I’m huge on short stories and collections so I knew I had to read this batch. The author states at the end of the book that she drew inspiration form true events on all but two of the stories. That explains why one of them felt familiar to me.

Some are scary and some are twisted. A few had me grinning sardonically. All are good.

There are the nines sins or as the author titles them, The Nine Circles of Hell. Each delves into crimes and punishments.

Circle One: Limbo – The Cave Robber

You’ll have an encounter with a giant cave spider.

Circle Two: Lust – The MOnster Within

Meet Brian, “The unhappiest man in El Reno,” who’s plotting revenge against his neighbor.

Circle Three: Gluttony – The Battle of Gate Pa

Crawl with the Maori warriors through the first tunnels used in warfare.

Circle Four: Avarice & Prodigality – Boxed In

Be there when a kidnap victim turns the table on his kidnapper.

Circle Five: Wrath & Sullenness – Do Not Go Gently

A cancer patient who thought he’d live forever does not go gently. Vows to be the worst patient ever.

Circle Six: Heresy – The Final Victim

A Reverend needs one more sacrifice for Satan.

Circle Seven: The Violent – KILLAL

An innocent computer game might not be so innocent.

Circle Eight: The Fraudulent – The Mirror

A heated car mirror solves a cold case.

Circle Nine: The Treacherous – A Losing Hand

It wasn’t hypothermia. It was murder.

I enjoyed all of these stories and enjoyed the authors comments afterwards. She explained a bit about each of the stories that came from true events and then where she got her inspiration for the two that weren’t. It was fascinating.

And the pictures peppered throughout the book made it creepier.

While most of these weren’t truly scary, they did have sin in each one. I think I sinned a bit myself when I celebrated some of the characters deeds.

These would be great reads for when you have only a short time, but I’d set aside enough time to finish all of them. They do suck you in and keep you going from one to the next, to the next… ( )

As evidenced by the title, this book is the third short story collection in the Hellfire and Damnation series by Connie Corcoran Wilson. The unifying theme for the series is Dante's nine circles of hell. It's been a while since I had a chance to read a short story collection and this was a nice change of pace.

The not so good: A few of the stories have abrupt endings as though the author was trying to stay within a word goal. At least one seemed to have excessive repetitiveness which kept jarring me out of the story.

The good: The stories have an element of reality or truth as the starting point. This will give the reader a slight chill of recognition. As I've mentioned before, I'm not a fan of gore and this was perfect to read during my lunch hour. These stories aren't overly long but aren't too short either. The characters are varied in ages, backgrounds and circumstances. Some short story collections suffer from similar stories and each has enough differences to set them apart. I'm willing to read more by this author. ( )