Best of
Horror

1981

The Shining / Salems Lot / Night Shift / Carrie


Stephen King - 1981
    They know they must return — to confront the diabolical corruption and a hideous peril more dreadful than death.Night ShiftAll manner of night creatures, vampires, demon lovers and things that live in closets, are waiting to make your blood run cold in these twenty spine-tingling tales.CarrieHumiliated at her senior prom, Carrie's secret power becomes a weapon of horror and destruction, turning a quiet New England town into a ghastly vision of hell.--front flap

Scary Stories Treasury


Alvin Schwartz - 1981
     Reviews "A wonderful collection of tales that range from creepy to silly to haunting. ...Gammell's drawings add just the right touch..." -- John Scieszka, Entertinment Weekly"Guaranteed to make your teeth chatter and your spine tingle." -- School Library Journal"Read these if you dare." -- The New York Times

At the Mountains of Madness and Other Tales of Terror


H.P. Lovecraft - 1981
    The Barren, windswept interior of the Antarctic plateau was lifeless--or so the expedition from Miskatonic University thought. Then they found the strange fossils of unheard-of creatures...and the carved stones tens of millions of years old...and, finally, the mind-blasting terror of the City of the Old Ones. Three additional strange tales, written as only H.P. Lovecraft can write, are also included in this macabre collection of the strange and the weird.Table of Contents:At the Mountains of Madness • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1936) • novel by H. P. Lovecraft The Dreams in the Witch-House • [Cthulhu Mythos] • (1933) • novelette by H. P. Lovecraft The Shunned House • (1928) • novelette by H. P. Lovecraft The Statement of Randolph Carter • [Randolph Carter] • (1920) • shortstory by H. P. Lovecraft

Sandkings


George R.R. Martin - 1981
    Now, in search of some new pets to satisfy his cruel pursuit of amusement, Simon finds a new shop in the city where he is intrigued by a new lifeform he has never heard of before... a collection of multi-colored sandkings. The curator explains that the insect-like animals, no larger than Simon's fingernails, are not insects, but animals with a highly-evolved hive intelligence capable of staging wars between the different colors, and even religion - in the form of worship of their owner. The curator's warning to Simon about the regularity of their feeding, unfortunately, was not taken seriously...Contents:- The Way of Cross and Dragon (1979)- Bitterblooms (1977)- In the House of the Worm (1976)- Fast-Friend (1976)- The Stone City (1977)- Starlady (1976)- Sandkings (1979)Cover illustration by Michael Whelan

Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark


Alvin Schwartz - 1981
    This spooky addition to Alvin Schwartz's popular books on American folklore is filled with tales of eerie horror and dark revenge that will make you jump with fright.There is a story here for everyone—skeletons with torn and tangled flesh who roam the earth; a ghost who takes revenge on her murderer; and a haunted house where every night a bloody head falls down the chimney.Stephen Gammell's splendidly creepy drawings perfectly capture the mood of more than two dozen scary stories—and even scary songs—all just right for reading alone or for telling aloud in the dark.If You Dare!

Red Dragon


Thomas Harris - 1981
    Graham is the greatest profiler the FBI ever had, but the physical and mental scars of capturing Hannibal Lecter have caused Graham to go into early retirement. Now, Graham must turn to Lecter for help.

The Elementals


Michael McDowell - 1981
    Two of the houses at Beldame are still used. The third house, filling with sand, is empty...except for the vicious horror which is shaping nightmares from the nothingness that hangs in the dank, fetid air.The McCrays and Savages, two fine Mobile families allied by marriage, have been coming to Beldame for years. This summer, with a terrible funeral behind them and a messy divorce coming up, even Luker McCray and little India down from New York are looking forward to being alone at Beldame.But they won't be alone. For something there, something they don't like to think about, is thinking about them...and about all the ways to make them die.

The Keep


F. Paul Wilson - 1981
    And when an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find a something that's both powerful and terrifying. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims.Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore―who just happens to be Jewish―to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way―a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny.The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other...the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened.

