Best of
Gothic-Horror

2018

Vampire


Kenneth Hite - 2018
    You are a vampire, struggling for survival, supremacy, and your own fading humanity—afraid of what you are capable of, and fearful of the inhuman conspiracies that surround you.As a vampire you suffer the pangs of the Hunger, the relentless and terrible thirst for human blood. If you refuse to deal with it, it will overcome your mind and drive you to terrible acts to slake it. You walk this razor's edge every night.Dark designs, bitter enemies, and strange allies await you in this World of Darkness.The classic that changed roleplaying games forever returns! This fifth edition features a streamlined and modern rules design, beautiful new full-color art, and a rich story experience for players. Powered by the innovative Hunger cycle, the game also includes rules for creating system supported character coteries, Loresheets to directly involve players with their favorite parts of the setting and The Memoriam, a new way to bring the character's detailed backgrounds and expand on them in-session.V5 is a return to Vampire's original vision, moving boldly into the 21st century. While the rules have been redesigned, this new edition honors the deep story of the original, advancing the metaplot from where it left off and detailing exactly what has happened in the world of the Kindred up until tonight. The terror of the Second Inquisition, the conspiracies behind the Gehenna War, and the rekindling of the War of Ages: these are the building blocks of the modern V5 chronicle.

The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories


Arthur Machen - 2018
    Perhaps no figure better embodies the transition from the Gothic tradition to modern horror than Arthur Machen. In the final decade of the nineteenth century, the Welsh writer produced a seminal body of tales of occult horror, spiritual and physical corruption, and malignant survivals from the primeval past which horrified and scandalized late-Victorian readers. Machen's "weird fiction" has influenced generations of storytellers, from H. P. Lovecraft to Guillermo Del Toro - and it remains no less unsettling today. This new collection, which includes the complete novel The Three Impostors as well as such celebrated tales as The Great God Pan and The White People, constitutes the most comprehensive critical edition of Machen yet to appear. In addition to the core late-Victorian horror classics, a selection of lesser-known prose poems and later tales helps to present a fuller picture of the development of Machen's weird vision. The edition's introduction and notes contextualize the life and work of this foundational figure in the history of horror.

Corvus Hall


Bibiana Krall - 2018
    Welcome to THE IRISH PHANTOM SERIES! Written in closely linked novellas, the series is best enjoyed read in sequential order.After surviving an inexplicable supernatural event, a young woman from New Jersey is crippled by anxiety and phobias.But it isn't until years later when Mary's best friend is to be married at a lavish mansion in Ireland, that the mystery begins to unravel.Will she unlock the secrets of Corvus Hall before it's too late?Hold onto your seatbelts! The phantoms are coming! Corvus Hall was written in homage to the style of Daphne DuMaurier's Rebecca with a modern and surprising twist.

The Phantom of the Opera and other Gothic Tales


Various - 2018
    P. Lovecraft, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Arthur Machen, Louisa May Alcott, E. T. A. Hoffmann, J. Sheridan Le Fanu, and Vernon Lee.

Exploring Dark Short Fiction #2: A Primer to Kaaron Warren


Eric J. Guignard - 2018
    She’s published four novels, multiple novellas, and well over one hundred heart-rending tales of horror, science fiction, and beautiful fantasy, and is the first author ever to simultaneously win all three of Australia’s top speculative fiction writing awards (Ditmar, Shadows, and Aurealis awards for The Grief Hole).Dark Moon Books and editor Eric J. Guignard bring you this introduction to her work, the second in a series of primers exploring modern masters of literary dark short fiction. Herein is a chance to discover—or learn more of—the distinct voice of Kaaron Warren, as beautifully illustrated by artist Michelle Prebich.Included within these pages are:• Six short stories, one written exclusively for this book• Author interview• Complete bibliography• Academic commentary by Michael Arnzen, PhD (former humanities chair and professor of the year, Seton Hill University)• … and more!Enter this doorway to the vast and fantastic: Get to know Kaaron Warren.

