Books of Blood: Volume Three

This may seem like an odd thing to say about a horror writer, especially someone as boundary-pushing as Barker was (in his debut), but I think Clive Barker's Books of Blood sort of hit a sweet spot. They're shocking and bloody without descending into hackwork. They've got plenty of interesting characters yet never seem to drag. They're smart and creative without becoming pretentiously clever. I wouldn't say he gets it right all the time (see “The New Murders in the Rue Morgue” in volume 2), but since good horror is actually rather hard to write, his batting average on this series is phenomenal.