The late Eddy C. Bertin (1944 - 2018) was a prolific author. Born in Hamburg, Germany, Bertin grew up in Belgium and published his first story in 1968. During the 70s he was a frequent contributor to horror anthologies in Europe and the USA, including DAW's The Year's Best Horror Stories series.
Bertin also had one of the better entries ('Darkness, My Name Is') in the 1976 DAW H. P. Lovecraft anthology The Disciples of Cthulhu.
Many of his works were published in European books and magazines, and never were translated into English. Those of his stories that were translated into English tended to appear in small press magazines and digests. So, when I learned that the UK small press publisher Shadow Press had issued this trade paperback (2013; 277 pp) containing 14 stories, I was interested enough to order a copy.
[Shadow Publishing, which was founded by David Sutton, seems to since have been subsumed into the UK self-publishing / POD portal 'This Is Horror'.]
The entries in 'The Whispering Horror' first saw publication in the interval from the late 60s to the early 90s.
My capsule reviews of the contents:
Introduction, by David A. Sutton: Sutton provides an overview of Bertin's life and writings.
Composed of Cobwebs: a Seriously Disturbed man stalks the night-time streets.
Ten: an embittered scholar seeks vengeance through unusual means.
A Taste of Rain and Darkness: yet another tale of a psychotic killer stalking the night-time streets in search of an unsuspecting victim.
I Wonder What he Wanted: one of two 'first-person diarist' tales in the anthology. This is the better of the two; it's about a young woman who decides to rent a house.....a house with a checkered past..........
A Whisper of Leathery Wings: Colin Barker decides to spy on the village Witch Woman. It turns out to be a bad idea.
The Taste of Your Love: a serial killer stalks the Italian coastal town of Riccione. One of Bertin's best stories.
The Whispering Horror: little boys shouldn't go poking around the cellars of decrepit houses.......another of the better stories in the anthology.
The Man Who Collected Eyes: another 'psycho tale'; this one is about a man with a fetish - obviously enough- for eyes.
Belinda's Coming Home ! : the second 'first person diarist' entry. This one's about a girl with her own approach to problem-solving. It's Bertin's effort at a Splatterpunk tale, but it's too contrived to be very effective.
Like Two White Spiders: what if one's hands decide to embark on a Career of Evil ? One of the more original treatments of this topic.
Dunwich Dreams, Dunwich Screams: a novelette about a coastal English town where the worship of Forbidden Beings brings severe consequences. One of Bertin's better Mythos stories, although I imagine most readers will see the denouement coming well in advance.
Behind the White Wall: short, 'shock' tale of a man and his telephone.
Something Small, Something Hungry: a circus is plagued by deaths of a suspicious nature. This novelette goes on much too long, and has a very unconvincing ending. The worst story in the anthology.
My Fingers Are Eating Me: a Belgian journalist named Danny Vermeert looks to do a feature story on the London Underground. But his late-night jaunts on the subways reveal disturbing things........
This novelette takes its time getting underway, but in the end stands as another decent Mythos tale from Bertin.
The verdict ? Even making allowances for the effects of translation from 'Belgian' (i..e, Dutch or French) to English, Bertin's prose is at times a bit too florid for my tastes, and too many stories suffer from overwriting.
That said, several of the entries in 'The Whispering Horror' stand the test of time as good examples of the traditional style of horror fiction that dominated the genre during the interval from 1960 - 1990.
[If you're looking for Splatterpunk, or VanderMeer-style 'Weird Horror', you're likely going to be disappointed with Bertin's offerings.]
Accordingly, while I can't designate this book as a Must-Have, if you see a copy on the shelf of your favorite used bookstore, it is worth picking up.
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