Peter Straub Books In Order

Blue Rose Trilogy Books In Publication Order

  1. Koko (1988)
  2. Mystery (1990)
  3. The Throat (1993)
  4. The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories (2010)

Criminal Records Books In Publication Order

  1. Pork Pie Hat (2000)

Talisman Books In Publication Order

  1. The Talisman (1984)
  2. Black House (2001)

Standalone Novels In Publication Order

  1. Marriages (1973)
  2. Julia / Full Circle (1975)
  3. If You Could See Me Now (1977)
  4. Ghost Story (1979)
  5. Shadowland (1980)
  6. Floating Dragon (1982)
  7. The General’s Wife (1982)
  8. Under Venus (1985)
  9. The Hellfire Club (1996)
  10. Mr. X (1999)
  11. Lost Boy Lost Girl (2003)
  12. In The Night Room (2003)
  13. The Skylark (2010)
  14. A Dark Matter (2010)

Short Stories/Novellas In Publication Order

  1. Mrs. God (1990)
  2. A Special Place (2009)
  3. The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine (2011)
  4. The Buffalo Hunter (2012)
  5. Perdido (2015)
  6. The Process (is a Process All Its Own) (2017)

Short Story Collections In Publication Order

  1. Ishmael (1972)
  2. Open Air (1972)
  3. Leeson Park and Belsize Square (1983)
  4. Houses Without Doors (1990)
  5. The Horror Writers Association Presents Peter Straub’s Ghosts (1995)
  6. Magic Terror (2000)
  7. The Little Blue Book of Rose Stories (2005)
  8. 5 Stories (2008)
  9. Interior Darkness (2016)

Graphic Novels In Publication Order

  1. The Talisman: Road of Trials (With: Stephen King) (2009)
  2. The Green Woman (With: Michael Easton) (2010)

Non-Fiction Books In Publication Order

  1. Sides (2007)

Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Anthology Books In Publication Order

  1. Best New Horror 2 (1991)
  2. Best New Horror 3 (1992)
  3. Best New Horror 4 (1993)
  4. Best New Horror 5 (1994)
  5. Best New Horror 6 (1995)
  6. Best New Horror #26 (2015)

Kyle Murchison Booth Books In Publication Order

  1. The Bone Key (By:Sarah Monette) (2007)

The Best Horror of the Year Anthology Books In Publication Order

  1. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One (2009)
  2. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two (2010)
  3. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three (2011)
  4. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four (2012)
  5. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Five (2013)
  6. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six (2014)
  7. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seven (2015)
  8. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight (2016)
  9. The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine (2017)
  10. The Best Horror of the Year Volume 10 (2018)
  11. The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction (2018)
  12. The Best Horror of the Year Volume 11 (2019)
  13. The Best Horror of the Year Volume 12 (2020)

Snow White, Blood Red Anthology Books In Publication Order

  1. Snow White, Blood Red (1993)
  2. Black Thorn, White Rose (1994)
  3. Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears (1995)
  4. Black Swan, White Raven (1997)
  5. Silver Birch, Blood Moon (1999)
  6. Black Heart, Ivory Bones (2000)

Anthologies In Publication Order

  1. Best New Horror 4 (1993)
  2. October Dreams (2000)
  3. Opening Shots, Vol. II (2001)
  4. Conjunctions #39: The New Wave Fabulists (2002)
  5. Poe’s Children (2008)
  6. Halloween (2009)
  7. The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010 (2009)
  8. Hint Fiction (2010)
  9. Circus: Fantasy Under the Big Top (2012)
  10. Ghosts: Recent Hauntings (2012)
  11. Mister October, Volume II – An Anthology in Memory of Rick Hautala (2013)
  12. Turn Down the Lights (2013)
  13. The Monstrous (2015)
  14. Detours (2016)
  15. The Best American Mystery Stories 2017 (2017)
  16. Mythic Journeys: Retold Myths and Legends (2019)

Blue Rose Trilogy Book Covers

Criminal Records Book Covers

Talisman Book Covers

Standalone Novels Book Covers

Short Stories/Novellas Book Covers

Short Story Collections Book Covers

Graphic Novels Book Covers

Non-Fiction Book Covers

Mammoth Book of Best New Horror Anthology Book Covers

Kyle Murchison Booth Book Covers

The Best Horror of the Year Anthology Book Covers

Snow White, Blood Red Anthology Book Covers

Anthologies Book Covers

Peter Straub Books Overview

Koko

Bestselling author Peter Straub’s Koko is a gripping psychological thriller in which horror and paranoia are indistinguishable from reality.

Koko. Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They were Vietnam vets a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a single shattering secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take from Washington, D.C., to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York, hunting someone from the past who has risen from the darkness to kill and kill and kill.

Mystery

Mystery. Tom Pasmore, ten years old, survives a near fatal accident. During his long recovery, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder and finds he has clues to solving it that he shouldn t. Lamont von Heilitz has spent his life solving mysteries, until he wanted to know nothing more of the terror of life and the horror of death. When a new murder disrupts their world of wealth, power, and pleasure, the two must form an unlikely partnership to confront demons from the past and the dark secrets that still haunt the present.

