Classic horror, ghost stories and supernatural fiction

Book SynopsisFollowing the success of Handheld Press's 2019 best-selling anthology Womens Weird, British Weird is a new anthology of classic Weird short fiction by British writers, first published between the 1890s and the 1930s. Embracing the famous and the undeservedly obscure, this collection - curated by James Machin, author of Palgrave Gothic's Weird Fiction in Britain, 1880-1939 - assembles stories to thrill, entertain, and chill. Featured stories include: 'Man-Size in Marble' by Edith Nesbit (1893) 'No-Man's Land', John Buchan (1900) 'The Willows', by Algernon Blackwood 'The Man Who Went Too Far', by E F Benson (1912) 'N' by Arthur Machen (1934) 'Mappa Mundi' by Mary Butts (1937) The collection also includes Mary Butts' influential essay 'Ghosties and Ghoulies' (1933), on British supernatural writing. Machin's introduction describes the background for these excellent stories in the Weird tradition, and identifies their use of peculiarly British preoccupations in supernatural short fiction.Trade ReviewReviewed in The Washington Post, 28 October 2020, '‘Classic stories, but also less familiar ones’

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Book SynopsisThe Australian novelist and playwright Helen de Guerry Simpson (1897-1940) published many supernatural short stories. This new edition selects the best of her unsettling writing, adding some little-known stories to her 1925 collection The Baseless Fabric. Featured stories include: 'An Experiment of the Dead', in which a visitor comes to visit a woman in the condemned cell. 'Good Company', in which a traveller in Italy becomes temporarily possessed of a hitchhiker in her mind. 'Grey Sand and White Sand' is the horrifying story of a landscape artist who sees and paints a different view. 'The Outcast', in which a soldier left for dead in the War takes his revenge on his village. 'The Rite', in which a discontented woman enters a wood, and emerges transformed. Helen de Guerry Simpson was born in Sydney, New South Wales, and studied at Oxford. Her novel Boomerang won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for 1932. She died from cancer in 1940. Her close friend, the novelist Margaret Kennedy, took charge of Simpson's daughter Clemence during the war while Simpson was in her last illness. Clemence and Simpson both feature in Kennedy's wartime memoir, Where Stands A Winged Sentry, also published by Handheld Press. The Introduction is by Melissa Edmundson, the leading scholar of women's Weird fiction and supernatural writing from the early 20th century.

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Book SynopsisWARNING! Contains moderate bloody violence against slavers and plantation owners! This pioneer vampire tale from 1819 spills revenge-cold blood as its narrator leads us through high gothic terror to radical outrage on the subject of slavery, reaching a blood-soaked conclusion dripping with 'biting' polemic vilifying the bankers who caused the economic recession of that same year. An anti-capitalist horror fable from 200 years ago, The Black Vampyre vilified the worst financial predation the capitalist world would ever see ― the enslavement of Africans in the New World. One dead man said no! And this is his story. The Black Vampyre; A Legend of St. Domingo tells the affrighting tale of a slave who is resurrected as a vampire after being killed by his owner; the slave seeks revenge by stealing the owner's son and marrying the owner's wife. The anonymous writer D'Arcy sets the story against the conditions that led to the Haitian Revolution. First published in chapbook form in New York in 1819, this emancipatory tale from literary New York in the 1810s arguably dates the birth of horror as know it! This edition features a new introduction as well as extensive notes and a guide to literary allusions.

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Book SynopsisAlgernon Blackwood has influenced weird fiction and horror writers down to the present day, with H.P. Lovecraft naming him among the modern masters of the genre.  East of Vienna, a canoe trip down the length of the Danube River turns strange and horrifying.  The two men traveling find it bad enough when they are forced to camp on an isolated island in the middle of nowhere while gale-force winds howl and waters rise. But soon, the threats take on a supernatural tinge. Wild sounds and visions in the night convince the men that they’re being hunted by beings from another dimension, who are not so much malicious as vastly, cosmically indifferent to their welfare-and hungry.  The Willows, which first appeared in The Listener and Other Stories (1907), is one of his best-known tales. Noted weird fiction writer Ruthanna Emrys enlivens the text with sprightly commentary and traces the streams of story to their headwaters in a poetic and penetrating introduction. 

