Line #31 Literature/TheShapesOfMidnight


1	[[quoteright:304:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_shapes_of_midnight.jpg]]
2
3	->''"Stay back! The shadow places shelter secrets that are best left undisturbed. Hear me! Or don't."''
4	-->-- '''Cover Blurb'''
5
6	''The Shapes of Midnight'' is Creator/JosephPayneBrennan's short story collection published in 1980. It features twelve of his short stories spanning Brennan's career from 1953 to 1973, many of which had been previously published in ''Magazine/WeirdTales'', Brennan's own magazine ''Macabre'' and other anthologies. The book features an introduction by no less an authority than Creator/StephenKing and cover art by Kirk Reinert.
7
8	Long of print, it was republished by Dover in July, 2019. However, it omitted "Canavan's Back Yard" and "Slime" because of their earlier inclusion in ''Literature/NineHorrorsAndADream'' (which Dover also reprinted). The Stephen King introduction was also be left out of the Dover reissue, making the original 80s paperback worth obtaining despite the reprint.
9
10	Stories:
11
12	* "Diary of a Werewolf": A [[RecoveredAddict former heroin addict]] from UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity moves to the town of Juniper Hill on the advice of his doctor. There, he keeps a diary of his experiences and feels strangely drawn to the nearby forest. Originally published in ''Macabre'' in 1960.
13	* "Literature/TheCorpseOfCharlieRull": [[TheAlcoholic Alcoholic]] heart attack victim Charlie Rull is resurrected as an unstoppable killing machine after he falls into a swamp polluted with radioactive chemicals from a FreakLabAccident. Originally published in ''The Dark Returners'' in 1959.
14	* "Canavan's Back Yard": Rare book dealer Canavan can't shake the eerie feeling that there is something... "wrong" with his backyard. Originally published in ''Literature/NineHorrorsAndADream'' in 1958.
15	* "The Pavilion": Murderer Niles Glendon goes to check up on the spot where he buried a victim and gets more than he bargained for. Originally published in ''The Dark Returners'' in 1959.
16	* "House of Memory": Tara Sutter's childhood house appears seemingly out of thin air. Originally published in ''Creator/AlfredHitchcock's Mystery Magazine'' in 1967.
17	* "The Willow Platform": Juniper Hill resident Henry Crotell finds an [[TomeOfEldritchLore ancient book]] in the cellar of hermit Hannibal Trobish's house. Reading the book, he becomes obsessed with it and begins building a gigantic platform of willow saplings from the top of which he plans to summon an [[EldritchAbomination evil entity]]. Originally published in ''Whispers'' in 1973.
18	* "Who Was He?": A man recovering from heart surgery begins to suspect that the hospital's barber might be a SerialKiller. Originally published in ''Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine'' in 1969.
19	* "Disappearance": Dan Mellmer disappeared years ago, survived by his identical twin brother Russell. Only after Russell dies do the police learn the terrible truth. Originally published in 1959 in ''The Dark Returners''.
20	* "The Horror at Chilton Castle": A scientist visiting [[HauntedCastle Chilton Castle]] in UsefulNotes/{{Ireland}} is invited to witness the secret RiteOfPassage which Frederick Chilton-Payne must undergo following the death of his father Robert, the Thirteenth Earl of Chilton. Originally published in ''Scream at Midnight'' in 1963.
21	* "The Impulse to Kill": A man starts getting urges to commit murder. Originally published in ''The Dark Returners'' in 1959.
22	* "The House on Hazel Street": A man starts becoming weirdly obsessed with the OldDarkHouse he passes by every day. One day, the front door opens and the owner, an elderly man named Jonathan Sellerby, invites him in. Originally published in ''Macabre'' in 1961.
23	* "[[Literature/Slime1953 Slime]]": An BlobMonster preys on the denizens of the town of Clinton Center after a storm. Originally published in ''Weird Tales'' in 1953.