The Throat

The Throat. Tim Underhill, now an acclaimed novelist, travels back to his home town of Millhaven, Illinois after he gets a call from John Ransom, an old army buddy. Ransom believes there’s a copycat killer on the loose, mimicking the Blue Rose murders from decades earlier he thinks his wife could be a potential victim. Underhill seeks out his friend Tom Pasmore, an aging hermit who has attained minor celebrity as an expert sleuth, to help him investigate. They quickly discover that Millhaven is a town plagued by horrifying secrets and there is a twisted killer on the loose who is far more dangerous than they ever imagined. Expertly tying together the events of Koko and Mystery, The Throat proves Peter Straub to be the master of the suspense novel. Terrifying psychological horror…
. Rich in detail and character. The Plain Dealer Disturbing…
. Satisfying entertainment…
. A bloodstained tapestry of stunning emotional power. San Francisco Chronicle A classic mystery novel…
. Deft, impressive. The New York Times Book Review

The Juniper Tree and Other Blue Rose Stories

Peter Straub’s Blue Rose trilogy Koko, Mystery, and The Throat is one of the landmark accomplishments of modern popular fiction. Ranging from the Caribbean to Vietnam to the American Midwest and spanning decades of tumultuous history, these books are both unforgettable narratives and indelible portraits of people in extremis, struggling to survive in a world marked by grief, loss, pain, trauma, and homicidal madness. The four stories gathered here are offshoots of that larger fictional universe. Each one stands entirely on its own. Together, they shine a revelatory light on the mysteries and hidden corners of the novels that inspired them.’Blue Rose’ recounts a defining moment in the childhood of Koko’s Harry Beevers, the moment when the ten year old Harry discovers his capacity for violence and brutality. ‘The Juniper Tree’ describes, with almost unbearable clarity, a lonely young boy’s encounter with adult betrayal, and with the darker aspects of human sexuality. ‘The Ghost Village’ takes us to the phantasmagoric landscape of Vietnam, where the barriers between the living and the dead begin to dissolve, to mesmerizing effect. ‘Bunny is Good Bread’ is arguably Straub’s single most harrowing story. With relentless attention to detail, it anatomizes the creation of a human monster through abuse, cruelty, and neglect. These disturbing, beautifully written stories have a moral weight and emotional resonance that only the finest fiction achieves. They are the clear product of a master storyteller at the very top of his game. No one who reads them is likely to forget them, or come away unchanged.

Pork Pie Hat

Passionate about jazz, the narrator dicovers that one of his greatest heroes, a saxophonist by the name of Pork Pie Hat, is still alive and playing at a club he frequents. Granted an interview by the Hat, the narrator gets a night of extraordinary stories from a man dying of alcoholism.

The Talisman

To coincide with the publication of Stephen King and Peter Straub’s extraordinary new thriller, BLACK HOUSE, here is the story that started it all. On a brisk autumn day, a twelve year old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amuseme*nt park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother’s life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin…
.

Black House

TWO 1 NATIONAL BESTSELLERS AVAILABLE IN A BOXED SETTHE TALISMAN EXTRAORDINARY…
MAKES YOUR HAIR STAND ON END. The Washington PostOn a brisk autumn day, a thirteen year old boy stands on the shores of the gray Atlantic, near a silent amuseme*nt park and a fading ocean resort called the Alhambra. The past has driven Jack Sawyer here: his father is gone, his mother is dying, and the world no longer makes sense. But for Jack everything is about to change. For he has been chosen to make a journey back across America and into another realm. One of the most influential and heralded works of fantasy ever written, The Talisman is an extraordinary novel of loyalty, awakening, terror, and mystery. Jack Sawyer, on a desperate quest to save his mother’s life, must search for a prize across an epic landscape of innocents and monsters, of incredible dangers and even more incredible truths. The prize is essential, but the journey means even more. Let the quest begin…
. A CLASSIC…
RARE AND DAZZLING. New York Daily NewsBlack House AN INTELLIGENT…
SUSPENSEFUL PAGE TURNER…
It s a relief to find popular fiction that is as unpretentious yet rich in literary allusion and human detail as Black House. The Wall Street JournalJack Sawyer is a retired Los Angeles homicide detective living in the small hamlet of Tamarak, Wisconsin. He has no recollection of the events twenty years ago that led him to a parallel universe called the Territories to save his mother from certain death. When a series of gruesome murders occur in western Wisconsin, Jack s buddy, the local chief of police, begs Jack to help the inexperienced force find the killer. As cryptic messages in Jack s waking dreams become increasingly impossible to ignore, he is drawn back to the Territories and to his own hidden past, where he must find the soul strength to enter a terrifying house at the end of a deserted tract of forest and to encounter the obscene and ferocious evils sheltered within it. JACK S SAGA OVERFLOWS WITH DARK WIT, SLY LITERARY REFERENCES, SUSPENSE, AND HEARTACHE. What elevates Black House beyond ordinary horror novels is the richness of its cast. The New York Times Book Review HUGELY PLEASURABLE…
Black House allows us to see two master craftsmen, each at the top of his game. The Washington Post Book WorldCOVER IIBlack HouseSEPTEMBER 2002 MM

Julia / Full Circle

In a house in London a woman starts a new life, trying to put tragedy behind her. Then a pretty blonde child runs into view, bringing with her an inexplicable suggestion of evil. Once Julia Lofting had a husband and a daughter. But everything has changed since she bolted from her marriage, in flight from the unbearable truth of her daughter’s death. For Julia, there is no escape. Another child awaits, another mother suffers, and a circle of the damned gathers around her. The haunting has begun…
From the Paperback edition.

If You Could See Me Now

This ghost story was a classic when it was first released, and its reputation has only grown over the years. Now it has been republished in hardcover, with a suite of handsome full color, full page photographs by J.K. Potter, who has given us these haunting compositions that perfectly complement the understated beauty of Peter Straub’s prose. Elegantly typeset and handsomely bound, this new edition is limited to three hundred copies, each one signed by Peter Straub, Thomas Tessier, and J.K. Potter. The book also features a lengthy interview with Straub and a bonus short story.

Ghost Story

In life, not every sin goes unpunished. Ghost Story For four aging men in the terror stricken town of Milburn, New York, an act inadvertently carried out in their youth has come back to haunt them. Now they are about to learn what happens to those who believe they can bury the past and get away with murder. Peter Straub’s classic bestseller is a work of ‘superb horror’ The Washington Post Book World that, like any good Ghost Story, stands the test of time and conjures our darkest fears and nightmares.