The Thing


Alan Dean Foster - 1981
    Campbell, Jr.

Mysteries of the Worm


Robert Bloch - 1981
    To know them will be to know him. And thus we have decided to release a new and expanded third edition of Robert Bloch’s Mysteries of the Worm. This collection contains four more Mythos tales–”The Opener of the Way”, “The Eyes of the Mummy”, “Black Bargain”, and “Philtre Tip”–not included in the first two editions.

The Arbor House Treasury of Horror and the Supernatural


Bill PronziniHenry James - 1981
    G. WellsThe Middle Toe of the Right Foot • (1890) • short story by Ambrose BiercePickman's Model • (1927) • short story by H.P. LovecraftYours Truly, Jack the Ripper • (1943) • short story by Robert BlochThe Screaming Laugh • (1938) • novelette by Cornell WoolrichA Rose for Emily • (1930) • short story by William FaulknerBianca's Hands • (1947) • short story by Theodore SturgeonThe Girl with the Hungry Eyes • (1949) • short story by Fritz LeiberShut a Final Door • (1947) • short story by Truman CapoteCome and Go Mad • (1949) • novelette by Fredric BrownThe Scarlet King • (1955) • short story by Evan HunterSticks • (1974) • novelette by Karl Edward WagnerSardonicus • (1961) • novelette by Ray RussellA Teacher's Rewards • (1970) • short story by Robert S. PhillipsThe Roaches • (1965) • short story by Thomas M. DischThe Jam • (1958) • short story by Henry SlesarBlack Wind • (1979) • short story by Bill PronziniThe Road to Mictlantecutli • (1965) • short story by Adobe JamesPassengers • (1968) • short story by Robert SilverbergThe Explosives Expert • (1967) • short story by John LutzCall First • (1975) • short story by Ramsey CampbellThe Fly • (1952) • short story by Arthur PorgesNamesake • (1981) • short story by Elizabeth MortonCamps • (1979) • novelette by Jack DannYou Know Willie • (1957) • short story by Theodore R. CogswellThe Mindworm • (1950) • short story by C.M. KornbluthWarm • (1953) • short story by Robert SheckleyTransfer • (1975) • short story by Barry N. MalzbergThe Doll • (1980) • novelette by Joyce Carol OatesIf Damon Comes • (1978) • short story by Charles L. GrantMass Without Voices • (1979) • shortfiction by Arthur L. SamuelsThe Oblong Room • (1967) • short story by Edward D. HochThe Party • (1967) • short story by William F. NolanThe Crate • (1979) • novelette by Stephen King

Creature from the Black Lagoon


Ian Thorne - 1981
    Recounts the plots of the 1954 film and its two sequels which followed the career of an unfriendly half-man, half-fish creature discovered in a Brazilian lake.

Great Tales of Horror and the Supernatural


Martin H. GreenbergTheodore Dreiser - 1981
    With works by Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Silverberg, Henry James, Edgar Allan Poe, H.G. Wells, Bram Stoke and dozens more, Great Tales of Horror & the Supernatural is a spellbinding collection of 38 of the best of the genre. Anything can--and will--happen in these tales of both unworldly terror and quiet, everyday heart-stopping horror.

The Mummy


Ian Thorne - 1981
    Recounts the plots of the 1932 Boris Karloff thriller "The Mummy" and of several later films in which ancient mummies return to life.

Lonely Vigils


Manly Wade Wellman - 1981
    Contents:Foreword"The Hairy Ones Shall Dance""The Black Drama""The Dreadful Rabbits""The Half-Haunted""Vigil""The Third Cry to Legba""The Golden Goblins""Hoofs""Letters of Cold Fire""John Thunstone's Inheritance""Sorcery from Thule""The Dead Man's Hand""Throne on the Threshold""The Shonokins""Blood From a Stone""The Dai Sword""Twice Cursed""Shonokin Town""The Leonardo Rondache""The Last Grave of Lill Warran"

