The writers include Ed McBain, whose "Sadie When She Died" features a strange cat-and-mouse game between a sharp detective and the husband of a murdered woman whom the police suspect of having committed the crime. Other tales come from Donald E. Westlake, Bill Pronzini, Patricia Highsmith, Henry Slezar, and Richard M. Ellis.

    There are those who will argue that this title could apply to any of the various tomes of terror, sagas of suspense, or groupings of grue which I have, from time to time, gathered together for the delectation of my readers. And indeed the point is well taken.For I am not a man to cater to the nervous. If you are in the habit of chewing your fingernails, jumping from your chair when a door slams, or swooning when someone playfully shouts "Boo!" in your ear, I have only two words of advice--pass on.If, however, you have nerves which are under good control, nerves which are pleasantly tickled by a touch of terror or agreeably stimulated by a soupçon of suspense, then I invite you to join me.Take a seat, any seat, and start wherever you wish. Break for an intermission whenever you choose and return when you are ready. Informality rules in your enjoyment of this smörgåsbord of stories. There is, I think, something for every taste.Except, that is, for the nervous.And now my sixty seconds are up.-Alfred HitchcockIn this collection:"To the Future" by Ray Bradbury"River of Riches" by Gerald Kersh"Levitation" by Joseph Payne Brennan"Miss Winters and the Wind" by Christine Noble Govan"View from the Terrace" by Mike Marmer"The Man with Copper Fingers" by Dorothy L. Sayers"The Twenty Friends of William Shaw" by Raymond E. Banks"The Other Hangman" by Carter Dickson"Don't Look Behind You" by Fredric Brown"No Bath for the Browns" by Margot Bennet"The Uninvited" by Michael Gilbert"Dune Roller" by Julian May"Something Short of Murder" by Henry Slesar"The Golden Girl" by Ellis Peters"The Boy Who Predicted Earthquakes" by Margaret St. Clair"Walking Alone" by Miriam Allen deFord"For All the Rude People" by Jack Ritchie"The Dog Died First" by Bruno Fischer"Room with a View" by Hal Dresner"Lemmings" by Richard Matheson"White Goddess" by Idris Seabright"The Substance of Martyrs" by William Sambrot"Call for Help" by Robert Arthur"Sorry, Wrong Number" by Lucille Fletcher and Allan Ullman

    It includes the entire text of John Wyndham's novel of alien invasion, Out of the Deeps, and 24 short stories by American or British authors, all written in the 20th century. Authors represented include T. H. White, Donald E. Westlake, Theodore Sturgeon, Thomas M. Disch, Ellis Peters, E. Phillips Oppenheim, Margaret St. Clair, Algis Budrys, and Gerald Kersh.

    As everyone knows, he is a specialist in the macabre and bizarre. Askes to explain his approach to fictional crime, he wrote:"The blunt instrument, the gang murder, the paid assassin have always seemed to me positively indelicate. Murder is a fine art and needs the embellishment of a sophisticated imagination. The true aficionado prefers to have his nerves ruffled by the implied thread--the Borgias rather than the Syndicate. What is more delightful than a domestic crime, when it is executed with subtlety and imagination? I leave to other more pedestrian talents materials based on newspaper accounts. True crimes, ugh! Alas, most of them are dull and give no evidence of the careful planning and loving thought that should go into any human activity as rewarding as murder."

    Following his invitation to "browse through my gallery", readers will find ghoulish ghost stories "designed to frighten and instruct" -- instruct, that is, about the strange existence ghosts must endure! Stories include Miss Emmeline Takes Off by Walter Brooks; The Valley of the Beasts by Algernon Blackwood; The Haunted Trailer by Robert Arthur; The Truth About Pyecraft by H.G. Wells; The Isle of Voices by Robert Louis Stevenson; and more. Parents and kids can't help but chuckle at Hitchcock's comment, "I don't want to appear disloyal to television, but I think reading will be good for you." Contains some very spooky two-color illustrations by Fred Banbery.

    Including "The Red-Headed League" by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle; "The Treasure in the Cave" by Mark Twain; "Jimmy Takes Vanishing Lessons" by Walter R. Brooks; "The Forgotton Island" by Elizabeth Coatsworth; "The Water Ghost of Harrowby Hall"; and more. Illustrations by Fred Banbery.