24
25	Makeup artist and voice actor Edward E. French has done excellent adaptations of four of the stories from the book, which can be found here: "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4WnODKX7JY Diary of a Werewolf]]," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr_gi4KcqS4 The Corpse of Charlie Rull]]," "[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WEYCxdt_uM The Pavilion]]" and "Slime" (in three parts: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cZLTVgp25Y here]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDS800uqD1E here]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2DZ-on2gCs here]]).
26
27	----
28	!!''The Shapes of Midnight'' contains examples of:
29
30	* AcquittedTooLate: Henry in "Slime." Pegged by Underbeck as the murderer of Barnaby and Jason, he is eventually acquitted after one of Underbeck's own men survives an encounter with the blob to tell the truth, forcing Underbeck to admit that Henry, "far from being the murderer, was just one more victim."
31	* AgeWithoutYouth: [[spoiler:Lady Susan Glanville in "The Horror at Chilton Castle." A witch, she made a DealWithTheDevil to live forever, but he made it so she still aged like a regular person. By the time Frederick and the narrator are introduced to her by Cowath, she's a hideous, [[EvilOldFolks old monster]].]]
32	* AgentMulder: Dave Baines in "The Willow Platform." He's got a pretty workable - if outlandish - theory for pretty much everything involving the weird stuff Henry Crotell gets up to, right down to offering up a [[DoingInTheWizard plausible explanation]] for the EldritchAbomination.
33	* TheAlcoholic: A favorite trope of Brennan's. They usually come to bad ends, often ending up as one of the monster's victims (Freddy Camberwell in "Diary of a Werewolf" and Henry Hossing in "Slime"), or the monster themselves (Charlie Rull).
34	* AlliterativeName:
35	** "House of Memory": '''M'''ellisa '''M'''owerly.
36	** "Slime": '''H'''enry '''H'''ossing, '''G'''iles '''G'''owse and '''J'''im '''J'''elinson.
37	* AngryMob: One forms outside of Hemlock House to lynch the protagonist in the first story after his attack against the couple in the car. His diary abruptly ends there. [[spoiler:A postscript concerning his trial and eventual incarceration in an insane asylum reveals he was rescued from them by Sheriff Macelin's police force.]]
38	** One also figures into the backstory of "Canavan's Back Yard," as part of [[spoiler:the WitchHunt against Goodie Larkins.]]
39	* AntagonistTitle: "Slime."
40	* ApocalypticLog: The diary in "Diary of a Werewolf."
41	* AnonymousKillerNarrator: The [[NoNameGiven nameless protagonists]] in "Diary of a Werewolf" and "The Impulse to Kill."
42	* AristocratsAreEvil: [[spoiler:Lady Susan Glanville in "The Horror at Chilton Castle."]]
43	* AutoErotica: Two people have sex in a car in "Diary of a Werewolf."
44	* AssholeVictim:
45	** Zombie!Charlie's first and second victims in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull." The first was about to commit a hit and run crime after running Charlie over with his car, and the second is [[spoiler:a SerialKiller posing as a hitchhiker.]]
46	** The protagonist in "The Impulse to Kill" explicitly chooses victims he believes "[[ProtagonistCenteredMorality deserve it]]."
47	** Barnaby in "Slime" might qualify to modern readers.
48	* TheBadGuyWins: [[spoiler:"The Impulse to Kill" and "Disappearance."]]
49	* BedlamHouse: [[spoiler:Where the protagonist in "Diary of a Werewolf" ends up.]]
50	* BigOlEyebrows: The barber in "Who Was He?" has 'em. They're one of his defining physical characteristics. [[spoiler:Or at least one of the defining characteristics of his mask.]]
51	* BlobMonster: The title creature in "Slime," of the EldritchAbomination SeaMonster variety (washed ashore in a storm).
52	* BreatherEpisode: "House of Memory" and "The House on Hazel Street" are more whimsical/unusual than scary.
53	* BurnTheWitch: [[spoiler:Susan Glanville barely avoided this due to being a noblewoman, but her own family chained her up forever in Chilton Castle's secret room.]]
