Whisper House Press

Book: I Know A Place

Author: Nat Cassidy

Publisher: Shortwave (now an imprint of Simon & Schuster)

Estimated Publication Date: May 5th 2026

Capone’s Rating: 4 of 5 ⭐s

Of the first story in this collection of Nat Cassidy gems, “Rest Stop,” I had this to say in 2024: “You should take an afternoon to read it. Maybe read it twice.” I waxed poetic about the author’s having investigated culture amid the shock and gore of an awful, awful side-of-the-road convenience store. This time around, “Rest Stop” leads a group of tales that manage, with greater or lesser humor but always with exacting nuance, to get us thinking about culture—about masculinity, about care and concern, and about social expectations. Nat Cassidy’s particular is doing so in the most interesting way possible.

When one character meets another for a drink for what they assumed was a kind of blind date, the audience learns why the other had been so entranced—so intrigued that they’d had to ask for the meetup. After a sex-revenge video makes the rounds and people start dying, we’re forced to ponder what kind of virus is spread by people sharing such things. When a woman makes space in her life for her long-estranged father and visits the family’s estate, she learns what comes with the family name via a direct experience of the impact of its heritage.

There’s more, of course. But what makes this collection stand out, for this reader, is that the author—Cassidy—is always doing more than one thing. Sure, the monster just ate that dude, but which of these characters was the real monster? Yes, Carole is under the sway of a false prophet, but just because the prophet is a false one doesn’t mean he’s mistaken when he talks up her spiritual connectedness (“Into the Life of Things” is my favorite among this bunch, I think). And at each turn, we can appreciate these as entertaining little ditties suitable for almost any reader… but we can also ask ourselves: Am I like that person? Just what do I assume of others? Do I trade in innuendo and libel? What about our society needs changing? Because there’s more going on in these stories than a monster attack, a pseudo-guru taking new-agers’ money, a rest stop villain torturing a passerby. Or maybe, to paraphrase a famous line, a fungal spore is just a fungal spore. But it never is, right? It takes over.

I’ll be honest: When I stumbled into this collection, I wasn’t in a short story mood. I wanted a big world into which I can sink my metaphorical teeth. I wanted a commitment. But this is also true: Nat Cassidy’s work is compelling for me in a way that many others’ stories are not. Once I start, I want to keep going. He’s got a vision of society that is simultaneously more twisted and clearer than my own, and the sometimes awful choices his characters make ring true for me.

I Know A Place combines The Twilight Zone’s twists and The X-Files’ reality. And like this work’s lead-off story as reviewed by Whisper House Press two years ago, Cassidy’s latest is well worth your time. If you’re like me, you’ll be compelled in a true sense and will have trouble turning to anything else.

Get more information about this title on the publisher’s website: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/I-Know-A-Place/Nat-Cassidy/9798897320165.