Shadowland

A classic tale of supernatural horror from the acclaimed author of Koko, The Talisman and Mr X. Now reissued in a new cover style. IF YOUR SHADOW DOESN’T MOVE WHEN YOU DO, THEN YOU’RE IN Shadowland In a private school in New England, a friendship is forged between two boys that will change their lives for ever. As Del Nightingale and Tom Flanagan battle to survive the oppressive regime of bullying and terror overseen by the sad*istic headmaster, Del introduces Tom to his world of magic tricks. But when they escape to spend the summer holiday together at Shadowland the lakeside estate of Del’s uncle their hobby suddenly takes on much more sinister tones. After a summer exploring the mysteries and terrors of Shadowland nothing will be the same.

Floating Dragon

A classic tale of supernatural horror from the acclaimed author of Koko, The Talisman and Mr X. Now reissued in a new cover style. ‘Floating Dragon racks you with suspense! Straub is a master at having whole communities rocked by the forces of wickedness.’ Observer The terrors afflicting the sleepy town of Hampstead, Connecticut, were beyond imagination. Sparrows dropping dead from the trees like rotten fruit, disfiguring diseases spreading like wildfire, inexplicable murders and child drownings shattering the lives of the citizens never can such a list of horrors have afflicted one town. But the evil madness had a long history. A catastrophe had struck Hampstead every thirty years since its foundation 300 years before yet only Graham Williams, a writer and descendant of one of the original founders, had looked into the ‘black summers’ and their mysterious origins. When he discovers that descendants of the three other original settlers are back living in the town, he knows it will be the blackest summer yet!

The Hellfire Club

‘Surprising twists and a wildly inventive plot.’ The New York TimesThey are dying, one by one. Wealthy, middle aged women in an exclusive Connecticut suburb. Their murderer remains at large. Nora Chancel, wife of publishing scion Davey Chancel, fears she may be next. After all, her past has branded her a victim…
.’Combines the intellectual puzzle mystery with a powerful vein of psycho thriller suspense.’ The Washington PostThen Davey tells Nora a surreal story about The Hellfire Club, where years before he met an obsessed fan of Chancel House’s most successful book, Night Journey a book that has a strange history of its own…
.’One of the most chilling villains to come along since Hannibal Lecter.’ San Francisco ChronicleSuddenly terror engulfs Nora: She must defend herself against fantastic accusations even as a madman lies in wait. And when he springs, she will embark on a night journey that will put her victimhood to rest forever, dead or alive…
. From the Paperback edition.

Mr. X

For more than two decades Peter Straub has engrossed, entertained, and terrified us with his dazzling blend of cool artistry and mad, spine tingling imagination. With Mr. X, the bestselling author of Ghost Story, The Talisman with Stephen King, and The Hellfire Club takes us into the darkest dimensions of the human psyche and proves once again that he is without peer in the realm of psychological suspense and horror, a master storyteller whose unique and powerful gifts qualify him to be called the Edgar Allan Poe of our times. Mr. X is Straub’s original and startling take on the theme of the doppelg nger. Ned Dunstan’s birthday is fast approaching, and every year on this date, Ned experiences a paralyzing seizure in which he is forced to witness scenes of ruthless slaughter perpetrated by a mysterious and malevolent figure in black whom Ned calls Mr. X. Ned has been drawn back to his hometown, Edgerton, Illinois, by a premonition that his mother, Star, is dying. Before she loosens her hold on life, she imparts to Ned the name of his father, never before disclosed, and warns him that he is in grave danger. Despite her foreboding, Ned’s determination to learn as much as possible about his absent father ignites a series of extraordinary adventures that gradually reveal the heart of both his own identity and that of his entirely fantastic family: He discovers that he is shadowed by an identical twin brother who can pass through doors and otherwise defy the laws of nature; he becomes the lead suspect in three violent deaths; he investigates the secret shadow world within Edgerton; he learns to ‘eat time’ and remembers the one occasion when he and his sinister brother united into a single being. Finally, at the moment of battle, he must call upon everything he has learned to save his own life. Brim*ming with the author’s trademark wit, understated eloquence, vibrant characters, and brilliant sense of pace, Mr. X displays Peter Straub at the top of his form.

Lost Boy Lost Girl

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son beautiful, troubled fifteen year old Mark Underhill vanishes from the face of the earth. To his uncle, horror novelist Timothy Underhill, Mark’s inexplicable absence feels like a second death. After his sister in law s funeral, Tim searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help him unravel this mystery of death and disappearance. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother s suicide Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge. No mere empty building, the house on Michigan Street whispers from attic to baseme*nt with the echoes of a long hidden true life horror story, and Tim Underhill comes to fear that in investigating its unspeakable history, Mark stumbled across its last and greatest secret: a ghostly lost girl who may have coaxed the needy, suggestible boy into her mysterious domain. With Lost Boy Lost Girl, Peter Straub affirms once again that he is the master of literary horror.

In The Night Room

In his latest soul-chilling novel, bestselling author Peter Straub tells of a famous children’s book author who, in the wake of a grotesque accident, realizes that the most basic facts of her existence, including her existence itself, have come into question.
Willy Patrick, the respected author of the award-winning young-adult novel In The Night Room, thinks she is losing her mind-again. One day, she is drawn helplessly into the parking lot of a warehouse. She knows somehow that her daughter, Holly, is being held in the building, and she has an overwhelming need to rescue her. But what Willy knows is impossible, for her daughter is dead.
On the same day, author Timothy Underhill, who has been struggling with a new book about a troubled young woman, is confronted with the ghost of his nine-year-old sister, April. Soon after, he begins to receive eerie, fragmented e-mails that he finally realizes are from people he knew in his youth-people now dead. Like his sister, they want urgently to tell him something. When Willy and Timothy meet, the frightening parallels between Willy’s tragic loss and the story in Tim’s manuscript suggest that they must join forces to confront the evils surrounding them.