54	* ByTheLightsOfTheirEyes: The first thing Frederick and the narrator see of [[spoiler:Susan]] in "The Horror of Chilton Castle" are GlowingEyesOfDoom in the darkness.
55	* CameBackWrong: "The Corpse of Charlie Rull."
56	* CloudCuckooLander:
57	** Henry Crotell is known as a local eccentric around Juniper Hill in "The Willow Platform" even before he finds Hannibal Trobish's book.
58	** Giles Gowse in "Slime," due to his insistence that Wharton's Swamp is haunted.
59	* CoversAlwaysLie: A mild example. The cover (depicting a scene from "Slime") shows [[spoiler:Matson and Storr]] in county sheriff's uniforms. In the actual story, however, Clinton Center's police force aren't a county sheriff's department.
60	** The Dover reprint also features a werewolf, likely in reference to "Diary of a Werewolf," even though the diarist in the story never actually becomes a wolfman.
61	* {{Curse}}
62	** [[spoiler:Frank discovers that the reason the backyard in "Canavan's Back Yard" is an EldritchLocation is due to a curse placed on it by accused witch Goodie Larkins in the 1800s. Accused of turning a child into a dog, she was condemned to be torn apart by dogs in a swamp, and as she died she cursed the land to be a portal to Hell and turn everyone who ventured into it into dogs.]]
63	** [[spoiler:In "The Horror at Chilton Castle," a curse requires the dead Earl of Chilton to be eaten by MadwomanInTheAttic Susan Glanville, and only by witnessing this can his son become the next earl.]]
64	* DaChief: The captain in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull" is the "take charge and yell a lot" kind while Chief Miles Underbeck in "Slime" is the ReasonableAuthorityFigure variety.
65	* DealWithTheDevil: [[spoiler:Lady Susan Glanville, an ancestor of the Chilton-Paynes in "The Horror at Chilton Castle," made a pact with Satan to live forever because she was afraid of death. Because Satan is a jerk, however, Susan is immortal but still ages.]]
66	* DisposableVagrant:
67	** Averted in "Diary of a Werewolf." The protagonist's first victim is Freddy Camberwell, the town drunk, but not only is he found right away, he was a target of opportunity rather than choice; the protagonist simply happened to encounter him on the road.
68	** In "The Corpse of Charlie Rull," Charlie Rull dies of a heart attack and becomes a zombie. However, no one notices his initial death because he's a homeless man who lives near the dump, and because of the short time frame; even his fellow homeless men don't realize anything has happened to him until encountering him in his zombified state.
69	** In "The Impulse to Kill," the protagonist explicitly chooses criminals to murder, figuring no one will care about them.
70	** In "Slime," the monster's first victim is homeless man Henry Hossing. When he goes missing, everyone just assumes he's left town.
71	* DeathOfAChild: [[spoiler:In "Diary of a Werewolf," protagonist's third victim in "Diary of a Werewolf" is Debra, a little girl walking home alone after going out to pick blueberries]].
72	* DramaticThunder: Used during William Cowath's conversation with the narrator in "The Horror at Chilton Castle."
73	* DrivenToMadness: Several characters:
74	** "Diary of a Werewolf": The main character, clearly.
75	** "Canavan's Back Yard": Canavan himself. [[spoiler:Frank almost does, too, but manages to resist the backyard's hellish allure and escape.]]
76	** "The Pavilion": [[spoiler:Niles, after he can't find where he buried Kurt's corpse.]]
77	** "The Willow Platform": [[spoiler:Henry, on account of his obsession with Hannibal Trobish's book.]]
78	** "The Horror at Chilton Castle": [[spoiler:Frederick]] after [[GoMadFromTheRevelation discovering the terrible secret]] of the Chilton-Payne family. Cowath is concerned he might even die due to his already poor physical health.
79	** "Slime": The [[SoleSurvivor Sole Survivors]] of the slime's final two attacks, [[spoiler:Dolores Rell]] and [[spoiler:Patrolman Fred Storr]].
