The second-volume in the "Rafael Menton Presents…" collection of female-led fiction contains three stories of dark femininity.

First up we have "A Shock To the System".

The bequest of a house and a sizable annuity from a deceased aunt effects huge changes in the mindset of a previously loving wife. Especially when she takes receipt of a document in her aunt's hand that details her relationship with the man she had always called "Uncle" and thought so distinguished and masculine. At first she is shocked by the discovery of how completely her aunt had dominated the man's life… then repulsed… and then aroused at the possibility of having such a relationship with her own husband who, as fate would have it, has just seen his business go into receivership and is now dependent upon her and her aunt's legacy for the food he eats and the roof above his head. A roof, the born-again dominant that is his wife has decreed will be below stairs in the specially designed basement that had once been the home of her uncle… A basement in which she has carried out certain… modifications!

Next, we have "The Dark Depths", in which a young and academically gifted undergrad; a learned ex-cop; and a Japanese heiress; all have one thing in common… A recently unearthed tome called the "Book of Witches"… A book with a previously undeciphered incantation that could mean tyranny, suppression, and a complete loss of independence if it is invoked… Especially for men.

Our final tale is, "Caversham's Descent".

The year is 1955 and, exiting Victoria station on his return home from work, the headline waiting to greet him at a news-stand tells of riots in Egypt and the collapse of his investment there and the loss of his quarterly dividend. Devasted, he decides to wait until the next day to contact the English friend in Alexandria looking after his interests there. Only to find when he wakes from a fitful sleep the following morning, that he is… Already there! What follows will be a waking nightmare and a re-acquaintance with a woman who insists she has known him for centuries - and in the most intimate of ways… A woman of some power who now wants him back!

If you enjoy stories that trigger the darker erotic areas of the imagination and like tales of assertive women that are believable as well as dark, you are likely to delight in this collection of stories from a female-led perspective on the subject of crime, horror, the occult and the bondage of man to woman.

Rafael Menton is a Professor of English Literature with a retro passion for the early to mid-twentieth-century fiction of mystery, crime, suspense, and horror with erotic undertones; ranging from Doyle and Blackwood and on to Rohmer – as well as sometimes indulging in a more contemporary take of his own on the work of those masters.

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