Of course nobody really believes it. It’s just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists ­ until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child’s toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man’s face found hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real.

    The troubling talent has made the Southern California surfer wary of casual contact. But while impulsively saving a stranger from an accident, she experiences her most disturbing vision.   With only a good friend to help her, and mere traces of information to guide her, Makani must track down two mysterious women—one of them innocent, one not.   But Makani is stepping into the path of an adversary more dangerous than she can imagine: a brutal predator behind a pretty face, who won’t go down without drawing blood.   Acclaim for Dean Koontz   “Dean Koontz is a prose stylist whose lyricism heightens malevolence and tension. [He creates] characters of unusual richness and depth . . . with a level of perception and sensitivity that is not merely convincing; it’s astonishing.” —The Seattle Times   “Demanding much of itself, Koontz’s style bleaches out clichés while showing a genius for details. He leaves his competitors buried in the dust.” —Kirkus Reviews   “A rarity among bestselling writers, Koontz continues to pursue new ways of telling stories, never content with repeating himself.”—Chicago Sun-Times   “Tumbling, hallucinogenic prose. ‘Serious’ writers . . . might do well to examine his technique.”—The New York Times Book Review   “[Koontz] has always had near-Dickensian powers of description, and an ability to yank us from one page to the next that few novelists can match.” —Los Angeles Times   “Koontz is a superb plotter and wordsmith. He chronicles the hopes and fears of our time in broad strokes and fine detail, using popular fiction to explore the human condition.”—USA Today   “Characters and the search for meaning, exquisitely crafted, are the soul of [Koontz’s] work. . . . One of the master storytellers of this or any age.”—The Tampa Tribune   “A literary juggler.”—The Times (London)

    Among them are Ghost, who sees what others do not. Ann, longing for love, and Jason, whose real name is Nothing, newly awakened to an ancient, deathless truth about his father, and himself.Others are coming to Missing Mile tonight. Three beautiful, hip vagabonds - Molochai, Twig, and the seductive Zillah (whose eyes are as green as limes) are on their own lost journey; slaking their ancient thirst for blood, looking for supple young flesh.They find it in Nothing and Ann, leading them on a mad, illicit road trip south to New Orleans. Over miles of dark highway, Ghost pursues, his powers guiding him on a journey to reach his destiny, to save Ann from her new companions, to save Nothing from himself...

    Until a shrieking, freezing horror escapes its ancient prison. Badger Ettison does not believe in magic. But the old blood-rituals are the only way to stop the voracious evil that pursues his wife and son. Badger Ettison does not believe in terror. Now he is living it.

    There were dark stories of murder and suicide told about it. But it was just what Doreen Addison was looking for - big, inexpensive and secluded. It was perfect for her child refuge.At first it was just a crazy man in the woods and a dead cat on the back porch. But then the children started seeing and hearing a beautiful woman dressed in black and there was a terrible accident in the cellar. Something wasn't right about this house.And then the nightmare really started as children disappeared and Doreen found herself confronting an evil power beyond all understanding. Only one thing could save her and the children from destruction: she must discover the secret of the woman in black who commands them all to Come Down Into Darkness.

    Stories adapted include "The End of the Time of Leinard," "Rat Hater," "Knox," "The Rough Boys," and "Catman," as well as nine others. Also includes five short stories written especially for the series, with a cover by Leo and Diane Dillon.

    Three bedraggled Chinese women appear out of the mist in a small Chinese farming town on the Sacramento River. Two are unknown to its residents, while the third is the long-lost wife of Richard Fong, the handsome manager of the local gambling parlor. As the lives of the townspeople become inextricably intertwined with the newly arrived women, their frightening power is finally revealed.A lyrical imagining of what happens when a Chinese ghost story comes true, Water Ghosts is a rich tale of human passions and mingling cultures that will appeal to readers of Lisa See, Anchin Min, and Gail Tsukiyama.

