Here are some of the very best short stories and novellas by today's finest exponents of horror fiction—including Kim Newman, Neil Gaiman, Paul McAuley, Glen Hirshberg, Ramsey Campbell and Tanith Lee. The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16 also contains the most comprehensive overview of horror around the world during the year, lists of useful contact addresses and a fascinating necrology. It is the one book that is required reading for every fan of macabre fiction.Contents:AcknowledgementsIntroduction: Horror in 2004 by Stephen JonesForbidden Brides of the Faceless Slaves in the Nameless House of the Night of Dread Desire by Neil GaimanLilies by Iain RowanBreaking Up by Ramsey Campbell"The King", in: Yellow by Brian KeeneA Trick of the Dark by Tina RathThe Mutable Borders of Love by Leslie WhatFlour White and Spindle Thin by L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. SimsTighter by Christa FaustRestraint by Stephen GallagherIsrabel by Tanith LeeThe Growlimb by Michael SheaThis Is Now by Michael Marshall SmithRemnants by Tim LebbonSafety Clowns by Glen HirshbergThe Devil of Delery Street by Poppy Z. BriteApocalypse Now, Voyager by Jay RussellStone Animals by Kelly LinkSoho Golem by Kim NewmanSpells for Halloween: An Acrostic by Dale BaileyMy Death by Lisa TuttleThe Problem of Susan by Neil GaimanNecrology: 2004 (essay) by Stephen Jones and Kim NewmanUseful Addresses (essay) by Stephen Jones

     In "Tempting Fate" by Susan Sizemore, Desiree dreams she spent a passion-filled night with sexy rock star Jon Coyote...and that he told her he was a vampire. But when Desiree discovers she is mysteriously pregnant, her erotic fantasy takes a strangely realistic turn. An angry ghost is haunting Caroline's house in "The Darkness Within" by award-winning author Maggie Shayne. But when sexy private investigator Jim Lipton offers to help discover what is going on, Caroline suspects that he has a personal interest in her ghost -- and in her. In "Cobwebs Over the Moon" by Lori Handeland, Manhattanite Carly Kelly is pursued by werewolves across the wintry Alaskan wilderness, and only ruggedly handsome soldier Dylan Shepard stands between her and death. Lycanthropy takes an exotic tropical twist in "Crazy for the Cat" by Caridad PiÑeiro. When scientist Jessica Morales travels to the Amazon jungle, she discovers that beneath the savage grace of her local guide, the handsome Javier da Costa, lurks a hidden wildness that is as tempting as it is dangerous.

    A gripping, chilling collection of 47 stories and six poems, dating back to Shelley and Stevenson, but also including modern masters.

    This is the scandal they can't ignore.It's a major event in Oakdale -- a black-tie gala honoring the Marron family's fifty years of support for Oakdale's Memorial Hospital. But high spirits are cut short when patron of honor Gregory Marron Jr. is delivered in his limo dead on arrival, from an apparent heart attack. Three women in the crowd have reasons of their own to suspect murder. . . .Event organizer Katie Peretti never understood her boyfriend Mike Kasnoff's reasons for not attending the party -- until now. Wrongly implicated in a crime against the Marrons, Mike served a stiff sentence, and has nursed a simmering rage ever since. Maddie Coleman, the teenaged sister of the limo's driver, Henry, knows that her brother owed Marron thirty-thousand dollars. She also knows he couldn't pay him back, and had only one recourse for permanently erasing the debt. Carly Snyder's suspicions are more personal. The wife of police detective Jack Snyder, Carly was one of Marron's mistresses. In a heated moment she wanted her shameful past dead and buried -- a wish her husband possibly honored.Now Katie, Maddie, and Carly, each of them desperate to protect the man they love, are crossing paths in an investigation that's uncovering more poisonous secrets in Oakdale than they ever imagined. The means, motives, and suspects are shifting with each new twist -- and one of these determined women may not live to see the killer revealed.

    Four of Machen's classic novellas (A Fragment of Life, The White People, The Great God Pan, and The Inmost Light) collected in one volume.

    She’s watched as, each summer, the tight-knit small village braces for the invasion of vacationers seeking refuge from city life. But this year, a new kind of visitor arrives in Port Isley, bringing something most unexpected.Soon after the season begins, a teenage girl’s mutilated body is found in a local park. The police declare it a random act of violence, but Amanda’s not so sure…because how can she explain that she had a premonition of the crime just hours before it happened? Or that the neighbors she’s known forever inexplicably are beginning to change…into lustful, violent shadows of themselves? Amanda knows something’s not right. And she knows it has something to do with the sinister stranger who’s come to town. But can she uncover his dark secret in time to stop him—and in time to save the souls of Port Isley?