From the Hardcover edition.

The Skylark

What Subterranean Press will be publishing is an earlier state of the novel now called A Dark Matter, not merely the limited version of the trade edition. I wish to have it preserved and published in this form as well as the final, many times re edited form to indicate what I hoped its shape would be like. This is a much looser, sloppier, more wild eyed version of the book, with blind alleys, red herrings, and false trails. Peter Straub In the fall of 1966, a group of students, led by a charismatic wanderer named Spencer Mallon, meet in a deserted field outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Their purpose: to conduct an experiment that will, if successful, alter the nature of reality itself. The outcome of that experiment is astonishing and inexplicable, and will affect the destinies of everyone involved in fundamental ways. The Skylark remains the clearest expression of the author’s original intentions. With precision, delicacy, and great narrative power, it traces the endless reverberations of a single catastrophic event. In the process, it takes us deep into the lives of a diverse group of fully realized characters, among them a thief, a killer, a best selling novelist, and a magnetic, luminously beautiful blind woman The Skylark of the title. The result is both a visionary novel about the mystery and terror that lie beneath the surface of the visible world and a moving account of believable people struggling to come to terms with the defining moments of their lives. Moving effortlessly, and with great authority, between the past and the present, the magical and the mundane, The Skylark is the kind of intense, wholly absorbing reading experience that only Peter Straub could have created. The Subterranean Press edition of The Skylark is approximately 200 manuscript pages longer than the trade edition, to be published as A Dark Matter.

A Dark Matter

What Subterranean Press will be publishing is an earlier state of the novel now called A Dark Matter, not merely the limited version of the trade edition. I wish to have it preserved and published in this form as well as the final, many times re edited form to indicate what I hoped its shape would be like. This is a much looser, sloppier, more wild eyed version of the book, with blind alleys, red herrings, and false trails. Peter Straub In the fall of 1966, a group of students, led by a charismatic wanderer named Spencer Mallon, meet in a deserted field outside of Madison, Wisconsin. Their purpose: to conduct an experiment that will, if successful, alter the nature of reality itself. The outcome of that experiment is astonishing and inexplicable, and will affect the destinies of everyone involved in fundamental ways. The Skylark remains the clearest expression of the author’s original intentions. With precision, delicacy, and great narrative power, it traces the endless reverberations of a single catastrophic event. In the process, it takes us deep into the lives of a diverse group of fully realized characters, among them a thief, a killer, a best selling novelist, and a magnetic, luminously beautiful blind woman the skylark of the title. The result is both a visionary novel about the mystery and terror that lie beneath the surface of the visible world and a moving account of believable people struggling to come to terms with the defining moments of their lives. Moving effortlessly, and with great authority, between the past and the present, the magical and the mundane, The Skylark is the kind of intense, wholly absorbing reading experience that only Peter Straub could have created. The Subterranean Press edition of The Skylark is approximately 200 manuscript pages longer than the trade edition, to be published as A Dark Matter.

Mrs. God

A tale of an inspired literary sojourn that turns into something far more sinister. Esswood House. Home and estate of the Seneschal family, aristocratic patrons of the literary arts for well over a hundred years. D. H. Lawrence, T. S. Eliot, Ford Madox Ford, and Henry James were privileged to call themselves guests and Esswood Fellows. Even minor poets such as Isobel Standish found in Esswood a respite from the outer world and its refined atmosphere an inspiration for her work. There was always talk of a hidden secret in Esswood’s past, and the Seneschal children were often so pale and sickly, but don t all English manor houses have a few ghost stories to call their own?When Professor William Standish receives the rare honor of an Esswood Fellowship, and the chance to study Isobel s private manuscripts at close hand, he is thrilled beyond his wildest ambitions. But something seems slightly off at Esswood House. He hears faint laughter in the halls, the pitter pattering of small feet in the night; strange faces appear in the windows of the library, and there are those giant dollhouses in the baseme*nt…
Never before published as a separate volume, Mrs. God is a very different kind of ghost story from one of America s most celebrated authors.

A Special Place

From the bestselling author of Ghost Story, Shadowland, and The Talisman, a novella length rumination on the nature of evil. A Special Place, Peter Straub’s first published novella, will come to stand as one of the author s most deeply unsettling works of fiction. A rumination on the nature of evil, the story centers on a boy, Keith Hayward, who is drawn by his nature to an irresistible fascination with death and the taking of life. His father s brother, the good looking, suave Uncle Till the infamous ladykiller, who has led a shadowy career as a local celebrity recognizes his nephew s innermost nature and gleefully tutors him in art of doing ill without getting caught. Even a cold blooded sociopath must learn some lessons in survival, in seems, and Uncle Till is only happy to provide a tutorial, in the latest imaginative and disturbing work from one of America’s most celebrated horror writers.

Houses Without Doors

A spectacular collection of short fiction which includes the seeds of Straub’s powerful Blue Rose trilogy.