The City of the Singing Flame


Clark Ashton Smith - 1981
    Yet the thing was no less a mystery to me than to others at the time, and until now, it has remained a mystery. Like the rest, I sometimes thought that he and Ebbonly had designed it all between them as a huge, insoluble hoax; that they were still alive, somewhere, and laughing at the world that was so sorely baffled by their disappearance. And, until I at last decided to visit Crater Ridge and find, if I could, the two boulders mentioned in Angarth's narrative, no one had uncovered any trace of the missing men or heard even the faintest rumor concerning them....Contents:· Poet of the Singing Flame· The City of the Singing Flame· The White Sybil· The Tale of Satampra Zeiros· The Theft of the Thirty-Nine Girdles· The Door to Saturn· The Dark Eidolon· The Black Abbot of Puthuum· The Garden of Adompha· The Maze of Maal Dweb· The Flower-Women· The Enchantress of Sylaire· The Beast of Averoigne· The Hunters from Beyond

Frankenstein Meets Wolfman


Ian Thorne - 1981
    A werewolf who wishes to be released from his curse and die visits Frankenstein's ruined castle to learn the secrets of life and death.

Creep To Death


Joseph Payne Brennan - 1981
    It is his seventh book of poems.Years ago, August Derleth stated: "Brennan is not adequately appreciated as a poet in America." The Capitol Times of Madison, Wisconsin perhaps summarized it best: "Joseph Payne Brennan is that kind of poet who may well be read years from now when the considerably more publicized among his contemporaries have been delegated to a relatively unimportant niche in American literary history."

Without Mercy


Leonard Jordan - 1981
    Bodies were her business, massages were her medium … and death was her destiny.Cynthia met all types in her trade. There were married men, dying for the novelty of another woman’s body. Lonely men, dying for a woman’s company. And there were just a few weirdoes dying to get their hands around a woman’s throat.Usually Cynthia could weed out the weirdoes from her serious customers. But one night when she left the Crown Club, she didn’t realize she had made one deadly mistake, one that left her in a dead end alley, without defense, facing a dangerous man … without mercy.THE AUTHORHailed as a ‘trash genius’, Len Levinson was born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, served on active duty in the U.S. Army from 1954-1957, and graduated from Michigan State University with a BA in Social Science. He relocated to NYC that year and worked as an advertising copywriter and public relations executive before becoming a full-time novelist. Len created and wrote a number of series, including The Apache Wars Saga, The Pecos Kid and The Rat Bastards. He has had over eighty titles published, and PP is delighted to have the opportunity to issue his exceptional WWII series, The Sergeant in digital form. After many years in NYC, Len moved to a small town (pop. 3100) in rural Illinois, where he is now surrounded by corn and soybean fields ... a peaceful, ideal location for a writer.

Whispers III


Stuart David SchiffLee Brown Coye - 1981
    CavePoint of Departure by Phyllis EinsteinFirstborn by David CamptonThe Horses of Lir by Roger ZelaznyWoodland Burial by Frank Belknap LongThe River of Night's Dreaming by Karl Edward WagnerWho Nose What Evil by Charles E. FritchComb My Hair, Please Comb My Hair by Jean DarlingA Fly One by Steve SneydThe Button Molder by Fritz LeiberThe Final Quest by William F. Nolan

Crimson Kisses


Asa Drake - 1981
    The birth of the Prince of Wallachia fulfilled all prophecies. The Prince was called Dracula, Son of the Dragon. The plan called for him to be seduced into compliance by the ravishing Tzigane, beautiful gypsy witch chosen by Satan to be Dracula's mate. Once she had seen Dracula she would dare anything -- even enter the icy lake and become a vampire -- to fulfill her destiny. She had already entered his dreams and waking hours, holding out her arms to him, enrapturing him, enticing him to join her in her eternal undead passion.DRACULA fought against the prophecy... until he could no longer resist the Devil's decree and the sensual satanic taste of Tzigane's CRIMSON KISSES. Once he had savored the first, there could be no last.