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Take No Prisoners by John Grant
01/11/2004 . Source: Donna Jones 
pub: Willowgate Press. 247 page enlarged paperback. Price: $13.95 (US). ISBN: 1-930008-090-0. Buy from Amazon US - Buy from Amazon UK
nb: US titles may only be available from Amazon US, and UK titles from Amazon UK. check out websites: www.willowgatepress.com and www.hometown.aol.com.thogatthog
If you expect genre fiction writing is for the thoughtless and the intellectually less well endowed, then think again. 'Take No Prisoners' is the first collection of previously published shorts from John Grant. All the stories are relatively new, the earliest published back in 1990.
John Grant is the master of the short story, bridging the gap between the genres and writing superb short stories using horror, Science Fiction and fantasy. Fusing the genres into a comfortable brew of delightful and at times disturbing tableaux.
While I enjoyed all the shorts that I read in this book, I did find some of them uncomfortable reading. Please don't mistake this for negatively charged comments, I actually thought that a short would never make me feel quite as uneasy!
The story in question was 'The Dead Monkey Puzzle' and contained scenes of a girl being raped and then a consequent set of events that lead to the murders of the rapists. John Grant not only managed to make my skin crawl with the overall characterisation of the men who thought that any girl in a tight skirt was begging for it, but also pulled off an excellent portrayal of an innocent with heart-breaking realism.
Several of the stories took a surrealist view of the world which made me laugh till I was fit to burst. Two following the trials and tribulations of Inspector Romford of the police force in Cadaver-in-the-Offing. I particularly loved the Reverend Jeremy Harcourt-Fruitcake, one secondary character that popped his head up in both 'A Lean And Hungry Look' and 'A Case Of Four Fingers'. Fantasy mingled with a Miss Marple/Poirot kind of mystery!
Mirroring the two stories I have described above, there were several that followed themes: characters followed in differing situations and placed in odd realities that tested their stamina as characters. One such character that I came to love and almost admire was Qinefer. She appears in 'Mouse' and one of my favourites 'The Machine It Was That Cried', a story about the limits of love and reality through the eyes of a bionic cyborg.
But perhaps my most favoured story out of them all has to be 'Snare'. Like the title suggests, it leads you in so deftly and then when the realisation of what is happening dawns on you, well it crushed me.
From the very start of this book you are led on a merry dance, through stories that test your world view and challenge preconceived ideas about the short story itself. 'Wooden Horse', the very first short, proves this simply and starts the ball rolling into this rollercoaster of highs and lows. What you expect is hardly what you find and with 'Wooden Horse', the idea of what was actually going on never entered my head until it was too late and I had fallen into the trap of coming to the wrong conclusion.
John Grant has to be one of my favourite short story authors, merely for the fact that he takes a method of writing and uses the actual shape of the short story to cut his rough ideas into delightful and conscientious prose worth reading. A simply fantastic read. One that you could take out at lunch time and sit in the park with!
Donna Jones
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