Perhaps, after he died on the island, this is where Doctor Moreau went.

Entering the grubby marble foyer of Bloom Memorial Hospital, after a brief introduction from one Nathaniel Lambert, the first person we meet is Felicity Dowker. She has a nightmarish story to tell us of staff recruitment at Bloom.

A little further, into the shadowy corridors of this edifice, W.D. Gagliani and David Benton whisper to us of Bloom's history; growing from a subterranean "Tree of Life" and its "gift".

Soon we are exploring the facilities from wards to crawlspaces to basement and beyond, and there is always whispering, screaming, staff notes, bloody scrawls upon once white walls, to inform us about this establishment and its practices.

Putting the "Mal" into Malpractice, with 31 works, a balanced mix of short stories (longer operations) and flash (quick cuts), this themed anthology uses almost every one of its 240 pages to build upon its keystone.

Bloom is located in the limbo land of post accident trauma. It is peopled; staff and patients and visitors, by damned and damaged souls who can never leave. Bloom Memorial is a research facility and a monolithic antechamber of Hell. Each wing echoes with whispers, moans, screams and manic laughter. Each ward and waiting room carries, beneath the thin veneer of sanitary disinfectant, the scent of blood, the taint of putrefaction. Every room holds a multiplicity of stories. If these halls and corridors could talk . . . Well, they wouldn't. But the walls might bleed and seep and sob. The whole edifice suppurates a taint of misery and suffering. The foundation stone is grounded in the miraculous. But it is a corrupt miracle that brings Bloom into flower.

First established as a clinic in 1908 Bloom Memorial Hospital grew from a single accident of faith and healing, literally bloomed from the ichorous pus of a "Tree of Life". But that tree has its roots in Hell.

As the stories accelerate one sees that this "hospital" (address: anywhere) is actually a way station, a purgatory and testing ground for abominations.

Monsters in human form, conjoined twins, vampires, limb and organ thieves, daemonic prosthetics, a donor programme to die for, malevolent symbiosis, extreme therapies, cannibalism, demons and their acolytes, a team of inhuman creatures and significantly unsanitary conditions and situations are all part of the gamut you'll run when you check in to Bloom Memorial.

Leaving can be very difficult.

Anaesthetic is not an option.