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Book SynopsisSelected by Library Journal as one of the best horror books of 2019 "The sheer, skin-crawling fright is masterful. Thomas has crafted an indelible story...all wrapped in a supernatural shroud that unfurls from the heart of America. Whether or not thoughts can breathe, books certainly can, and Violet does exactly that." —Jason Heller, National Public Radio "Don't let anybody tell you this book is a slow burn—Violet travels at the speed of horror." —Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box For many children, the summer of 1988 was filled with sunshine and laughter. But for ten-year-old Kris Barlow, it was her chance to say goodbye to her dying mother. Three decades later, loss returns—her husband killed in a car accident. And so, Kris goes home to the place where she first knew pain—to that summer house overlooking the crystal waters of Lost Lake. It’s there that Kris and her eight-year-old daughter will make a stand against grief. But a shadow has fallen over the quiet lake town of Pacington, Kansas. Beneath its surface, an evil has grown—and inside that home where Kris Barlow last saw her mother, an old friend awaits her return.Trade Review"The sense of dread builds slowly in this atmospheric, character-driven tale." —Library Journal, selected as a Best Horror Book of 2019 “Thomas is a horror novelist who will be camping out on your shelves for years to come.” —Booklist (starred review) "Thomas conjures the power of grief with dreadful clarity, rendering the entity’s vengeance as inevitable as it is chilling. It’s a gruesome, ghostly, yet moving tale of love, loss, and the endless power of memory." —Publishers Weekly "The sheer, skin-crawling fright is masterful. Thomas has crafted an indelible story...all wrapped in a supernatural shroud that unfurls from the heart of America. Whether or not thoughts can breathe, books certainly can, and Violet does exactly that." —Jason Heller, National Public Radio "A master class in immersion. Don't let anybody tell you this book is a slow burn—Violet travels at the speed of horror." —Josh Malerman, New York Times bestselling author of Bird Box and A House at the Bottom of a Lake “Unputdownable nightmare fuel. Some of the most compelling storytelling I’ve read in a long time.” —Sadie Hartmann, Cemetery Dance "Not since Peter Straub’s Ghost Story has a book so fully mesmerized and terrified me." —Shane D. Keene, Horror DNA "Thomas cuts even deeper and darker. If you weren't already a fan, this should be the book to do it." —Sam Reader, Barnes & Noble

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Book SynopsisAlgernon Blackwood was one of the first true masters of horror and weird fiction. This deluxe oversized slipcase hardcover, illuminated by illustrations from the brilliant designer and graphic storyteller Paul Pope, makes a powerful argument for his rightful place as one of the most important genre writers of the 20th century. It features the novella THE WILLOWS, four short stories spanning Blackwood's career, and an introduction by the renowned British horror writer Ramsey Campbell.

