It’s a real shame that Sarah Pinborough doesn’t write short stories anymore (one was published in 2016, her first since 2012) – but as she is now a rather awesome author of novels such as The Death House, 13 Minutes and Behind Her Eyes she has a good excuse. ‘Our Man’ is a tale of Middle-East supernatural intrigue. It is exquisitely detailed, and Sarah’s use of language to create a genuine frisson of unease in only several thousand words just makes me miss her short fiction all the more.

First published in The Second Humdrumming Book of Horror Stories, 2008. Collected in The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror, Robinson, 2010. Read it online here