‘You expect the horrifying in the fiction of Peter Straub…
and you get it.’ New York Times

‘Straub at his spellbinding best.’ Publishers Weekly

The Horror Writers Association Presents Peter Straub’s Ghosts

They beckon you to a twilight world of flesh and spirit…
. They are dream spinners weaving macabre nightmares…
phantasmic voices whispering words of dread…
spectral visions taunting you into an early grave. They are ghosts, young and ancient, mischievous and maniacal, glimmering and ghoulish. Now, journey with Peter Straub, one of today’s best ghost storytellers, as he and fourteen other premier peddlers of gooseflesh take you into the shivery haunts of Ghosts. Beginning with Straub’s ‘Hunger,’ a magnificent story about the cravings of the restless dead, here are stories never to be read past nightfall . stories of an unholy seductress gorging on men’s souls…
a Hollywood B moviemaker unexpectedly cast in the role of ghostwriter…
a psychic investigator who unearths far more than he bargained for…
and a burned out novelist desperately seeking the phantom muses of his childhood…
.

Magic Terror

No one tells a story like Peter Straub. He dazzles with the complexity of his plots. He delights with the sophistication and eloquence of his prose. He startles you into laughter in the face of events so dark you begin to question your own moral compass. Then he reduces you to jelly by spinning a tale so terrifying and surprising you wind up sleeping with the lights on. With Magic Terror, the bestselling author of Ghost Story and The Talisman with Stephen King has given us one of the most imaginatively unsettling collections in years. The terrain of these extraordinary stories is marked by brutality, heart break, despair, wonder, and an unexpected humor that allows empathy to blossom within the most unlikely contexts. ‘Bunny Is Good Bread’ takes us into the mind of a small boy trapped in grotesque circumstances to portray the creation of a serial killer in a manner that compels pity, sorrow, comprehension, and grief as well as judgment. ‘Hunger, an Introduction,’ narrated by the ghost of a pompous, self pitying murderer, evokes a profoundly beautiful vision of earthly life, one appreciated far more by the dead than the living. The award winning novella ‘Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff,’ a masterpiece of black comedy, draws upon Melville’s ‘Bartleby the Scrivener’ to create a revenge tale in which torture is a moral art and the revenger undergoes a transforming, albeit painful, education. In the words of Mrs. Asch, the visionary narrator of ‘Ashputtle,’ ‘The main feature of adventure is that it goes forward into unknown country.’ Straub’s devotees will be entranced by what their fearless guide has in store for them. Those as yet uninitiated are in for a harrowing literary journey. Enjoy the ride.

5 Stories

Offered for the first time in a collected format, this selection of short stories features five gripping tales by one of the horror genre’s most literate and endlessly inventive writers, Peter Straub ‘Little Red’s Tango,’ ‘Lapland, or Film Noir,’ ‘The Geezers,’ ‘Donald Duck,’ and ‘Mr. Aickman’s Air Rifle.’

The Talisman: Road of Trials (With: Stephen King)

The spellbinding saga of The Talisman is now a stunning graphic novel, vividly illustrated by artist Tony Shasteen. Here’s a bold new look at the classic tale of treachery and betrayal that could only have sprung from the imaginations of master storytellers Stephen King and Peter Straub. In a run down amuseme*nt park on a desolate beach in New Hampshire, thirteen year old Jack Sawyer is about to learn some hard truths about his father s death, about why he and his mother are on the run from his sinister uncle Morgan, and about the real nature of the mysterious realm Jack once called the Daydreams. Now, with help from his newfound friend Speedy Parker, this young man will reclaim his identity as Travellin Jack and make his first foray back into the Territories to retrieve the magical Talisman, an object of immense cosmic significance. Yet even more important to Jack, the Talisman holds the key to saving his mother s life. In the Terrorities, where monsters lurk, evil watches, and an unbelievably precious prize awaits, Jack embarks upon a desperate quest to fulfill a destiny he never sought but cannot escape. The Talisman: The Road of Trials comprises Issues 0 through 5 of the thrilling comic book series and features original, never before seen material, including interviews and early sketches. Be warned: Once you ve seen the Talisman, nothing will ever be the same.

The Green Woman (With: Michael Easton)

New York Times best selling author Peter Straub resurrects his most sinister creation, Fielding Fee Bandolier, the unstoppable serial killer last seen in Straub’s bestseller The Throat. Aging and tired of a life devoted to death, Fee is preparing to end his long career of bloodshed. Bob Steele is a disillusioned New York detective out for redemption and to him redemption means a one man crusade to stop Fielding Bandolier. Steele s father cruelly named him after a Hollywood cowboy hero. The name has been a curse because Bob has very little hero in him. But he s going to give it one last try. Cop and killer fi nally face off in a mysterious midwestern pub, The Green Woman Tavern. And in that abandoned place, an unspeakable evil stronger than either of them lies waiting to seal the fates of both men.

Sides

Over twenty years in the making, Sides represents the first ever collection of non fiction by bestselling author Peter Straub. Featuring introductions, essays, afterwords, and even a ‘frivolity’ along with the collected works of Putney Tyson Ridge, Straub’s ‘self invented human speed bump and alter ego’ this collection presents a rare glimpse into the author’s tastes and personal musings on topics ranging from The Stepford Wives and Dracula to Lawrence Block and Stephen King. Also included is ‘The Fantasy of Everyday Life’, Straub’s Guest of Honor speech at the 1998 International Conference of the Fantastic in the Arts, and ‘Mom’, an essay that appeared in a book that combined short stories written by mother son partnerships with essays written by male writers about their mothers. The ‘frivolity’ here ‘Why Electricman Lives in New York’ was written for an anthology celebrating the twenty fifth anniversary of New York Is Book Country. This long awaited collection closes with Putney Tyson Ridge’s reviews and commentaries on every Peter Straub book published since the 1970s. Sides is a unique and exclusive Cemetery Dance book, with no other editions planned anywhere in the world!

Best New Horror 4

A collection of short horror stories features the work of Peter Atkins, Clive Barker, Ramsey Campbell, Kim Newman, Peter Straub, Karl Edward Wagner, and others.

Best New Horror #26

The first annual collection of the world’s best horror stories and short novels showcases fiction from every part of the field from terror to supernatural chills and features the talents of Ian Watson, Stephen Gallagher, Ramsey Campbell, and others.

