SOURCE: Kelly, Mark R. Review of The Secret Life of Houses, by Scott Bradfield. Locus 23 (September 1989): 31.

In the following review of The Secret Life of Houses, Kelly praises Bradfield for effectively setting his stories in modern California.

Scott Bradfield's collection The Secret Life of Houses contains such already well-received pieces as “Unmistakeably the Finest” and “The Dream of the Wolf,” most of which have appeared only in Britain, and three stories original to the collection, which itself is a British publication. This is somewhat ironic since most of the stories concern Southern California, with a knowing but detached perception. (Perhaps they seem more fantastic to the British than to American editors and publishers.) “The Darling” recounts the career of Dolores Starr, a woman abused as a girl who calmly murders the men in her life when they become bothersome. Bradfield saves the story from becoming wholly implausible in...