DEADMAN AND OTHER TALES OF THE IRREAL

Characters find themselves in surreal, often unsettling circumstances in this debut collection of seven tales.

All the stories in this compact collection traffic in the surreal and end in ambiguous ways. Anderson seems like an ordinary white-collar worker in the title story. Except he earns money as a hit man, and his latest kill goes off without a hitch. But an uneasy bus ride doesn’t quite prepare him for what’s waiting at home. “My Nightmare Nurse” compiles NYU professor Antonio Kennedy’s notes and digital diary excerpts. He describes childhood nightmares and panic attacks that are suddenly resurfacing. But his perspective doesn’t clarify whether he’s seeing visions of a headless demon nurse or an unearthly entity is truly physically tormenting him. Readers will speed through these brief tales; a couple might have been even more unnerving if they were longer. In the case of “An Imperial Decree,” electronics store employee Sharla gets a cryptic email asking for a yes or no response. The story hints at ominous consequences, but the ending is too vague to leave much impact. Throughout, Tierney’s concise, animated prose adds scene-setting details: “from hip-hop kids of all races with hoodies, tats and earrings to dark-suited executive types, to chubby balding geeks with their Spock tee shirts and scuffed up Vans, all staring up at screens of all sizes.” Most characters are everyday people caught up in inexplicable predicaments. That’s certainly true for 37-year-old sports blogger Jesse, who appears in the collection’s longest (but still very short) story, “Shadow Play.” It seems only natural that he talks with his shadow since it has developed a consciousness and a solid form and, like each of these stories, becomes increasingly unpredictable.

Diverting, grim, and outright bizarre.