Pieces of terror, pieces of suspense, and pieces of darkness combine to create Pieces of Hate, master storyteller Ray Garton’s short story collection. Nine works, including “A Gift From Above, ” a new novel that will surely hit you from below, are here compiled for the sole purpose of scaring you onto the next page. Garton illuminates the dark corners in us all and highlights the depths of the human condition. He takes our ordinary, daily assumptions and turns them on the reader to frightening effect. He makes reading terrifying yet compulsive. He scares us in so many ways. Here are but a few brilliant examples in this one collection: “A Gift From Above, ” “Choices, ” “Pieces, ” “Cat Hater, ” “Bad Blood, ” “Ophilia Raphaeldo, ” “The Devil’s Music, ” “Bait, ” “God’s Work.”