80	* EldritchAbomination: The entity Henry Crotell is intent on summoning up in "The Willow Platform," Baines' insistence that the thing has a perfectly logical explanation notwithstanding, while the creature in "Slime" is naturally-occurring, but so ancient and powerful it certainly qualifies.
81	* EldritchLocation: The bottom of the sea and the swamp in "Slime," and the title location in "Canavan's Back Yard."
82	* EverythingsDeaderWithZombies: "The Corpse of Charlie Rull."
83	* EvilIsNotAToy: [[spoiler:Henry Crotell]] finds this out the hard way in "The Willow Platform."
84	* FinishHim: [[spoiler:Used to great effect at the end of "The Corpse of Charlie Rull," with the police captain hysterically screaming "Keep firing, you fools! Keep firing! Did I tell you to stop?! Finish it! Finish it!" after his men briefly freeze up in horror.]]
85	* FoodPorn: Henry Hossing's $2 breakfast in "Slime."
86	* ForcedTransformation: [[spoiler:In addition to being DrivenToMadness, poor Canavan in "Canavan's Back Yard" ends up turned into a ferocious dog as part of the {{Curse}} he was unaware had been placed on his land years ago.]]
87	* ForTheEvulz: Seems to be the protagonist's entire motivation in "The Impulse to Kill," his attempt at giving a pseudo-Darwinian explanation to his urges aside. This is also about the only reason anyone can figure the barber was killing people in "Who Was He?" [[spoiler:because he escapes from the security guard and can't be questioned.]]
88	* HauntedCastle: Chilton Castle. Sort of. [[spoiler:The structure itself isn't really haunted, but does contain the most unpleasant permanent resident of Lady Susan Glanville chained up in a secret room.]]
89	* HaveAGayOldTime: In "The Horror at Chilton Castle," Cowath is described as retrieving and lighting a "faggot torch," and in "Slime," Barnaby considers Gowse to be "queer."
90	* TheHermit: Two in "The Willow Platform."
91	** The late Hannibal Trobish (the original owner of the TomeOfEldritchLore and presumably the RingOfPower, too) was known as a reclusive JerkAss who lived alone, rarely coming outside except to chase people off his property with a gun.
92	** And then there's Henry Crotell, the unwitting inheritor of Hannibal's book and ring. He lives by himself in a shack and sustains himself with a private garden and by doing odd jobs around Juniper Hill. He's a harmless CloudCuckooLander and a lot nicer variety of hermit than Hannibal... until he finds the book, that is.
93	* HighPressureBlood: One of the things the diarist in "Diary of a Werewolf" writes about, either in horror or in joy, depending on his mood, is the gushing blood from when he [[ManBitesMan bites]] his victims' throats out.
94	* HollywoodHeartAttack: Brennan is fond of characters dying from heart failure:
95	** "The Corpse of Charlie Rull": This is how Charlie dies.
96	** "Who Was He?": [[spoiler:Whoever sees the killer's NightmareFace.]]
97	** "Disappearance": Russell dies of a heart attack at the beginning.
98	* HospitalHottie: The nurse's aide in "Who Was He?"
99	* IAmAHumanitarian:
100	** Apart from one failed attempt to catch a rabbit, the protagonist in "Diary of a Werewolf" eschews hunting (or even hurting) animals, targeting humans to eat exclusively.
101	** In "The Horror at Chilton Castle," one of the legends of the hidden room is that members of a rival family of the Chilton-Paynes, the Gowers, were sealed in there until they starved and ate one one another. [[spoiler:At the end, it's revealed that the cursed, immortal Lady Susan eats the corpse of the recently deceased Earl of Chilton upon his death as part of a DealWithTheDevil she made. At the time she is introduced to Frederick and the narrator by Cowath, she's just gotten done gobbling up Frederick's father Robert Chilton-Payne.]]
102	* ImprobableInfantSurvival: Played straight in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull."
103	* ItWasADarkAndStormyNight: How "The Horror at Chilton Castle" and "Slime" start.