    Henry Prize winner Stephen King delivers a generous collection of stories, several of them brand-new, featuring revelatory autobiographical comments on when, why, and how he came to write (or rewrite) each story.Since his first collection, Nightshift, published thirty-five years ago, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he assembles, for the first time, recent stories that have never been published in a book. He introduces each with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it.There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. “Afterlife” is about a man who died of colon cancer and keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Other stories address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, the names of people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win.Magnificent, eerie, utterly compelling, these stories comprise one of King’s finest gifts to his constant reader—“I made them especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.”

    For those who already know these tales, the poignant introduction is a window on the creator's mind. Reflecting back after 14 years, Barker writes: I look at these pieces and I don't think the man who wrote them is alive in me anymore.... We are all our own graveyards I believe; we squat amongst the tombs of the people we were. If we're healthy, every day is a celebration, a Day of the Dead, in which we give thanks for the lives that we lived; and if we are neurotic we brood and mourn and wish that the past was still present. Reading these stories over, I feel a little of both. Some of the simple energies that made these words flow through my pen--that made the phrases felicitous and the ideas sing--have gone. I lost their maker a long time ago. These enthusiastic tales are not ashamed of visceral horror, of blood splashing freely across the page: "The Midnight Meat Train," a grisly subway tale that surprises you with one twist after another; "The Yattering and Jack," about a hilarious demon who possesses a Christmas turkey; "In the Hills, the Cities," an unusual example of an original horror premise; "Dread," a harrowing non-supernatural tale about being forced to realize your worst nightmare; "Jacqueline Ess: Her Will and Testament," about a woman who kills men with her mind. Some of the tales are more successful than others, but all are distinguished by strikingly beautiful images of evil and destruction. No horror library is complete without them. --Fiona Webster

    

    Omnibus collection of four early Bachman novels (Rage, The Long Walk, Roadwork, The Running Man) and the essay "Why I Was Bachman"

    The eleven stories in this volume are drawn from Dahl's popular adult short stories and were chosen for their quirky, twisted, and haunting plots -- sure to please Dahl teenage fans.Contents vii • Introduction (Skin and Other Stories) • (2000) • essay by Wendy Cooling1 • Skin • non-genre • (1952) • short story by Roald Dahl22 • Lamb to the Slaughter • non-genre • (1953) • short story by Roald Dahl35 • The Sound Machine • (1949) • short story by Roald Dahl53 • An African Story • (1946) • short story by Roald Dahl71 • Galloping Foxley • non-genre • (1953) • short story by Roald Dahl90 • The Wish • (1948) • short story by Roald Dahl95 • The Surgeon • non-genre • (1988) • novelette by Roald Dahl129 • Dip in the Pool • non-genre • (1952) • short story by Roald Dahl144 • The Champion of the World • non-genre • (1959) • novelette by Roald Dahl179 • Beware of the Dog • non-genre • (1944) • short story by Roald Dahl195 • My Lady Love, My Dove • non-genre • (1952) • short story by Roald Dahl

    Since that time, they have but slumbered. But when a massive sea tremor brings the ancient stone city of R'lyeh to the surface once more, the Old Ones awaken at last.The Whisperer in Darkness brings together the original Cthulhu Mythos stories of the legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. Included in this volume are several early tales, along with the classics 'The Call of Cthulhu', 'The Dunwich Horror' and 'At the Mountains of Madness'. Arm yourself with a copy of Abdul Alhazred's fabled Necronomicon and prepare to face terrors beyond the wildest imaginings of all, save H.P. Lovecraft.

    This is Koontz's spellbinding collection of takes interconnected by the strange highways of human experience: adventures, terrors, failures and triumphs.

    . . someone you don't know. Would you still push the button?"Button, Button," Richard Matheson's chilling tale of greed and temptation, is now the basis of The Box, the new film from the director of Donnie Darko. In addition, this outstanding collection also contains many other unforgettable stories by Matheson, the award-winning author of I Am Legend and What Dreams May Come."The inventive plots and spare but convincing portraits of ordinary men and women caught up in forces beyond their control demonstrate why Stephen King has called Matheson his most significant influence."--Publishers Weekly

    In two sketches, he experiments with tales transplanted from Europe, thereby creating the first classic American short stories, Rip Van Winkle, and The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Based on Irving's final revision of his most popular work, this new edition includes comprehensive explanatory notes of The Sketch-Book's sources for the modern reader.