Revelation: The Mortecarni Part Two


Kelly Evans - 2018
    Both the Black Death and the mortecarni continue their devastating path of destruction across England. Brother Maurice has reason to believe he’s found a cure for the mortecarni until a new discovery suggests otherwise, sending the physician monk and his friends through Europe to Poland in a desperate race to end the undead menace once and for all. Meeting an intriguing young healer leads to further revelations that offer hope for their quest. But time is short and, when tragedy strikes, Maurice faces a moral dilemma. Can he ignore the challenge to his calling caused by his new companion’s presence? And can he find the cure for the mortecarni before all is lost? Warning: Strong Horror Scenes

A Peculiar Curiosity


Melanie Cossey - 2018
    When Clarke intercepts a box of macabre curiosities intended for the university, he discovers a travel journal from 1865 containing the frantic scribblings of Edward Walker, an eccentric Victorian curiosity dealer. Tucked within the journal is a disturbing drawing of a young boy, “Specimen Z”, the apparent victim of a Haitian Vodou witch doctor.Desperate to salvage his professional career and to discover the fate of the mysterious boy, Clarke follows clues left by the gruesome relics of his predecessor’s collection to discover the dark secret Walker kept in his basement, and his connection to the brutal crimes that terrorized London. Clarke’s holiday pastime becomes an all-consuming obsession as he begins to understand the chilling implications of the journal and the horror that ties his fate to Walker’s—for Clarke will stop at nothing to discover the truth, even at the cost of his career, his family, and his very life.

House of Glass


Susan Fletcher - 2018
    Her task: to fill a greenhouse with exotic plants from Kew Gardens, to create a private paradise for the owner of Shadowbrook. Yet, on arrival, Clara hears rumours: something is wrong with this quiet, wisteria-covered house. Its gardens are filled with foxgloves, hydrangea and roses; it has lily-ponds, a croquet lawn - and the marvellous new glasshouse awaits her. But the house itself feels unloved. Its rooms are shuttered, or empty. The owner is mostly absent; the housekeeper and maids seem afraid. And soon, Clara understands their fear: for something - or someone - is walking through the house at night. In the height of summer, she finds herself drawn deeper into Shadowbrook's dark interior - and into the secrets that violently haunt this house. Nothing - not even the men who claim they wish to help her - is quite what it seems.Reminiscent of Daphne du Maurier, this is a wonderful, atmospheric Gothic page-turner.

On Bone Bridge


Maria Hoey - 2018
    But who are the innocent and who are the guilty?" Kay Kelly has always envied pretty, privileged Violet-May Duff, but the two young girls come from very different worlds. Suddenly befriended by Violet-May, Kay finds herself welcomed into the grand Duff house, where, charmed by Violet-May's sister, the ethereal Rosemary-June, and intrigued by Mrs Duff, a woman with a past, she falls helplessly in love with Violet-May's brother Robbie. It all seems too good to be true. And it is.One mild September afternoon the three young girls take Violet-May's baby brother for a walk in his pram. What happens on Bone Bridge that day will change all their lives forever.Now in her thirties, Kay's path crosses once more with the Duff family and it doesn't take her long to realise that something is very wrong. With the life of a child clearly threatened, Kay is forced to accept that what happened all those years ago on Bone Bridge has come back to haunt her. Now, not only must she resurrect painful memories, but the time has come to finally face up to terrible truths, even if it means putting her own life in danger.

Tristopolis Requiem


John Meaney - 2018
    The city: Tristopolis, gothamesque and baroque, its unchanging sky deep purple, its elevators propelled by indentured wraiths, its power produced by necroflux reactors, fuelled by the bones of the dead. When powerful conspiracies threaten Tristopolis from the far side of the world, can a freed Donal find a way to stop them, and in the process find a reason to carry on existing?

