The Lights in The Wood

Critical acclaim

‘John F Bennett is such an acute observer that everything rings true. Strongly recommended.’

Peter Lovesey

‘John F Bennett deserves our congratulations. He has a remarkable talent for the short story! The idea of a barrow wight’s phantom skull appearing in a clothes drawer! Then hauling an archaeologist into his grave! And the twist at the end of “I Knew You Would Come”. They are all a really good read, and there’s some seriously weird stuff in there. And a very nice twist in “A Long Texas Road”. “The Record Shop” fills one with nostalgia for a long gone world.’

– Loose Cannon Press

Subjects

specific subject of the tales

General: Atmospheric, evocative and nostalgic stories with an emotional edge; suspense and the supernatural; crime and mystery with a twist. It’s all here.

Specific subjects of the tales: When the lights appear in the wood, the ghosts haunt the house; Bindy knows everything – and succeeds; The man with the gun provides an unexpected solution to an apparently insoluble problem; He rides a long Texas road but is in the hands of a scammer; The Manor House no longer exists, but he enters it in a time warp; Nothing is Impossible – not when you are a confident author; The barrow’s occupant comes to retrieve his own; She’s on a course but she didn’t bargain for what that produced; A pact with the Devil? They beat the demons; Lindsey is a love of long ago; Meredith Ladeley has a worrying secret; He dreamt about her and she took him over; Committing murder for a friend – but it doesn’t work out; She meets a man whose future blends with hers; He remembers his lost love; Murder, robbery and Dorothea; Nostalgia of the Record Shop; It’s a good job but who is pulling the strings? She loved him as a mother; The young man introduced to firing a firework display; She will beat him, and he will die; The girl who was a crocus; He went for a ride into a new life; Nobody liked him – and he liked no one; Who is the farmhand? Mr Chaplain rings the police; The man who hates unhappy endings; The Ghost Road.

Excerpts from Reviews

Critical Acclaim for John F Bennett books

‘Gentle reading. A delightful set of easy to read short stories, great for when you need to fill a gap in your daily mayhem.’

‘Great books: I really enjoyed them. There is such a variety of stories, from the creepy to the funny. There seems to be so much atmosphere put into every story, with nostalgia as well as mystery and suspense, and almost every one has a twist which surprises you.’

‘No excuses now to be bored: In those times when you have an odd five or ten minutes to kill, “The Lights In The Wood” is an ideal book to fill the time. Just be careful you don’t miss your train, forget to pick the kids up from school or burn the dinner as it is ever so easy to become very quickly engrossed. Like a modern day “Tales of the Unexpected” each self-contained short story is a quick read, but J. F. Bennett has a talent where you are no sooner drawn in to a scene, when suddenly a curve ball appears that produces a twist from nowhere. It then continues again with the next story, each time keeping you waiting in anticipation until the end and leaving you guessing as to what is going to happen in the next time.’

‘Excellent and relaxing reading.’

‘A Fine Selection of Very Different Tales: Reading these stories took me back some 60 years, when I first discovered the short stories of H. G. Wells and E. A. Poe. Like any good collection of stories, these are comparable to a fine box of chocolates, offering a wide selection of very different treats, best savoured and appreciated one at a time, rather than devoured in one sitting. Highly recommended!’

‘There are touches of MR James and Roald Dahl in some of these tales: John F Bennett writes with an easy, accessible style and has a pretty fertile imagination and I wonder if some of the stories are, in part, semi-autobiographical although I am not suggesting for one moment, of course, that he has ever really planned the perfect murder!’

‘I like being able to dive in to a book like this and get a short story but often also deep content.’

‘A good short story writer is invaluable. We sometimes just want a quick read and I would highly recommend “Lights in the Wood” for that. Often ghostly stories, like “The Manor House”. Relaxing stuff.’

What They Are Saying

Critical Acclaim for John F Bennett books