"An uncanny effect often arises when the boundary between fantasy and reality is blurred . . ." - Sigmund Freud

Nicholas Royle's stories are "immaculately sinister", according to Olivia Laing in the Times Literary Supplement, while Phil Baker, in the Sunday Times, described Royle as "a real craftsman of disquiet".

In his third collection, The Dummy & Other Uncanny Stories, Royle focuses on archetypes and phenomena that, through their particular melding of the familiar and the unfamiliar, produce uneasy, or uncanny, effects.

These stories reflect Royle's continuing development as an exponent of the form, in which he is always seeking to learn and to grow, and to push against boundaries.