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Book Synopsis“Kim Powers's haunting and spellbinding novel Rules for Being Dead reads like an intoxicating blend of the best of Shirley Jackson, Alice Sebold and Fannie Flagg." —STARRED Review, Shelf Awareness It's the late 1960s in McKinney, Texas. At the downtown theater and the local drive-in, movies—James Bond, My Fair Lady, Alfie, and Dr. Zhivago—feed the dreams and obsessions of a ten-year-old Clarke who loves Audrey, Elvis, his family, and the handsome boy in the projector booth. Then Clarke loses his beloved mother, and no one will tell him how she died. No one will tell her either. She is floating above the trees and movie screens of McKinney, trapped between life and death, searching for a glimpse of her final moments on this earth. Clarke must find the shattering truth, which haunts this darkly humorous and incredibly moving novel.Trade Review“Kim Powers's haunting and spellbinding novel Rules for Being Dead reads like an intoxicating blend of the best of Shirley Jackson, Alice Sebold and Fannie Flagg. But Powers has created an original novel that is both a tender coming-of-age tale and a fascinating mystery that builds to a nail-biting climax. (…) With a deceptively subtle, breezy writing style, Powers pulls readers into his tasty and tantalizing mixture of empathetic characters, Southern gothic coming-of-age comedy, mystery and magical realism.” —STARRED REVIEW, Shelf Awareness “Blending late-’60s nostalgia with a supernatural mystery, Powers’s emotionally complex tale gets the job done just right.” —Publishers Weekly "Well drawn and superbly authentic" —Michael Graves, Lambda Literary “Every season or so, there’s a book that comes seemingly out of the blue and manages to knock our socks off. Rules for Being Dead is that book for the summer of 2020. Honestly this should not have come as a surprise. Kim has written several other excellent books, both fiction and nonfiction, and is a senior writer for ABC News’ 20/20, so there’s little doubt that he knows his way around a story. But what makes Rules for Being Dead so powerful is the blend of genres: it’s a mystery, it’s a coming-of-age story, it’s a literary work, as well as the very tone is a mixture of funny and bittersweet. It’s nostalgic, it tugs at your heartstrings, and it’s a celebration of vintage movies….If you threw The Lovely Bones, Cinema Paradiso, and Edmund White’s A Boy’s Own Story into a blender and mixed them all up, you’d end up with something that looks a little bit like Rules for Being Dead, but even that doesn’t fully express the bounty of treasures within this book. I certainly hope that this is the little book that everyone’s talking about this season.” —Kristopher Zgorski, Bolo Books "Rules for Being Dead is culturally rich and compelling … a poignant glimpse into a family dynamic that is less than ideal and becomes even murkier and more ambiguous when death throws everything and everyone into a maelstrom of accusations, physical misdeeds, accidents, rejection, and the frantic pursuit to piece a broken family together with promises, hope, enlightenment, and acceptance." —Lone Star Literary "In a story that's both cagey and unfailingly entertaining, Powers explores life's deepest questions and most profound mysteries. Only a writer this in touch with his own humanity could populate a novel with characters who, despite their flaws, failures, and eccentricities, are humane and good." —Wally Lamb, author of I Know This Much Is True "Kim Powers writes a glorious novel about a boy and his journey to feel whole after the mysterious death of his mother. Mr. Powers’ prose is artful and searing as Clarke's story unfolds in a Texas town so vivid, the reader is there. Secrets are revealed, hope is lost and found, and redemption awaits in this beautifully rendered tale about love and loss, and the courage to face the truth with an open heart." —Adriana Trigiani, New York Times bestselling author of Tony's Wife “A tour de force in voice and structure, this uniquely heartbreaking novel—literary fiction meets boy detective—is somehow adorable and sinister at the same time. The brilliantly talented Kim Powers has created a poignant and remarkable story.” —Hank Phillippi Ryan, award-winning author of The Murder List “Rules for Being Dead is a rich and compelling novel about a mother and her sons that is filled with nostalgia, heartbreak, and a love that will never die. Kim Powers has created an unforgettable story about discovering the world through movies, engaging with the tougher realities of life, and learning to forgive the people around us and ourselves." —Will Schwalbe, New York Times bestselling author of The End of Your Life Book Club and Books for Living "It's time well spent with the Perkins family, though the father should be locked up, one son should be disarmed, and the mother who might fix everything can't—because unfortunately she's a ghost. Unorthodox, quirky, funny and heartbreaking, Powers' love letter to difficult families (and 1960s film classics!) is a blast." —Wilton Barnhardt, best-selling author of Lookaway, Lookaway “We all know a few rules about being alive but who knew that the afterlife could command equal attention. Kim Powers’ Rules for Being Dead caught me by surprise with its intrigue, wit, and nostalgia. His incredibly moving novel takes you back home―no matter where, or when, you grew up. It reminds us that mothers and fathers can never be as perfect as we want them to be, and that childhood secrets can still haunt into adulthood. Get ready to be captivated by a lonely boy who’s lost in the world of ’60s movies and true crime and employs both of them to try to solve the ultimate mystery: what caused his mother’s mysterious death? And one more thing? Despite its title, this book is about learning how to live, with every breath you take.” ―Deborah Roberts, ABC News Correspondent “Tenderhearted and touching, Rules for Being Dead is imbued with the imagination and emotion of such beloved books as The Lovely Bones and Ellen Foster. The narrative is laced with nostalgic references (from Elvis movies to mentions of Don Knotts and TV shows like Family Affair) that bring to life a forgotten time. All these elements come together to create a vibrant backdrop to the story of one family’s unexpected loss and journey toward healing.” ―John Searles, bestselling author of Help for the Haunted and Strange But True “Rules for Being Dead offers a startlingly original perspective on misapprehension, forgiveness, and love and delivers its vision with a punch. I picked up the book and could not put it down.” —Elaine Neil Orr, author of Swimming Between Worlds