The Bone Key (By:Sarah Monette)

The dead and the monstrous will not leave Kyle Murchison Booth alone, for an unwilling foray into necromancy has made him sensitive to and attractive to the creatures who roam the darkness of his once safe world. Ghosts, ghouls, incubi: all have one thing in common. They know Booth for one of their own…

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One

An Air Force Loadmaster is menaced by strange sounds within his cargo; a man is asked to track down a childhood friend…
who died years earlier; doomed pioneers forge a path westward as a young mother discovers her true nature; an alcoholic strikes a dangerous bargain with a gregarious stranger; urban explorers delve into a ruined book depository, finding more than they anticipated; residents of a rural Wisconsin town defend against a legendary monster; a woman wracked by survivor’s guilt is haunted by the ghosts of a tragic crash; a detective strives to solve the mystery of a dismembered girl; an orphan returns to a wicked witch’s candy house; a group of smugglers find themselves buried to the necks in sand; an unanticipated guest brings doom to a high class party; a teacher attempts to lead his students to safety as the world comes to an end around them…
What frightens us, what unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw is tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the twenty one stories and poems included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year. Legendary editor Ellen Datlow Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year, Volume One.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two

Legendary editor Ellen Datlow, winner of multiple Hugo, Bram Stoker, and World Fantasy awards, joins Night Shade Books in presenting The Best Horror of the Year Volume 2.

The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three

What frightens us? What unnerves us? What causes that delicious shiver of fear to travel the lengths of our spines? It seems the answer changes every year. Every year the bar is raised; the screw, tightened. Ellen Datlow knows what scares us; the nineteen stories included in this anthology were chosen from magazines, webzines, anthologies, literary journals, and single author collections to represent the best horror of the year.

Snow White, Blood Red

Once upon a time, fairy tales were for children…
But no longer. You hold in your hands a volume of wonders magical tales of trolls and ogres, of bewitched princesses and kingdoms accursed, penned by some of the most acclaimed fantasists of our day. But these are not bedtime stories designed to usher an innocent child gently into a realm of dreams. These are stories that bite lush and erotic, often dark and disturbing mystical journeys through a phantasmagoric landscape of distinctly adult sensibilities…
where there is no such thing as ‘happily ever after.’

Black Thorn, White Rose

Once Upon A Time…
A seduced prince willingly fell prey to a sensuous usurper’s erotic treacheries…
a flesh eating ogre gamboled in the footlights…
a gingerbread man fled in terror from the baking pan to the fire…
The award winning editors of Snow White, Blood Red return us to distinctly adult realms of myth and the fantastic with eighteen wondorous works that cloak the magical fictions we heard at Grandma’s knee in mantles of darkness and dread. From Roger Zelansky’s delightful tale of Death’s disobedient godson to Peter Straub’s blood chilling examination of a gargantuan Cinderella and her terrible twisted ‘art,’ here are stories strange and miraculous remarkable modern storytelling that remold our most cherished childhood fables into things sexier, more sinister…
and more appealing to grown up tastes and sensiblilities.

Ruby Slippers, Golden Tears

‘Once upon a time…
‘ So begin the classic fairy tales that enthralled and terrified us as children. Now, in their third critically acclaimed collection of original fairy tales for adults, World Fantasy Award winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling bring us twenty one new stories by some of the top names in literature today. Joyce Carol Oates, Gahan Wilson, Gene Wolfe, Tanith Lee, Neil Gaiman these are but a few of the accomplished literary sorcerers who have gathered here to remold our timeless myths into more sensuous and disturbing forms. Like the fabled ruby slippers, there is powerful magic here. Rich witches in trendy resorts cast evil spells…
beautiful princesses age and wither in sleeping worlds…
terrible beasts reside beneath flawless skin. Dark, disturbing, delightful, each story was written expressly for this superb collection of distinctly grown up fantasy a brilliant companion volume to Datlow and Windling’s acclaimed anthologies, Snow White, Blood Red and Black Thorn, White Rose.

Black Swan, White Raven

A stellar assymbly of many of today’s most creative and accomplished storytellers has gathered around the tribal fire to embroider well worn yarns with new golden thread. Black Swan, White Raven revisits the tales that charmed, enthralled, and terrified us in our early youth carrying us aloft into the healthy, beating heart of cherished myth to tell once again the stories of Rumpelstiltskins and sleeping beauties, only this time from an edgy, provocative and distinctly adult perspective. The themes and archetypes of our beloved childhood fiction are reexamined in a darker light by 21 superb teller of tales who deftly uncover the ironic, the outrageous, the enigmatic and the erotic at the core of the world’s best known fables, while revealing the sobering truths and lies behind ‘happily ever after.’

Silver Birch, Blood Moon

The four previous volumes in Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling’s anthology series of fairly tales retold with a distinctively modern edge have been hailded by reviewers as ‘brilliant,’ ‘provocative,’ and ‘disturbing.’ In this triumphant new collection of original fiction, twenty one of today’s leading writers spin the cherished fables of childhood into glittering gold offering magical tales for adults, as seductive as they are sophisticated.A jealous prince plots the destruction of his hated brother’s wedding by inventing a ‘magic’ suit of clothing visible only to the pure at heart…
A young girl’s strange fairy tale obsession results in a brutal murder…
An embittered mother cares for her dying son who is trapped in a thicket that guards a sleeping beauty…
In a bleak and desolate industrial wasteland, a group of violent outcasts lays the tattered myths of one Millenium to rest, and gives terrifying birth to those of the next. Erotic, compelling, witty, and altogether extraordinary, these stories lay bare our innermost demons and desires imaginatively transforming our youthful fantasies into things darker, slyer, and more delightfully subversive.

