Nicolas Wilson has penned a collection of creative and disturbing stories, all of which are thought-provoking and surprising. Each story is wildly different from the last, but each is also gripping and chilling in its own right. It's a collection impossible to read quickly and you will not be ready to move on to the next story until you've pondered the one before.

I found it extremely hard to pick just one favourite, I have at least three. 'Shades of Cray', about the first transracial procedure is gruesome in parts, and asks some very deep questions about race and identity. 'Blood Falls' contains some wonderful imagery and descriptions, eg: 'We have a unique experience to not just look at the piss seeping out of this lake's urethra, but we can stick our fingers in its guts and see what squirms out of the primordial ooze.' Careful what you wish for…

'Mine' is another brilliantly dark tale. Imagine you're a heart surgeon. Your country has been decimated by war. Your family has been torn apart. One of the perpetrators of the atrocities is on your table. What do you do? I'm willing to bet it isn't half as macabre and fitting as Nicolas Wilson dreamed up.

Fans of Stephen King will love this collection, and my only complaint is that these are short stories and not novels. I've gone straight to amazon to find more books by Nicolas Wilson – I have plenty of time to read now that I daren't switch off the bedside light…

I am grateful to Nicolas Wilson for providing me with a free copy of 'New Corpse Smell' in exchange for my honest, non-reciprocal review.