Shadows Over Baker Street (2005)
by Various
Here’s a real treat for fans of Sherlock Holmes, H. P. Lovecraft, and everyone in between: 20 original stories by writers of horror and fantasy. Neil Gaiman is here, along with Barbara Hambly, Richard Lupoff, Brian Stableford, Poppy Z. Brite, and many more. The premise is engaging: What if the world of Holmes, the world’s most logical and rational detective, intersected with the world of Lovecraft, where logic and rationality have little meaning? These are stories about strange beasts, men cursed to death, and the walking un-dead. Most feature a powerful narrative voice. One stars Irene Adler and takes place nearly a decade before the events recounted in the classic Conan Doyle story, “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Another is narrated by H. G. Wells. Mycroft Holmes, Sherlock’s brother, appears in one tale; still another has Dr. Watson becoming Holmes’ client. The stories, set between 1881 and 1915, are uniformly excellent, and the book, authorized by the Doyle estate, is a welcome addition to the Holmes canon. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Stories of Castle Rock by Stephen King
- The Dead Zone (1979)
- Cujo (1981)
- “The Body” (1982) (novella from Different Seasons)
- “Uncle Otto’s Truck” (1983) (short story which appears in Skeleton Crew)
- The Dark Half (1989)
- “The Sun Dog” (1990) (novella from Four Past Midnight)
- Needful Things (1991)
- “It Grows on You” (1973, revised 1993) (short story which appears in Nightmares & Dreamscapes)
by Will Elliott
It follows the story of Jamie who after a random incident of nearly hitting a clown with his car finds himself being stalked by three sadistic clowns. - from wikipedia desciption
“You have two days to pass your audition. You better pass it, feller. You’re joining the circus. Ain’t that the best news you ever got?” Delivered by a trio of psychotic clowns, this ultimatum plunges Jamie into the horrific alternate universe that is the centuries-old Pilo Family Circus, a borderline world between Hell and Earth from which humankind’s greatest tragedies have been perpetrated. Yet in this place—peopled by the gruesome, grotesque, and monstrous—where violence and savagery are the norm, Jamie finds that his worst enemy is himself. When he applies the white face paint, he is transformed into JJ, the most vicious clown of all. And JJ wants Jamie dead! Echoes of Lovecraft, Bret Easton Ellis, Chuck Palahniuk, and early Stephen King resound through the pages of this magical, gleefully macabre work nominated as Best Novel by the International Horror Guild. - from Amazon.com description
by Arthur Machen
Mary, a young woman in Wales, has her mind destroyed by Dr Raymond’s attempt to enable her to see the god of nature, Pan. Years later the beautiful but sinister-looking Helen Vaughan arrives on the London social scene, disturbing many young men and causing some of them to commit suicide. - from wikipedia
The link above is to project Gutenberg, where you may download the novella freely, in several device formats. It is also available directly from Amazon in Kindle format at no cost.
The Art Trilogy by Clive Barker
- The Great and Secret Show (1989)
- Everville (1994)
- Unannounced (release data unknown)
The Art Trilogy is a planned trilogy of novels by Clive Barker, of which only the first two have been published. Book one is The Great and Secret Show, which tells the tale of two superhumans, Fletcher and The Jaffe, and their battles. The second book, Everville, goes deeper into the mythology of the cosm (essentially, Earth) and the metacosm (another plane of existence containing the dream sea Quiddity).
Barker has spoken of the third book frequently over the years, but he has not yet written it and there is no schedule for its release - from wikipedia.
by Thomas Ligotti
This collection features tormented individuals who play out their doom in various odd little towns, as well as in dark sectors frequented by sinister and often blackly comical eccentrics. The cycle of narratives that includes the title work of this collection, for instance, introduces readers to a freakish community of artists who encounter demonic perils that ultimately engulf their lives. These are selected examples of the forbidding array of persons and places that compose the mesmerizing fiction of Thomas Ligotti. - from Amazon.com description
by Elizabeth Kostova
If your pulse flutters at the thought of castle ruins and descents into crypts by moonlight, you will savor every creepy page of Elizabeth Kostova’s long but beautifully structured thriller The Historian. The story opens in Amsterdam in 1972, when a teenage girl discovers a medieval book and a cache of yellowed letters in her diplomat father’s library. The pages of the book are empty except for a woodcut of a dragon. The letters are addressed to: “My dear and unfortunate successor.” When the girl confronts her father, he reluctantly confesses an unsettling story: his involvement, twenty years earlier, in a search for his graduate school mentor, who disappeared from his office only moments after confiding to Paul his certainty that Dracula—Vlad the Impaler, an inventively cruel ruler of Wallachia in the mid-15th century—was still alive. The story turns out to concern our narrator directly because Paul’s collaborator in the search was a fellow student named Helen Rossi (the unacknowledged daughter of his mentor) and our narrator’s long-dead mother, about whom she knows almost nothing. And then her father, leaving just a note, disappears also.
As well as numerous settings, both in and out of the East Bloc, Kostova has three basic story lines to keep straight—one from 1930, when Professor Bartolomew Rossi begins his dangerous research into Dracula, one from 1950, when Professor Rossi’s student Paul takes up the scent, and the main narrative from 1972. The criss-crossing story lines mirror the political advances, retreats, triumphs, and losses that shaped Dracula’s beleaguered homeland—sometimes with the Byzantines on top, sometimes the Ottomans, sometimes the rag-tag local tribes, or the Orthodox church, and sometimes a fresh conqueror like the Soviet Union.
Although the book is appropriately suspenseful and a delight to read—even the minor characters are distinctive and vividly seen—its most powerful moments are those that describe real horrors. Our narrator recalls that after reading descriptions of Vlad burning young boys or impaling “a large family,” she tried to forget the words: “For all his attention to my historical education, my father had neglected to tell me this: history’s terrible moments were real. I understand now, decades later, that he could never have told me. Only history itself can convince you of such a truth.” The reader, although given a satisfying ending, gets a strong enough dose of European history to temper the usual comforts of the closing words. —Regina Marler (from Amazon.com)
Nominated in 2005 for the International Horror Guild Award for best Novel.
by Thomas F. Monteleone
The previous Pope died in his arms, blessing him with his last breath. He can perform miracles. His mother was a virgin. His DNA came from the Shroud of Turin. Peter Carenza is the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy and a secret, Vatican-sponsored experiment. But is he the Second Coming, or something far, far worse?
Believers the world over hail Carenza as the new Pope and rejoice as he creates a new Church for the new Millennium. Few people know the truth — that mixing science with the works of God has created not a Savior but the Anti-Christ.
Now the latest — and last — Pope scours the world for the human guardians of the Biblical seven seals, which must be destroyed before the final cataclysm can begin. Opposing him are a lone Archbishop, the female American journalist who chronicled Carenza’s rise to power, and Peter’s mother, a nun who truly hears the Word of the Lord.
- from Amazon.com
Won Bramstoker Award 1992
The last man on Earth sat alone in a room. There was a knock on the door.
-Frederic Brown
(Source: lmaogtfo)
Tor.com is participating in All Hallow’s Read, a new holiday tradition created by Neil Gaiman. It’s easy to join in - on Hallowe’en give someone special a scary book to read! Tor.com will have 24 hours of sweepstakes all day on Hallowe’en: we’ll be giving away a set of two books every hour (one book for the winner to keep, and one to give away). Plus, the Tor staff have their own special picks for the holiday - take a look, and find a new favorite book! - Tor.com