Black Heart, Ivory Bones

Hair bright as gold…
Lips red as blood…
Heart black as sin…
Truth sharp as bone…
As in their previous critically acclaimed volumes of reconsidered fairy tales, award winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have gathered together remarkable stories that illuminate the more sinister, sensual, and sophisticated aspects of the tales we cherished in childhood; the fables of witches and princes and lost children that we once imagined we knew.’ Black Heart, Ivory Bones‘ showcases twenty beguiling tales for the child that was and the adult that is, penned by twenty of the most creative artists in contemporary American literature. Here dissected are the darker anatomies of the timeless, seemingly simple stories we have long loved. Here wonder and truth have serious bite.’ A lovelorn prince seeking his father’s blessing concocts a fantastic tale of a witch, a tower, and lustrous long hair…
A pair of accursed red boots punishes a beautiful dancer for her pride…
A troll killing, princess rescuing warrior is compelled to consider events from his adversaries’ point of view…
In a blistering tell all memoir, Goldilocks reveals the sordid truth about her brutal foster parent, Papa Bear…
‘Rich, surprising, funny, erotic, and unsettling, these twenty new yarns and poems offer exceptional anew treasures as they brilliantly reveal lusts and jealousies, foibles, hatreds and dangerous obsessions, the things that slyly lurk in the midnight interior of oft told tales. As in their previous critically acclaimed volumes of reconsidered fairy tales, award winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have gathered together remarkable stories that illuminate the more sinister, sensual,and sophisticated aspects of the tales we cherished in childhood; the fables of witches and princes and lost children that we once imagined we knew. Black Heart, Ivory Bones showcases twenty beguiling tales for the child that was and the adult that is, penned by twenty of the most creative artists in contemporary American literature. Here dissected are the darker anatomies of the timeless, seemingly simple stories we have long loved. Here wonder and truth have serious bite.’A lovelorn prince seeking his father’s blessing concocts a fantastic tale of a witch, a tower, and lustrous long hair…
A pair of accursed red boots punishes a beautiful dancer for her pride…
A troll killing, princess rescuing warrior is compelled to consider events from his adversaries’ point of view…
In a blistering tell all memoir, Goldilocks reveals the sordid truth about her brutal foster parent, Papa Bear…
Rich, surprising, funny, erotic, and unsettling, these twenty new yarns and poems offer exceptional new treasures as they brilliantly reveal lusts and jealousies, foibles, hatreds, and dangerous obsessions, the things that slyly lurk in the midnight interior of oft told tales. As in their previous critically acclaimed volumes of reconsidered fairy tales, award winning editors Ellen Datlow and Terri Windling have gathered together remarkable stories that illuminate the more sinister, sensual, and sophisticated aspects of the tales we cherished in childhood; the fables of witches and princes and lost children that we once imagined we knew. Black Heart, Ivory Bones showcases twenty beguiling tales for the child that was and the adult that is, penned by twenty of the most creative artists incontemporary American literature. Here dissected are the darker anatomies of the timeless, seemingly simple stories we have long loved. Here wonder and truth have serious bite.’A lovelorn prince seeking his father’s blessing concocts a fantastic tale of a witch, a tower, and lustrous long hair…
A pair of accursed red boots punishes a beautiful dancer for her pride…
A troll killing, princess rescuing warrior is compelled to consider events from his adversaries’ point of view…
In a blistering tell all memoir, Goldilocks reveals the sordid truth about her brutal foster parent, Papa Bear…
Rich, surprising, funny, erotic, and unsettling, these twenty new yarns and poems offer exceptional new treasures as they brilliantly reveal lusts and jealousies, foibles, hatreds, and dangerous obsessions, the things that slyly lurk in the midnight interior of oft told tales.

October Dreams

Classic novellas, never before published stories, essays on the history, literature, and films of Halloween, and real life memories of October 31st from today’s best practitioners of fear: Dean Koontz Peter Straub Poppy Z. Brite Rick Hautala Steve Rasnic Tem Elizabeth Engstrom Thomas Ligotti Gary A. Braunbeck Jack Ketchum Thomas F. Monteleone Hugh B. Cave Simon Clark Christopher Golden Ray Bradbury Jack Ketchum Alan M. Clark Gahan Wilson Paula Guran John Shirley Tom Piccirilli Jack Cady David B. Silva Robert Morrish William F. Nolan Michael Cadnum Richard Laymon Douglas Clegg Douglas E. Winter Stanley Wiater Caitl n R. Kiernan Lewis Shiner Yvonne Navarro Tim Lebbon Kim Newman F. Paul Wilson Owl Goingback Dennis Etchison Stephen Mark Rainey Charles L. Grant Kelly Laymon Dominick Cancilla Kristine Kathryn Rusch Michael Marshall Smith Wayne Allen Sallee Ramsey Campbell Ed Gorman Stefan Dziemianowicz Peter Crowther