104	* JanitorImpersonationInfiltration: The killer in "Who Was He?" posed as the hospital's barber to gain access to his victims.
105	* KarmaHoudini:
106	** "Who Was He?": [[spoiler:Although he is prevented from claiming any further victims, the killer escapes the hospital security guard.]]
107	** "The Horror at Chilton Castle": [[spoiler:Although she remains trapped as the MadwomanInTheAttic, Susan, being immortal, will survive and likely go on to eat Frederick, assuming he doesn't die of shock after learning the awful truth. Similarly, Cowath survives the story and even intuits that if Frederick ''does'' die, Susan will eat ''his'' corpse and the protagonist will become the heir as the closest living relative, and the curse will continue.]]
108	** "Disappearance": [[spoiler:Russell Mellmer lives a long life and dies of natural causes after murdering his twin brother and stuffing him into a scarecrow to hide the body.]]
109	** "The Impulse to Kill": [[spoiler:The protagonist escapes to continue killing.]]
110	* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: Niles gets away with murder at the beginning of "The Pavilion." [[spoiler:He eventually gets his just desserts at the end, though.]]
111	* KillItWithFire: [[spoiler:"Slime."]]
112	* LatexPerfection: "Who Was He?" [[spoiler:Until the end, no one realizes the killer was wearing a mask.]]
113	* LightningReveal: When Cowath and the protagonist first pull up to Chilton Castle during [[ItWasADarkAndStormyNight storm at night]], the main character doesn't see the castle until it's revealed in a sudden flash of lightning.
114	* MadwomanInTheAttic: [[spoiler:Lady Susan Glanville in "The Horror at Chilton Castle," kept chained in a secret room.]]
115	* ManBitesMan: And elderly woman. [[spoiler:And [[WouldHurtAChild little girl]].]] Because the "werewolf" in the first story never actually transforms, his attacks against his victims are this.
116	* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane:
117	** We never ''do'' learn if there's anything "off" about the woods in "Diary of a Werewolf."
118	** Baines seems to think the EldritchAbomination in "The Willow Platform" is entirely explainable by science, as opposed to being a supernatural creature.
119	* MortalityPhobia: [[spoiler:What drives Lady Susan in "The Horror at Chilton Castle" to make her DealWithTheDevil.]]
120	* MostWritersAreWriters: Frank, the protagonist in "Canavan's Back Yard," is an author.
121	* NamelessNarrative: "Who Was He?" The only characters identified by name are the killer's victims - ''after'' they've already died. The protagonist, who is a patient at the hospital, is never named, and the only characters of note besides him and the killer are the nurse's aide, the security guard and (eventually) the hospital's actual barber. None of ''them'' are named, either.
122	* NeverFoundTheBody:
123	** "Canavan's Back Yard": [[spoiler:Canavan]] simply vanishes. [[spoiler:Turns out his backyard might be a portal to hell, and he got lost in it and turned into a wild dog after being DrivenToMadness.]]
124	** "The Pavilion": Niles Glendon murdered his friend Kurt Resinger and buried the body under the pier at a beach pavilion. The cops never found the body. In a twist, neither does Niles himself, at least until the end. [[spoiler:It turns out the tide pulled Kurt's corpse free, and a wave rushing in brings Kurt with it, scaring Niles to death.]]
125	** "Disappearance": Dan Mellmer [[ForegoneConclusion disappears]]. Sheriff Kellington and his deputy strongly suspect his twin brother Russell killed him after a fight, but they never can prove it without a corpse. [[spoiler:They're right. After Russell dies, Kellington finally finds that all these years, Dan's corpse was disguised as a scarecrow on the Mellmer farm.]]
126	** "The House on Hazel Street": [[spoiler:Jonathan Sellerby.]]
127	* NeverMyFault: During his more manic episodes, the nameless protagonist in "Diary of a Werewolf" excuses and rationalizes his actions. He blames his attack on Freddy Camberwell, for instance, entirely on poor Freddy, insisting (more to himself than anyone else) that Freddy just happened along at exactly the wrong moment.
