The Devil Took Her: Tales of Horror is the first time Whangārei-based short story writer Michael Botur has dipped his toe into this popular genre.
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He's written 12 stories, leading us, as he descibes it, "to the dark extremes of human behaviour".
For example, when a couple of high school introverts bond after skipping school, it descends into something unexpectedly frightening. There are unexpected repercussions for a teen prankster who plays a vicious joke against her tutor. While a woman trapped in a coal cellar finds she must die a little, to live.
One of the stories 'Test of Death,' won last year's Australasian Horror Writers Association Robert N Stephenson Short Story Award.
Lynn Freeman asks Michael why the switch, from often unnerving short stories to pure horror?
The Devil Took Her: Tales of Horror, by Mike Botur is published by The Sager Group.