    In here you'll find Verne and Wells, Tolstoy and Checkov, Stevenson and Oliphant, Kipling, Twain, Haggard and Blavatsky alongside their hosts.Come, join us for dinner and a story: Robert Louis Stevenson - Wee Davie Makes a Friend Rudyard Kipling - The High Bungalow Leo Tolstoy - The Immortal Memory Bram Stoker - The House of the Dead Mark Twain - Once a Jackass Herbert George Wells - Farside Margaret Oliphant - To the Manor Born Oscar Wilde - The Angry Ghost Henry Rider Haggard - The Black Ziggurat Helena P Blavatsky - Born of Ether Henry James - The Scrimshaw Set Anton Checkov - At the Molenzki Junction Jules Verne - To the Moon and Beyond Arthur Conan Doyle - The Curious Affair on the Embankment Proudly represented by Crystal Lake Publishing—Tales from the Darkest Depths. Interview with the author:So what makes this short story collection so special?Meikle: I love the idea that all these famous writers knew each other, and met for a meal, a drink, a smoke and some storytelling in an old London club / bar setting. It chimes almost exactly with my own idea of a good time. It's special to me in that it's a culmination of the past half dozen or so years of writing. Before this collection there were the Carnacki stories, the Holmes stories, the Challenger stories, and the collaborations with M Wayne Miller in numerous deluxe hardcovers. THE GHOST CLUB feels like an endpiece to all of that, a last celebration of everything I love about the era and the storytellers. Plus it's the most ambitious piece of work I've undertaken in my writing so far, the cause of much worrying and fretting on my part, so seeing the lovely blurbs and comments from writers I have long admired makes it extra special to me.Why should horror fans give Victorian Terror a try?Meikle: It's where we come from. The Victorian era storytelling tradition was the launching point for horror, and also for crime fiction, for science fiction, for fantasy and for much of how we see the world today. It gave us Sherlock Holmes, Dr Jeckyll, Dracula, the Invisible Man, Captain Nemo, and all manner of ghosts, spooks and spectres that still fill our entertainment of choice today. It's my way of paying homage to that tradition. This is who I am.How did you choose which authors to use in this book?Meikle: Initially all I knew was that Doyle and Stoker were founder members of the club in London. Then I found out that Henry James was in London at the same time as them and it started to come together.

    But the carnival’s newest act, a peculiar young woman with latent magical powers, may hold the key to defeating it. Her time has come.Abandoned by her family, alone on the wrong side of the color line with little to call her own, Eliza Meeks is coming to terms with what she does have. It’s a gift for communicating with animals. To some, she’s a magical tender. To others, a she-devil. To a talent prospector, she’s a crowd-drawing oddity. And the Bacchanal Carnival is Eliza’s ticket out of the swamp trap of Baton Rouge.Among fortune-tellers, carnies, barkers, and folks even stranger than herself, Eliza finds a new home. But the Bacchanal is no ordinary carnival. An ancient demon has a home there too. She hides behind an iridescent disguise. She feeds on innocent souls. And she’s met her match in Eliza, who’s only beginning to understand the purpose of her own burgeoning powers.Only then can Eliza save her friends, find her family, and fight the sway of a primordial demon preying upon the human world. Rolling across a consuming dust bowl landscape, Eliza may have found her destiny.

    A fixture in 1740s Parisian society, Saint-Germain is a perfect gentleman--and a vampire. When the fiery young Madeline falls in love with him, a group of evil sorcerers targets her for their black mass--and only Saint-Germain can save her soul.

    Then the shadows, with their dark, inhuman eyes, are everywhere, surrounding her as she sobs silently, realizing with horror that they have taken her daughter once again. And now they have come bcak for- for her!

    It's Zach's dream investigation- but there's a catch: the network forces Xavier Paranormal Investigators to partner with the more dramatic-but less ethical-Demon Hunters. Now, Zach must fight for both his show's integrity and his team's loyalty while trying to protect his own secret: that he, himself, is possessed.

     I know I'm about to be fired. After the civil war, when Sven Mishal accepted the mantle of Phoenix King from Mia Hill, it's the obvious outcome. I was appointed by the late, psychotic King Emberich so he won't see my loyalty to the now devastated flocks. Sven has no choice but to get rid of me. It really doesn't help that he's golden, gorgeous and when I'm near him, my heart literally flutters. Stupid heart. Unrest bubbles beneath the surface of the Phoenix community. Most are still angry about how the conspiracy and coup went down, how badly it destroyed lives, and they blame Sven. Enough to want to kill him. How do I stop an assassination with my own life intact?

    Caitlin R. Kiernan has added a new voice to the world of horror and supernatural writing. Her stories consistently make it into The Years Best Fantasy and Horror and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Her writing is unique, thought provoking, and leads you to places that you fear, yet find fascinating.

    She's the golden darling of a wealthy genius. A child-prodigy. Yogi adept. And dying of brain tumor. She wants to heal herself, but the courts and the doctors cry "no" - and enter her brain with an incredible million-dollar probe that cures her body, while it splits her soul -- and sends it hurtling into a psychic hell... Only Anatol Klane knows of his daughter's spirit-death. Now he must take her life... and convince an astonished world that he has set her free...