128	* NightmareFace: [[spoiler:Turns out the fake barber in "Who Was He?" was disfigured and wearing a mask, and was so hideous he had but to remove to his mask to give his victims heart attacks.]]
129	* NinjaPirateRobotZombie: The radioactive zombie hobo in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull."
130	* NoBodyLeftBehind: "Slime." 'Cause the slime creature ate them.
131	* NoNameGiven: Very few of the protagonists are identified by name. "Canavan's Back Yard" and "House of Memory" barely avoid it by having other characters refer to the narrator as Frank and Kirk respectively, whilst "The Horror at Chilton Castle" establishes that the otherwise nameless protagonist is Brennan himself (he mentions that his ancestors, distant cousins of the Chilton-Paynes, were once called the O'Braonains but are today the Brennans).
132	* NothingIsScarier: [[spoiler:"Canavan's Back Yard"]] and some parts of "Slime." We also never actually get to have the [[spoiler:phony hospital barber's NightmareFace described to us]]. We're also never told what exactly will happen if [[spoiler:Susan isn't fed the dead earl's corpse and if his son isn't made privy to this as part of his RiteOfPassage in "The Horror at Chilton Castle." The one time ''not'' following through comes up, Cowath simply says "The consequences of breaking the pact are too terrible to describe."]]
133	* NuclearMutant: Charlie the [[NinjaPirateRobotZombie radioactive zombie murderer]] in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull."
134	* OffWithHisHead:
135	** "The Corpse of Charlie Rull": Charlie tears off the salesman's head. [[spoiler:He later has his own head shot clean off by the police sergeant, although it [[LosingYourHead continues living]] for a while.]]
136	** "The Horror at Chilton Castle": This was the fate of Thomas Wentworth, the "thieving Earl" who once took the estates of the O'Braonains during "the British confiscation."
137	* OldDarkHouse: The titular residence in "The House on Hazel Street."
138	* OldFlame: Melissa Mowerly for Kirk in "House of Memory."
139	** OldFlameFizzle: However, when they meet up again at the Sutters' house party, nothing much happens between them because Kirk keeps his old feelings for Melissa to himself.
140	* OldRetainer: William Cowath in "The Horror at Chilton Castle."
141	* OurWerewolvesAreDifferent: "Diary of a Werewolf." He doesn't actually turn ''into'' a wolf, he simply becomes bestial and ravenous for the taste of human flesh. He also doesn't need the full moon to undergo the change. A simple trip to the woods and he feels compelled to run around on all fours.
142	* OurZombiesAreDifferent: The title character in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull" is undead, all right, but he's also [[NuclearMutant radioactive]], and rather than being driven by a desire to eat human flesh, he simply is constantly in pain from the radioactive energy coursing through him, and commits violent acts as a means of expending that energy. He is also driven by an intense hatred of all life that isn't in the same kind of pain as him. [[spoiler:And he can take a ''lot'' of punishment, as the Newbridge police find out; nothing short of getting shot to pieces puts an end to his reign of terror.]]
143	* PoliceAreUseless: A trope Brennan generally likes to avert. From Sheriff Macelin in "Diary of a Werewolf" to Chief Underbeck in "Slime," his cop characters are generally pretty quick on the uptake and well-equipped to handle the threat(s), or to summon outside help when they can't.
144	** That said, Constable Walter Frawley in "The Willow Platform" doesn't exactly acquit himself in trying to get to the bottom of what it is Henry Crotell is up to beyond a few timid questions about where Henry might have acquired the RingOfPower, even though he seems to suspect Henry stole it.
145	* RedEyesTakeWarning: [[spoiler:Susan Glanville, or, rather, the creature she has become, in "The Horror at Chilton Castle."]]
146	* RingOfPower: Henry Crotell has one in "The Willow Platform" to go along with Hannibal Trobish's TomeOfEldritchLore. It's silver inlaid with veins of blue, and although the stone is flat, black and "lusterless," Henry claims, "Throws out light, she does! Light enough to read by!" when explaining how he's able to read Trobish's book at night.