Resurrection Men


David Craig - 2018
    Wilton Hunt, a student, and Tam Foley, a laudanum-addicted pharmacist, are pursuing extra-curricular careers as body snatchers, or ‘resurrection men’, under cover of darkness. They exhume a girl’s corpse, only for it to disappear while their backs are turned. Confused and in need of the money the body would have earnt them, they investigate the corpse’s disappearance. They discover that bodies have started to turn up in the area with ripped-out throats and severe loss of blood, although not the one they lost. The police are being encouraged by powerful people to look the other way, and the deaths are going unreported by the press. As Hunt and Foley delve beneath the veneer of respectable society, they find themselves entangled in a dangerous underworld that is protected from scrutiny by the rich and powerful members of the elite but secretive Sooty Feathers Club.Meanwhile, a mysterious circus arrives in the middle of the night, summoned as allies to help avenge a betrayal two centuries old…Resurrection Men is the first book in David Craig’s Sooty Feathers series, a masterful gothic tale about a supernatural war for control of the Second City of the British Empire, and the struggle of flawed characters of uncertain virtue who try to avert it. It is set in a late 19th century Glasgow ruled by the undead – from the private clubs, town houses and country estates of the privileged to the dung-choked wynds and overcrowded slums of the poor. Undead unrest, a fallen angel, and religious zealots intent on driving out the forces of evil, set the stage for a diabolical conflict of biblical proportions.Cover artwork by the artist Alison Buck

Wildfell


London Clarke - 2018
    But a chance meeting on an international flight leads her to Wildfell, a gothic mansion north of London. At first glance, Wildfell seems like the perfect place to hide out, and Anne is intrigued by its strange atmosphere and history of disappearances and deaths. But echoing voices, ghostly mists, a mute girl with a sketchbook full of murders, and a possessive landlady force her to confront her deepest fears. Anne's budding romance with gorgeous Irish actor Bain Tierney holds her to the house. But when Wildfell tenants begin disappearing and dying, Anne must decide if she trusts Bain. Is anyone in the house who they claim to be? Or are there are other forces at work inside Wildfell? And will they ever let her leave?

Endless Apocalypse Short Stories


Florian MussgnugSu-Yee Lin - 2018
    They make us wonder what we would do if all around us came to an end: no transport, no fuel, no communications: a retreat into the desperation, the onslaught of disease, how would we survive? This is the source of zombie literature and provides the inspiration for this fabulous mix of horror and adventure, of classic and brand new writing in the successful series of Gothic Fantasy titles from Flame Tree.

Little Stranger


Edie Fake - 2018
    Since his Ignatz Award winning Gaylord Phoenix, Fake's comics have only appeared in underground anthologies and zines. At last, these rare comics can all be found under the covers of a Little Stranger. You'll never look at a turkey the same way again.

Great Classic Horror Stories


Charles DickensAlison Larkin - 2018
    At once terrifying and heartbreaking raves AudioFile Magazine about Clive Hayward's Earphones award winning reading of Frankenstein that starts the collection. Both narrators are outstanding says AudioFile about Audie award-winner Derek Perkins and Earphones award-winner Alison Larkin's narration of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and The Yellow Wallpaper. Frankenstein was born when Mary Shelley, Lord Byron and Percy Shelley, stranded on an island, competed to see who could write the best horror story. Read by Clive Hayward. The Signalman, a ghost story by Charles Dickens was influenced by a fatal train accident he survived, though he was haunted by the event. Read by Derek Perkins. Carmilla is Le Fanu's tortured, powerful, female vampire who set the stage for so many vampires to come, including Dracula. Read by Alison Larkin. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde grew out of a horrifying nightmare Robert Louis Stevenson had one night in Bournemouth, England in 1886. Read by Derek Perkins. The Yellow Wallpaper sprang from a catastrophic nervous breakdown Charlotte Perkins Gilman had following the birth of her daughter. Read by Alison Larkin. Dracula by Bram Stoker is the quintessential vampire horror story which set out many of the conventions modern fantasy writers still embrace. Read by Clive Hayward.

How to Write Dark and Twisty Books to Showcase the Light


Mary Gray - 2018
    "What is wrong with you?" they worry people will say. "I expected you to wear a long, black trench coat and thick eyeliner." As a writer of macabre fiction, Mary's also your stereotypical "good girl." So how does she balance both aspects of her life? In this brief nonfiction booklet, Mary discusses a psychological and scriptural basis for tackling darker books, some of her favorite techniques for mastering the craft, and how to show the strength of God's light.