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Jonathan Sims’ Thirteen Storeys (Gollancz, 400 pages, $18) is a genuinely frightening horror story. A reclusive billionaire is holding a dinner party, and he’s invited several of the tenants of an apartment complex to his penthouse suite. But here’s the thing: none of these people know each other. They do, though, have something in common: at one time or another, each of them has had a bizarre experience in this old, odd building.
In Sims’ hands, the apartment complex becomes another character in the story: possibly malevolent, certainly disturbing, always doing something unexpected. The pace, too, is exquisite, as the author steadily ramps up the characters’ fears and our own sense that something awful is going to happen. And the ending: pure, unadulterated terror. A must-read for horror...