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Book SynopsisNathan has always been haunted by what he calls “deaders,” frightening, disfigured creatures—once human but now hungry and relentless ghosts. After a séance to banish them goes awry, Nathan escapes high school to start over at Waxman University in idyllic Garden City, Montana. But when young men begin to go missing from campus, Nathan finds that the deaders have returned, more frightening and hungrier than ever. With the help of the mysterious Theo, Nathan seeks to learn the truth behind the disappearances. But something worse than the deaders begins to haunt Nathan . . . something with glowing yellow eyes and giant wings. As reality grows thin, things emerge from the cracks. Is Theo what he seems? Or could he be some kind of monster? Will Nathan learn the truth before he vanishes into the darkness?

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Book SynopsisFour gothic novellas from the novelist of Kill Creek and Violet, praised by the New York Times, National Public Radio, and the American Library Association. In The Door in the Field, a construction worker''s bad day becomes a far worse night when drinks at an off-the-books bar send him down an unforeseeably bloody path. In The Boy in the Woods, something evil has infected the counselors at a summer camp, and a young boy will have to do anything he can to survive the night. In One Half of a Child’s Face, a woman spying on her daughter and ex-husband notices an odd painting hanging in an empty apartment . . . one that seems to call to the building’s children. In Wear Your Secret Like a Stone, a big-box clerk discovers that her book pick for a Halloween display echoes a dark secret hidden beneath the idyllic facade of her hometown. With this collection, Scott Thomas digs his hands into the soil of the American heartland and establishes himself as a master of Midwestern Gothic.

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Book Synopsis History bleeds evil.1899 Transylvania bleeds of history and evil. Young Solicitor Jonathan Harker braves ghosts, demons, living skeletons, and armies of rats, as he encounters Dracula of Transylvania, the Son of Satan. The demonic, shapeshifting vampire imposes his wrath, malice, and vengeance upon an England about to enter the Modern Era, crushing everything in his path. Dracula of Transylvania is a fresh, bold retelling of the classic Stoker dark fairy tale with the pulse-pounding pace of the modern thriller. It is a gripping new softcover novel lavished with incredible concept art from one of Hollywood?s leading Conceptual Designers, Ricardo Delgado.Murder among English tombstones! Daring chases through the infamous underground Paris Ossuaries! A spectacular gladiatorial battle within Rome''s Colosseum during the Witching Hour! All this topped by a fever-pitch chase through Europe to the most terrifying place on earth: Castle Dracula. Dracula of Transylvania is The Exorcist meets Peter Jackson''s The Lord of the Rings, in a sprawling yet haunting adventure with the air of the Victorian Era Ghost story. It is a powerful, unrelenting, and fascinating new vision of one of literature?s most feared characters.This edition is footnoted throughout with historical facts from the Ancient to the Modern World.

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