Vincent likes nothing more than rootling round second-hand shops in search of the interesting and unusual. Items that are lost and forgotten.Why not? He needs the diversion. Time on his hands and money to burn. His life is affluent and empty. Little on the horizon and memories tinged bittersweet.That’s all about to change. He’s about to find something that is perhaps better left unfound.CALL … unfound.
CALL DROPS is a darkly swirling mix of horror and mystery that will stay with you long after the reading is done. It’ll maybe make you think twice about impulse buying, those moments when you simply must have something, even though you don’t need it.
It might cause you to look again at the apparently mundane and everyday …and possibly, just possibly, wonder at what twisted marvels lurk within your mobile phone.
Call Drops is a short (ish) horror story, the first in a series of sinister tales from the Dead Boxes Archive.
Some objects are scary things. Dead Boxes definitely fall into that category.
They can be easily overlooked. They’re ordinary on the surface. At first glance anyway.
If you look a little closer, you’ll see something unique.
You could have one and not know it.
Be careful.
They hold miracle and mystery. Horror and salvation.
None are the same. Except in one regard.
You don’t need one.
You might think you do, but you really don’t.
Believe me.
A Short Horror Story
From the Dead Boxes Archive.
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‘Call Drops’ is the first of the author’s books I have read. A short story that took just two sittings to finish. Although I found the descriptive nature of the book rather too long, I nevertheless could not wait to get stuck back in and find out what was going on.
Some of the descriptions of the scenes taking place were like nothing I’d read or seen before. Other scenes were quick but were just as important as the longer scenes.
The ending took me somewhat by surprise, but that’s exactly what I was hoping for.
If there was anything I wanted more of, it was more dialogue between Vincent, the main character, and some of the other characters mentioned in the story.
I chose to read Call Drops, a short story, by John F Leonard as part of Rosie’s Book Review Team and received a copy direct from the author. This does not alter my review in any way.
Call Drops is the story of Vincent Preece, a self-made man, who now in retirement has everything he could want for materially but is bored and lonely, his wife and daughter having left him long ago.
Vincent loves browsing for second-hand stuff and one day at a car boot sale he finds a mobile phone, a very special one and one like nothing Vincent has ever seen before. And he knows his phones, they were how he made his fortune.
Thinking it had nothing more than an aesthetic beauty to offer he bought it and took it home. Shocked when first it rang. Trilling like an antique. The message he received was equally shocking but essentially good news, or would be eventually, for Vincent at least. The second call… well, that was something entirely different…
I love the way Leonard writes, it’s as simple as that. Although in shorter form it reminds me of one of my favourite authors, Mark Barry. Descriptions are sparse and yet luscious, Vincent, and his life, captured in every carefully chosen word. I’m a fan of short stories anyway and at the moment they are mostly all I can read so if you’re a fan too, and even if you’re not, give this a go, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.
I read it straight through. It’s very, very good–old school horror of the guilt-laden variety. If you liked Needful Things or Duma Key by Stephen King, you will like this story by John F. Leonard. It’s masterfully written with a perfect pace for the dark, grim tale. The protagonist’s voice is clipped, but that only adds to the tale.
The story is told from the perspective of a retired telecom shark, a man alone in a ten-bedroom mansion. He reveals that his wife left him and took their daughter with her. He finds an interesting old cell phone at a junk sale, one that intrigues him and captures his imagination. It has no internals, and he believes it must have been a prototype or a toy.
Then he receives a call on it…and is given a tip that turns out to be true, which only deepens his obsession.
My rating 10/5!
Reading this novella will only deepen your obsession with Mr. Leonard’s work!
This is such an excellent horror novella!
Vincent Preece, former mobile phone developing giant, can’t help but be attracted to an odd little “dead” handset he sees at a boot sale. Though it lacks the proper electronics inside, he begins receiving odd calls that inform him of heinous acts by those around him. But, as he becomes more obsessed with these calls, he begins uncovering things about himself that he’d rather forget.
The dark twists and turns in this definitely kept me engaged, and it gave me the chills a few times. Loved it!
I truly enjoyed this story from John! I had a blast reading it, not sure what the device was capable of and where the story would go. The ending definitely isn’t expected or something most people would see coming!
My only issue I had with this, was I wish, after reading this, that it was a full length novel. But at the end of the day, that’s not a reason for you not to check this out!