Silver Shamrock is a relatively new publisher making waves in the horror community with some very well-received titles like Cricket Hunters by Jeremy Hepler and In the Scrape by James Newman and Mark Steensland. It also doesn't hurt that one of their first releases is this anthology, Midnight in the Graveyard. The collection contains 25 stories, centered mainly around ghosts, featuring one of the most all-star casts I've seen compiled in a table of contents. If that doesn't sway you, the whole thing kicks off with an introduction from Jonathan Janz.

When invited to partake in such an anthology, I like to feel like I'm showing up for the marquee names, but getting equally jazzed about the new acts. Shannon Felton gets the motor going with Devil's Dip, plodding into some friends did/saw something years ago and now it's back to haunt them territory. Felton puts a great twist on this trope, and has a debut coming out on Silver Shamrock that I'll now be on the lookout for. Kenneth McKinley's The Glimmer Girls is also a standout, eschewing traditional ghosts for something altogether more monstrous, and working mainly because of its' period setting. Brian Moreland's Swamp Vengeance is a whole lot of fun and benefits from taking us to a pretty different locale.

Equally exciting for me is an excuse to read stories by authors I keep hearing great things about but just haven't had the chance to read yet. Justin's Helper by Jeremy Hepler has one of the best endings/reveals in the book. Dog Days by Kenneth Cain greatly benefits from its presentation, telling us the history of the featured house by letters, journal entries, texts, etc. It's very well-done and quite effective. Cool Cats by William Meikle is a feel-good story in its own quite twisted way. Who doesn't love when bad things happen to bad people? Another writer I've put on my wishlist due to their work in this collection is Glenn Rolfe, whose story New Blood, Old Skin, is very clever and a bit of a send-up to anyone who has ever asked an author why they write horror.

Of course, one expects the familiar names to come through as well. That's why they're familiar. Chad Lutzke unquestionably delivers in Tug o War, and in typical Lutzke-fashion leaves the reader ruminating long after the story is over. Hunter Shea's Drown expands on characters he has written previously, adding a fun and interesting new chapter to their adventures. Bettor's Edge by Tim Meyer gives us a (sort-of) haunted hotel room, a place where the barrier between worlds is a bit thin. Scary stuff indeed. Kealan Patrick Burke wraps it all up with Portrait, which is very typical of his writing style. That is to say, there's an atmosphere of dread, but beauty shines through in the prose, and it puts the perfect cap on Midnight in the Graveyard.

There are also some really enjoyable stories from Catherine Cavendish, Ronald Kelly, Lee Mount, and Robert McCammon but writing about every little thing I liked in here would make the review almost as long as the book. There are a few skips present, but in a themed collection with 25 entries, it's bound to happen. Silver Shamrock has set the bar high with this first collection, and I'm already on board for Midnight in the Pentagram, the follow-up currently in progress. Meanwhile, Midnight in the Graveyard is sending up a signal. We should all be on the lookout for what Silver Shamrock has in store for us next. Make some room on your shelf, my friends.