Opening Shots, Vol. II

This second volume of Opening Shots is a collection of twenty three first stories published by prominent mystery and crime writers. Some of these offerings are remarkably mature, professional work. Others are more obviously early works, before the writers’ skills reached full maturity. But every one of them is a pleasure to read, and in each can be seen the seed of the writer’s craft. ‘Each writer has included an introduction worth the price of admission all by themselves,’ observes Block. ‘Writers, it seems to me, are never more eloquent or more interesting that when they reminisce about their early days, and recalling one’s first success seems a spur of anecdotage for most of us.’ Following on the heels of the successful first volume of this series, the stories in this stellar field include: ‘Final Rites’ by Doug Allyn ‘Don’t Kill a Karate Fighter’ by William Chambers ‘Entrapped’ by Harlan Coben ‘Yellow Gal’ by Michael Collins ‘Together’ by Jeffrey Deaver ‘The Rough Boys’ by Harlan Ellison ‘Tole My Cap’n’ by Joe Gores ‘Layover’ by Ed Gorman ‘A Bunch of Mumbo Jumbo’ by Jan Grape ‘The Cure’ by David Handler ‘Till Tuesday’ by Jeremiah Healy ‘Village of the Dead’ by Edward D. Hoch ‘Chalk’ by Evan Hunter ‘It’s a Wise Child Who Knows’ by Stuart Kaminsky ‘Who Killed Co*ck Robin?’ by H. R. F. Keating ‘Medford & Son’ by Dick Lochte ‘Thieves’ Honor’ by John Lutz ‘Not All Brides Are Beautiful’ by Sharyn McCrumb ‘Manslaughter’ by Joyce Carol Oates ‘You Don’t Know What It’s Like’ by Bill Pronzini ‘The Disappearance of Penny’ by Robert J. Randisi ‘A Victim Must Be Found’ by Henry Slesar ‘Blue Rose’ by Peter Straub ‘A Bad Night For Burglars’ by Lawrence Block

Conjunctions #39: The New Wave Fabulists

For perhaps two decades, a small group of writers rooted in the genres of science fiction, fantasy and horror have been simultaneously exploring and erasing the boundaries of those genres by creating fiction of remarkable depth and power. Their connections to the genres they have been radically redefining have, for many of these writers, limited the appreciation of their accomplishments to a specialized readership. For example, though John Crowley and Jonathan Carroll have massive underground reputations, and Peter Straub has written two books with Stephen King and other bestselling novels such as Ghost Story, Koko, and The Throat, many if not most readers of Conjunctions will be unfamiliar with their work. In this haunting and beautiful collection of tales, Crowley, Carroll and Straub join Elizabeth Hand, China Mieville, M. John Harrison, Neil Gaiman and Kelly Link to demonstrate precisely how science fiction, fantasy and horror have been unobtrusively colonizing serious literature during the past 20 years. As an added bonus, science fiction and fantasy experts Gary K. Wolfe and John Clute offer a critical perspective and explain everything in sight. With original cover art by master cartoonist Gahan Wilson.

Poe’s Children

From the incomparable master of horror and suspense comes an electrifying collection of contemporary literary horror, with stories from twenty five writers representing today’s most talented voices in the genre. Horror writing is usually associated with formulaic gore, but New Wave horror writers have more in common with the wildly inventive, evocative spookiness of Edgar Allan Poe than with the sometimes predictable hallmarks of their peers. Showcasing this cutting edge talent, Poe s Children now brings the best of the genre s stories to a wider audience. Featuring tales from such writers as Neil Gaiman and Jonathan Carroll, Poe s Children is Peter Straub s tribute to the imaginative power of storytelling. Each previously published story has been selected by Straub to represent what he thinks is the most interesting development in our literature during the last two decades. Selections range from the early Stephen King psychological thriller The Ballad of the Flexible Bullet, in which an editor confronts an author s belief that his typewriter is inhabited by supernatural creatures, to The Man on the Ceiling, Melanie and Steve Rasnic Tem s award winning surreal tale of night terrors, woven with daylight fears that haunt a family. Other selections include National Book Award finalist Dan Chaon s The Bees ; Peter Straub s Little Red s Tango, the legend of a music aficionado whose past is as mysterious as the ghostly visitors to his Manhattan apartment; Elizabeth Hand s visionary and shocking Cleopatra Brimstone ; Thomas Ligotti s brilliant, mind stretching Notes on the Writing of Horror: A Story ; and Body, Brian Evenson s disturbing twist on correctional facilities. Crossing boundaries and packed with imaginative chills, Poe s Children bears all the telltale signs of fearless, addictive fiction. From the Hardcover edition.

Halloween

Shivers and spirits…
the mystical and macabre…
our darkest fears and sweetest fantasies…
the fun and frivolity of tricks, treats, festivities, and masquerades. Halloween is a holiday filled with both delight and dread, beloved by youngsters and adults alike. Celebrate the most magical season of the year with this sensational treasury of seasonal tales spooky, suspenseful, terrifying, or teasing harvested from a multitude of master storytellers.

The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2010

Darkness surrounds us. We can find darkness anywhere: in a strange green stone etched with mysterious symbols; at a small town’s annual picnic; in a ghostly house that is easy to enter but not so easy to leave; behind the dumpster in the alley where a harpy lives; in The Nowhere, a place where car keys, toys, people disappear to; among Polar explorers; and, most definitely, within ourselves. Darkness flies from mysterious crates; surrounds children whose nightlights have vanished; and flickers between us at the movie theater. Darkness crawls from the past and is waiting in our future; and there’s always a chance that Halloween really is a door opening directly into endless shadow. Welcome to the dark. You may never want to leave. This inaugural volume of the year’s best dark fantasy and horror features more than 500 pages of dark tales from some of today’s finest writers of the fantastique. Chosen from a variety of sources, these stories are as eclectic and varied as the genre itself.

Hint Fiction

A story collection that proves less is more. The stories in this collection run the gamut from playful to tragic, conservative to experimental, but they all have one thing in common: they are no more than 25 words long. Robert Swartwood was inspired by Ernest Hemingway’s possibly apocryphal six word story ‘For Sale: baby shoes, never worn’ to foster the writing of these incredibly short short stories. He termed them ‘Hint Fiction‘ because the few chosen words suggest a larger, more complex chain of events. Spare and evocative, these stories prove that a brilliantly honed narrative can be as startling and powerful as a story of traditional length. The 125 gemlike stories in this collection come from such best selling and award winning authors as Joyce Carol Oates, Ha Jin, Peter Straub, and James Frey, as well as emerging writers.

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