Book picks similar to
The Ghost Village by Peter Straub
horror
short-stories
winners-world-fantasy
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Falling
Chris Mooney - 2006
Will Malcolm Fletcher prove himself to be the remorseless, audacious killer the FBI have marked him as, or is he something far more complicated?
Apocalypse Scenario #683: The Box
Mira Grant - 2011
Every week five friends get together to play a game-- a game they call the Apocalypse Game. It's a fun time with chips and beer and plotting the end of the world. Except this time, one of them is missing and the stakes are higher than ever before.Word count: ~3,900
The Octopus Nest
Sophie Hannah - 2014
Who is this apparent stalker? The answer is more frightening than Claire ever imagined. The Octopus Nest, Sophie Hannah’s prizewinning short story from her collection of ‘glittering darkness’ The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets is the first to be published as an exclusive eBook short.
About Sophie Hannah:
Sophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction. Her Culver Valley Series featuring Simon Waterhouse and Charlie Zailer have been published in 27 countries and adapted for television in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, she won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets. Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. In 2014 she published The Monogram Murders, a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective. Sophie lives with her husband and children in Cambridge.
Reviews:
Voted one of the Top Ten Books to Talk About for World Book Day.
Sophie Hannah's (short story) debut will leave you feeling genuinely tickled and wanting more. The award-winning "The Octopus Nest” is menacing enough to keep the pages turning, and astute enough about rocky relationships to make even the narrator wince. Emma Hagestadt, The Independent
Hannah has an uncanny knack for letting you feel you could find your way blindfold amongst the Formica and office furniture, get comfy – only to find yourself tripping over the psychopath lurking by the kitchen sink…superbly unsettling. Sarah Hilary, The Short Review
Warm Up
V.E. Schwab - 2013
His wife moved out, taking his son with her, and a devastated David hasn’t left his house since, terrified of the mysterious new power that followed him home from the ill-fated expedition.After months in seclusion, David’s ready for a fresh start, and ventures out, determined to keep his power in check. But David’s power isn’t the one he needs to worry about.
An Indulgent Moment
Lauren Blakely - 2021
Wanting him in my private thoughts. Wishing we could be together.But we're too forbidden.So I'll take what I can get — one delicious night. One indulgent moment.Then I'll let him go.But fate has other plans for me.
A Gathering of Ghosts
David Haynes - 2014
Prepare to have your blood chilled by six tales of fear and phantasmagoria…The Silent Bell: A doctor’s invention to prevent people being accidentally buried alive backfires on him with horrific results.The Stonegate Manor Collection: Lord Feltham’s paintings are worth a fortune, but also conceal a gruesome tragedy that has yet more lives to claim.The Haunting of Reverend Carson: The charlatan Musgrave makes a living pretending to talk to the dead, until he discovers his new client’s demons are more than merely spiritual.The Last Waltz: Through that miracle of technology, the Zoopraxiscope, a lonely man’s long-lost love is brought back to life before his very eyes.The Speaking Tube: John Barker is consumed with hatred for his malicious father and torments him with voices from hell, unaware of how close to the abyss he is himself.The Ghost Train: Alone aboard an empty train running along a dead track, Godfrey witnesses the grotesque secret that is entombed beneath Paddington Station.Go deeper into David Haynes’s world of the macabre…
Champagne
Anton Chekhov - 2011
On New Year’s Eve he shares a bottle of champagne with his wife, and when he drops it, she warns him that he has suffered an omen of ill-luck.
The Whisperer in Darkness
H.P. Lovecraft - 1931
Wilmarth, an instructor of literature at Miskatonic University in Arkham. When local newspapers report strange things seen floating in rivers during a historic Vermont flood, Wilmarth becomes embroiled in a controversy about the reality and significance of the sightings, though he sides with the skeptics. Wilmarth uncovers old legends about monsters living in the uninhabited hills who abduct people who venture or settle too close to their territory.
The House
P.M. Prior - 2016
Their home. Her sanctuary. When Prue Bridgewater first glimpses the abandoned old house, it's love at first sight. Her husband Ray is not so sure. The property has been neglected for decades, and Ray can’t help wondering why. But with Prue on the brink of a nervous breakdown, he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her sane, even if it means he has to live there. Once ensconced in their new home, Prue begins fixing up the place while Ray is away at work. But after a series of disturbing discoveries, she fears she's losing her mind. She hears things and sees people who couldn’t possibly be there, and she can’t shake the feeling she’s being watched. As Prue’s hold on reality begins to disintegrate, along with her marriage, she struggles to tell truth from delusion. But things go from bad to worse, and soon not just her sanity, but her survival hinges upon the long-buried secrets of THE HOUSE. This is a novella of approximately 27,287 words
Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man's Back
Joe R. Lansdale - 1992
Not many survived, but some of those who did emerged twenty years later, to a world where mutant whales heaved themselves across the blackened, dry seabed of the Pacific, and the roses… oh God, the roses.“Tight Little Stitches in a Dead Man’s Back” is a chilling post-nuclear short story by Joe R. Lansdale.
Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad
M.R. James - 1904
When Professor Parkins finds an old whistle, his stay at Globe Inn takes a turn for the eerie.
'50sVille
Paul Ibbetson - 2014
In this strange place, only a select few people ever leave the city limits and even then, they leave reluctantly. This is what fifteen and a half year old Benjamin Granault faces as, through a string of amazing events, he finds himself living in a town where he can never talk about modern technology or current events, a place where being an outsider can cost a person his life and being part of the community may very well cost more. Follow the adventures of Benjamin Granault in ‘50sVille, the strangest town Indiana has ever been unaware of.
A Walk in the Dark
Arthur C. Clarke - 1950
http://www.baenebooks.com/chapters/97...
The Jester
Michael J. Sullivan - 2014
A thief, a candlemaker, an ex-mercenary, and a pig farmer walk into a trap…and what happens to them is no joke. When Riyria is hired to retrieve a jester’s treasure, Royce and Hadrian must match wits with a dwarf who proves to be anything but a fool. Difficult choices will need to be made, and in the end those who laugh last do so because they are the only ones to survive.This is a standalone short story of 7,200 words, originally published in the Unfettered anthology. No prior knowledge of The Riyria Revelations or The Riyria Chronicles is required to enjoy it to its fullest, making this a perfect introduction for new readers or a chance for Riyria veterans to spend a little more time with old friends. The Jester is a story of adventure, bonds of friendship, and a recognition that the choices we make dictates the future we find.