” is another ghost story shot through with loss, trading “Haunted House’s” winking tone for something altogether more desolate and affecting.
“Devil May Care” and “Gabriel’s Gargoyles,” both also part of the Cainsville sequence, are intimately connected even if the sequence they appear in flips them chronologically. In the former, a trickster far named Patrick gets outmaneuvered both by prophecy and by a young hustler who wants something very particular from him. In the latter, it’s years later and Patrick’s son Gabriel is turning into quite an interesting young man indeed. The former zigs and zags like a heist caper, while the latter is more melancholy, a minor key examination of another neglected child making his way in a world that does him few favors. Patrick’s presence injects just enough sly humor into “Gargoyles” to bring it to a generous and satisfying end.
Of course, for those more interested in Armstrong’s bread and butter, that’s here too — werewolves and vampires and wisecracks galore. “V Plates,” “Young Bloods,” “The List” and “Learning Curve,” among others, all fill in gaps in continuity in her more popular series, covering everything from a young werewolf’s attempt to lose his virginity (to a zombie, no less) to various characters’ origin stories. For fans of books like Bitten, these pieces are the crunchy nuggets at the heart of the book’s appeal. For less devoted fans, they offer a reasonable diversion on the way to the more complex, largely standalone stuff. In either case, however, the collection’s a pleasant surprise with plenty for hard-core fans and newcomers alike to enjoy.
(Tachyon, 2015)
[Editor’s note: Richard has previously reviewed Kelley Armstrong’s Forbidden and Brazen. You can find more about Kelley Armstrong’s books on her website.]
