The Clock In My Mother’s House and other stories by Annalisa Crawford #Anthology #BookTwitter @AnnalisaCrawf #TuesdayBookBlog

Author: Annalisa Crawford

Published: January 2023

Category: Anthology, Short Stories, Literary Fiction

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Life can change in an instant, but that’s not always a bad thing.

A hotel explodes leaving staff and guests in peril; a woman retrieves an old clock from the attic with disturbing consequences; one man leaves heart break behind him, and another arrives to bring adventure.
In this haunting collection, Annalisa Crawford creates characters who will charm, captivate, and intrigue you.

Annalisa’s stories have featured in Fairlight Shorts, Fictive Dream, and Reflex Fiction; and have been short- and longlisted for the Commonwealth Short Story Prize, the Bath Short Story Award, Globe Soup, and more.

The Clock In My Mother’s House is a wonderfully written anthology, with ten stories in total and each varying in length. Imaginative and intriguing, sometimes with a touch of the paranormal, sometimes covering pertinent issues.

The title story is disturbing and ominous when a clock that’s never worked, made by the daughter of the house when she was a young schoolgirl, is found in the attic years later by her mother.

Only after I brought it home did we realise the mechanism was going backwards. Dad attempted to fix it, spreading the cogs out on the dining room table and running his fingers through his beard. I took it back to my DT teacher who tinkered with it one lunch time. Neither of them could resolve the problem, and I thought we’d thrown it away.

‘The Woman in the Van’ features Hester. She had a premonition something was about to happen. Hester came especially to help but she wasn’t wanted or taken seriously. She did make a connection with a troubled teen, despite his attitude.

‘Vera says’…. Many of us might relate to this when trying to reach an unknown destination. But not, I hope, to the ending. Another story we could all relate to is ‘All the Magpies Come Out to play’ – a snapshot of life during lockdown from one person’s point of view.

‘One Minute Silence’ is a harrowing story told cleverly with a countdown detailing lives in brief extracts, increasing the suspense of what those snippets might be leading to, all the while creating a strong impression.

Descriptive writing fleshes out characters and situations, sometimes with minimal words and phrases, so an image is formed almost immediately. Each story is unique in that there’s no connections between them so each one stands on its own merits, from the dark and sinister to the poignant and hopeful. The Clock In My Mother’s House is an engaging and compelling anthology.

I chose to read and review The Clock in My Mother’s House and other stories based on a copy of the book kindly supplied by the author.

Annalisa Crawford lives in Cornwall UK, with a good supply of moorland and beaches to keep her inspired. She lives with her husband, and canine writing partner, Artoo. Her two sons have flown the nest, but still like a mention.

Annalisa writes dark contemporary, character-driven fiction with a hint of the paranormal. As well as novels, she has had short stories published at Fairlight Books and Fictive Dreams.