147	* RiteOfPassage: [[spoiler:As part of curse she placed on her family, whenever the current Earl of Chilton dies, his son must witness his father's corpse get eaten by the ElderlyImmortal Lady Susan, who is kept [[MadwomanInTheAttic chained up in a secret room]] in a castle, before he can become the next earl.]]
148	* ScaryScarecrow: In "Disappearance." [[spoiler:Turns out it contains Dan Mellmer's corpse.]]
149	* ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney: The main character in "The Impulse to Kill" is a rich man who wants to become a serial killer.
150	* SecretKeeper: William Cowath, the Chilton-Paynes' OldRetainer and Factor of Chilton Castle in "The Horror at Chilton Castle." He's one of the only people (besides whoever is the current earl) who knows the hidden room's awful secret.
151	* SerialKiller: Several:
152	** The protagonist in "Diary of a Werewolf" becomes one because he believes himself to be a werewolf.
153	** The title character in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull" [[CameBackWrong comes back wrong]] and goes on a murderous rampage.
154	** In the same story, Charlie's second victim [[spoiler:is a serial killer himself.]]
155	** The barber in "Who Was He?" [[spoiler:He scares patients with heart conditions to death and then spreads earth from graveyards around their corpses.]]
156	** Then there's the VillainProtagonist in "The Impulse to Kill."
157	* SexEqualsDeath: [[spoiler:The protagonist's final victims in "Diary of a Werewolf" include a couple [[AutoErotica having sex in a car]].]]
158	* TheSheriff: Sheriff Macelin in "Diary of a Werewolf" and Sheriff Kellington in "Disappearance."
159	* SpoilerCover: Another mild example. [[spoiler:The pretty dynamic cover by Kirk Reinert spoils the attack against Chief Underbeck's officers in "Slime," telling the reader that art least ''one'' cop is a goner, although it doesn't identify whether it's Luke Matson or Fred Storr being engulfed by the creature.]]
160	* SwampsAreEvil: Canavan's property in "Canavan's Back Yard" turns out to have been built on [[spoiler:a swamp cursed by a witch]]. Then there's the purportedly haunted Wharton's Swamp in "Slime," where the title creature takes up residence.
161	* TomeOfEldritchLore: Hannibal Trobish's book in "The Willow Platform."
162	* TheUnReveal: "Who Was He?" [[spoiler:We learn the killer wasn't the real barber, and only posing as the barber, and we learn how he murdered his victims, and get a (more or less) decent explanation for his actions (assuming "he was a disfigured homicidal maniac" is a satisfying enough explanation), but as for the actual question posed by the title, it goes unanswered; we [[NamelessNarrative never learn]] the murderer's [[NoNameGiven identity]].]]
163	* WitchHunt: [[spoiler:In "Canavan's Back Yard," Frank learns that in the 1800s a woman named Goodie Larkins was accused of witchcraft and killed by wild dogs in the area currently occupied by Canavan's property. She placed a {{Curse}} on the land as she died.]]
164	* WouldHurtAChild: Both the unnamed protagonist in "Diary of a Werewolf" as well as the zombified Charlie Rull. [[spoiler:Poor Debra in the former dies rather gruesomely, while Cynthia in "The Corpse of Charlie Rull" is luckier thanks to her mom's quick thinking.]]
165	* YouHaveToBelieveMe: Several characters in "Slime," Old Man Gowse in particular. The police are skeptical at first, but eventually they ''do'' start listening, especially after [[spoiler:one of their own officers]] ends up on the slime's menu.
166	* YourMindMakesItReal: [[spoiler:The reason Tara's childhood home in "House of Memory" appears is apparently because she believed hard enough that it still existed, despite the fact it'd been torn down years ago.]]
167
168	----
169	->''"This is [[Creator/JosephPayneBrennan his]] book. Dare you make it yours?"''

Context Literature / TheShapesOfMidnight