Look, as soon as I see the words inspired by Lovecraft, I'm already in. I confess though at first dipping into In the Mad Mountains I got a little nervous, Lansdale stated that he was more keen on the Old Ones rather than the rather niche and esoteric "alas dear reader I cannot describe what I saw that fateful night" antics of Lovecraft. (I was nervous about this because bizarrely that semi-kitschy stuff is what I like most)

Anyway I needn't have been worried, although I will say the flavour of Lansdale's stories are a little different than Cosmic Horror - I would say more Horror Horror, or adventure horror - but in the end all GOOD.

The Bleeding Shadow has a Lovecraft Country vibe and is a very rough around the edges piece about a deal with the devil predictably gone wrong.

Dread Island, reads as a sort of "horror up" of classic tales. Possibly of any of the tales enclosed this has some of the most vivid imagery, and even though I prefer my horrors unknown the horrors presented in this story are quite memorable.

The Gruesome Affair of the Electric Blue Lightning, is a riff on Poe's Dupin. It's a little more light hearted than the previous too works, but in my opinion is just a wee bit too much. Not only does the story drag from Poe and Lovecraft, we also have Grimm and Mary Shelley's Frankenstein shoehorned in

The Tall Grass was perhaps my favourite tale of the bunch. It has a kind of more Cosmic vibe in terms of a relatively open ended story that's more about the MC brushing up against something horrific and then having to move on with their life.

The Cast of the Stalking Shadow is a solid piece, leaning back into more horror adventure than cosmic horror.

The Crawling Sky is a bit of a strange one. A recurring character for Lansdale the story reads as a more action adventure with Cosmic Horror influence. It's fun enough with a VERY rough around the edges vibe too.

Starlight, Eyes Bright stands out more weird addition, less overt grossness and more mystery. Something that is always favourable in a short story collection is a bit of variety in tone between stories and Starlight provides that.

In the Mad Mountains - I confess I found the final piece perhaps one of the weaker additions. In my opinion this is where the action adventure meeting cosmic horror didn't gel the best. I felt like the tale wanted to provide that Cosmic alarm and terror, while also having wee action set pieces which didn't create a consistent vibe. I also just felt like it was a bit much - too many elements thrown together in one tale.

Overall I really enjoyed this one - Lansdale has a bit of a cheeky lilt to his prose which is a unique touch to the genre, which like I said I'm a sucker for anyways!!

I've never been able to fully fall in love with anything by Lansdale. So it goes. There are two pretty fun stories and the rest are at least serviceable.