Horror Fiction

That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.

In 1902 George Andrew Ryland was hired as a janitor at Highville State Asylum for the Incurable Insane. He intended to keep his head down and work hard, but one particular patient had other plans. Follow along as his grandson combs through 50 years' worth of Ryland's handwritten logs, chronicling his torment at the hands of a beautiful woman with long dark hair and terrible, sinister requests.

Cotton Crossing was a dead end, but not for Ginny Mills. She's just marking time, getting experience in the county library system, before moving back to a decent urban environment. Then the phones stop working. Lee Quartine knows there's no way the pretty girl at the library will even look at him. Especially since he can't open his mouth. He knows he's a hick, but when the power starts going out and the woods are full of strange creatures, it's good to have someone around who can build a fire. And kill.

Ruby is the most violently disturbed patient ever admitted to Drummersgate Asylum, high on the bleak moors of northern England. With no improvement after two years, Dr. Jack McGowan finally decides to take a risk and hypnotizes her - with terrifying consequences. A horrific dark force is now unleashed on the entire medical team, as each in turn attempts to unlock Ruby's shocking and sinister past. Who is this girl? And how did she manage to survive such unimaginable evil?

Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bonafide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward Rabbit. On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure–but no sense of purpose–and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. And as their posse grows, so too does the danger.

What's a ghost girl gotta do to catch a break around here? All I want is some peace and quiet and some time to get to know the men I once loved. Maybe throw in some mind-blowing sex while we're at it. What? It's been a hundred years, and this ghost girl has needs. Don't judge. My guys are on edge and being a tad bit overprotective, so when I'm presented with the opportunity to finally get some answers, what's a ghost girl to do?

Warrior angels, vampire hunters, and angels gone bad heat up this altogether sizzling paranormal alternate universe. This anthology of novellas features Angels' Wolf, Angels' Judgment, Angels' Pawn, and the never-before-published Angels' Dance.

The Harrison family believed Blackwood Manor was a new start for them. A massive estate in a small tight-knit community was seen as the perfect place to settle down and raise their son, Alex. What they didn't know was that at one time, Blackwood Manor had been Blackwood Orphanage, the site of a horrible fire that claimed the lives of dozens of innocent children. As the Harrisons settle into their new home, the dark secrets of Blackwood Manor start to reveal themselves. These halls are haunted by the ghosts of children who never got to live their lives. And they want the Harrison's young son...

Amelia Scarcliffe’s monstrous brood, harbingers of Cthulhu, will soon spawn. Her songs spell insanity, death...and illimitable wealth. And Moriarty will do anything to get his hands on gold, even if it means tearing down the walls between this world and a realm of horrors. Meanwhile, after Sherlock Holmes’s last tangle with the Order of Dagon, horrifying monsters haunt the Thames, and madness stalks the streets of Whitechapel. Gang war between Moriarty’s thugs and the powerful cult can only bring more terror - unless Holmes and Dr. Watson can prevent it.

Lily and Ian's families come to Frederickport to celebrate Connor's first birthday. Bringing the in-laws together is not always easy, especially when uninvited guests from the spirit realm show up....

In the near future, reanimated by the accidental release of an illegally created bioweapon, the recent dead, hungry for human flesh, have driven humanity to the brink of destruction. Aided by an insane cult that believes the living dead are the harbingers of a new world, a dead world, can humanity survive? The first volume in the Enclave series, this depicts humanity at its best and worst in a battle for domination of the earth.

As a child, Henry Cadmus lived on Catalina Island, a scenic vacationland off the Southern California coast. But Henry's experiences were far from idyllic. Today, even though Henry has seen firsthand the horrors of war, the ghastly images that haunt his dreams are ones he associates with his childhood... and the island: a snarling pig-man holding a cleaver; a jackal-headed woman on a high balcony, dripping blood; strange occult rituals... and worse. If it was up to Henry, he would avoid the island entirely.

Countess Alessandra Zorzi, international adventurer and thief, arrives in Arkham pursuing an ancient body freshly exhumed from a mound in Oklahoma, of curious provenance and peculiar characteristics. But before she can steal it, another party beats her to it. During the resulting gunfight at the Miskatonic Museum, the countess makes eye contact with the petrified corpse and begins an adventure of discovery outside her wildest experiences.

We know more about distant galaxies than the deepest, darkest oceans… and what we don’t know absolutely can harm us… Doctor James Lockwood, Ph.D. is embarking on a new career – studying deep sea predators and their genes in order to find cures for terrible diseases… and to soothe his deepest, darkest inner demons. Alysen Kruger, CEO of an old and powerful corporation has big plans for the future and for Dr. Lockwood… but she, too, has demons to conquer.

It is twelve years since the Great Reconfiguration and life in the continent-spanning network of Smart Houses is safe, sedentary, and sedated. Karl, Sam, and their children navigate this reality through implants and mood-balancing stims, living as much in the digital as the physical realm. However, when a tiny, impossible kitten enters their lives – unregistered, unthinkable, and utterly forbidden - a sequence of events is set in motion that will shatter their carefully constructed, user friendly world. As their home twists and turns against them, comfort becomes confinement, security ...

Mo's latest assignment is assisting the police in containing an unusual outbreak: ordinary citizens suddenly imbued with extraordinary abilities of the superpowered kind. Unfortunately these people prefer playing superpranks instead of superheroics. The mayor of London being levitated by a dumpy man in Trafalgar Square would normally be a source of shared amusement for Mo and Bob, but they're currently separated because something's come between them - something evil.

It's been several years since Jess and Hannah Ballard foiled a cataclysmic prophecy that could have destroyed their fellow Durupinen, an ancient clan of women who allow spirits to cross between the worlds of the living and the dead. The girls swore, after the devastation and chaos they endured, they would never get caught up in the inner workings of the Durupinen again. They were wrong.

An unplanned murder during a bank robbery has another sheriff on the trail of those on the lam.

Three years ago in a large Victorian house on the Jersey Shore in the town of Harbor Haven, fledgling private investigator Paul and his client, Maxie Malone, were murdered. Since then, recent divorcée and reluctant ghost whisperer Alison Kerby and her 10-year-old daughter, Melissa, have moved in and converted the place to a guesthouse, where Maxie and Paul are now checked in for an eternity and ready to solve any case that comes their way - or at least spook the guests (who love it). Alison’s got a lot on her plate at the moment, however, so when Paul discovers the 300-year-old ghost of a small boy in the house, he decides not to involve her in the case.

Past and present collide when a secret from the 1920s wreaks havoc on Marlow House. Walt struggles to remember what he may have forgotten before it's too late.