    This cassette features a collection of tales featuring the famous detective.Contents:The Adventure of the Sussex VampireThe Adventure of Shoscombe Old PlaceThe Adventure of the Illustrious ClientThe Adventure of the Veiled Lodger

    Elrod's picked 15 of her favorite short works for this multi-genre collection spanning 15 years of publication.Also included is a never before published VAMPIRE FILES story, featuring her urban fantasy vampire PI, Jack Fleming!Each story has been polished afresh for this anthology, with pages of new material added.More information -- and previews of the stories! -- may be found at her website vampwriter-dot-com.Titles:1. A Night at the (Horse) Opera (Vampire Files, Fleming)2. The Breath of Bast (Vampire Files), Ecsott)3. Bossman (Original mystery, no vamps)4. Slaughter (Vampire Files, Fleming & Gordy)5. The Devil's Mark (Original historical vampire)6. You'll Catch Your Death (Vampire Files)7. Izzy's Shoe-In (Historical mystery introducing Izzy DeLeon, fearless girl reporter)8. The Quick Way Down (Vampire Files, Fleming and Gordy)9. The Scottish Ploy (Original romance/mystery)10. Grave-Robbed (Vampire Files, Fleming)11. The Company You Keep (Vampire Files, Gabriel Kroun)12. Death in Dover (Jonathan Barrett before he got vamped, historical mystery)13. Drawing Dead (ALL NEW VAMPIRE FILES, Fleming)14. King of Shreds and Patches (Hamlet from a different point of view, mystery)15. Fugitive (Science fiction/space opera)16. BONUS STORY! The Wind Breathes Cold (Quincey Morris: Vampire)

    Phipps, Rob J. Hayes, Nicholas Eames, Mazarkis Williams, Ben Galley, Michael R. Fletcher, Graham Austin-King, Ed McDonald, Anna Stephens, Anna Smith Spark, RJ Barker, Michael R. Miller, Benedict Patrick, Sue Tingey, Dyrk Ashton, Steven Kelliher, Timandra Whitecastle, Laura M Hughes, J.P. Ashman, M.L. Spencer, Steven Poore, Brandon Draga, D. Thourson Palmer, D.M. Murray, Anne Nicholls, R.B. Watkinson, Charles F Bond, Ulff Lehmann, Thomas R. Gaskin, Zachary Barnes & Nathan Boyce.Foreword by Brian D. AndersonPrint version includes forty black & white interior art pieces.

    At the State Department in Washington, a freshman congressman who knows the Arab world makes a secret offer that may be the last remaining hope. So begins Evan Kendrick's odyssey. He works alone in a nightmare world of violence. His only condition is anonymity, his only wish, to finish the job and return to private life. But for Kendrick, Masqat is only the beginning. He is marked for things beyond his understanding.

    The journey, however, takes longer than expected thanks to their inability to continue driving past any liquor store en route. Not to mention the fact that the men have no idea which hospital their friend is in. After a variety of shootings, and a strip club brawl, it seems as though these men will not just be visiting their friend in the hospital.Part of the Storycuts series, this short story was previously published in the collection Ford County.

    The silence is so heavy that you can hear your blood thundering through your veins. The stir of dry leaves in the darkness could be your friend finding his way back, but it sounds more like a primordial monster stalking its prey. And the lights between the trees? And the haunting songs which lure you ever deeper?  It's time to admit that you aren't afraid of being alone in the woods. You're afraid of not being alone.  Journey through the minds of 22 horror authors who have teamed up to reveal the most terrifying aspects of the forest. Over 400 pages of original supernatural and psychological horror stories include: ghosts, demons, serial-killers, true stories and unsolved mysteries, unique monsters, classic myths and legends, and above all else, a profound respect for the terror hidden within the mysterious trees. About Haunted House Publishing: We're passionate about publishing horror stories for adults, scary books for teens, and all sorts of dark fiction. We've got new horror kindle books every month, specializing in supernatural stories, supernatural book collections, and paranormal books for adults. We've got zombie books, demonic horror, ghosts and specters, angels and demons, gothic novels, and haunted houses and ghosts novels. We promise some of the top horror books 2018.

    These tales come from the pen of many well-known writers in the field, including Michael Gilbert, Edward Wellen, Edward D. Hack, Bill Bronzini, Lawrence Treat, and Francis Nevins, Jr. Whether it’s “The Unfriendly Neighbor,” or a “Class Reunion,” “A Recipe for Revenge,” or “An Exercise in Insurance,” these stories are sure to keep you up all night, puzzling over their possible solutions. Each one has its own particular and irresistible appeal: an unexpected twist, a delectable puzzle, a devastating revelation, or perhaps even a refreshing display of pernicious spit

    And just like that, Susan Young is drawn into a living nightmare.A stranger has kidnapped Sue’s daughter, Veda. But he doesn’t want her money, only her suffering–and he will kill Veda if Sue doesn’t follow his every command. With detailed instructions, the faceless abductor leads Sue into a blinding snowstorm on the longest night of the year, to a place she has not traveled to since childhood. The voice on the other end of the line somehow knows Sue’s deepest, most chilling secret–an ominous incident from her past, buried long ago...Across the loneliest back roads of Massachusetts, in the black expanse of a New England winter, Sue is forced to confront her most awful fears as she is met at each step by ever increasing horrors created by a monster who is surely something less than human. In the hope of saving her daughter from a kidnapper whose origin seems darker than anything she could ever have imagined, Sue will discover just how much trauma and fright the human body is capable of absorbing.Set over the course of a single night, Chasing the Dead is a fast-paced, ferociously tense supernatural thriller. With the skill of masters like Dean Koontz and David Morrell, Joe Schreiber has created a tableau of shock and horror, death and destruction, that will draw you in and never let you go.From the Hardcover edition.

    So terrifying that they scatter dreams like leaves before a midnight wind. So macabre that they give even the typesetter the chills. So horrific that Evil itself turns away. Imagine. Now open and read.