Horror Mystery Anthology

It’s bad enough that its venom-dripping chelicerae can slice through flesh like warm butter. Worse? It’s right there under the bunk. It’s a fact now. To make it through the night, the children must obey the rules: don’t get out of bed, stay out of the shadows, and don’t wake the beast. But as the threats multiply, so do the rules of survival. And with the safety of dawn still hours away, the fun is just beginning.

Nowhere is safe. Assassins who are paid well, blackmailed, or are repaying debts as they hunt face more challenges than anticipated. The worst crime is growing attached to their target or sympathizing with their cause. Each assassin’s journey is entirely unique in these eleven dark tales. Featuring stories from Victoria Azzi, L.N. Hunter, Charles Kyffhausen, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Fulvio Gatti, Edgar Mahaffey, Gray Stanback, Jennifer Strassel, Douglas Allen Gohl, Paula Gail Benson, and Frank Sawielijew.

Ghosts, specters, wraiths.... Restless undead spirits wail beneath the full moon and reach out for you from the swirling mists. The pain and loneliness of death drives them to seek the one thing they cannot have - the spark of life within your soul.... Scare Street presents volumes seven through nine of Terror in the Shadows, gathered into one spine-tingling tome. More than 30 stories of supernatural fear and suspense lurk with this macabre collection. Each one packed with a ghoulish assortment of creatures from beyond the grave.

Featuring 14 short stories and one novelette, Burn the Plans is a relentless journey into the dark places we end up when all of our plans go wrong. Grotesque government experiments, a remote viewer who blurs past and future, a crate that contains ancient evil, and bloodthirsty machines are all part of the world in which these tales take place.

Lottery is a novella taking place in Hugh Howey's World of Wool. In the world of the silo, falling in love comes with its own set of rules. As young Tabitha and Justin begin their lives together, they know what they can and cannot do. Then the impossible happens and Tabitha finds out she is with child. With no lottery ticket to redeem, the consequences for pregnancy are harsh: every addition requires a subtraction. From the Down Deep to the Up Top, there is nowhere to hide. It won't be long before the truth comes out and her husband is sent outside and put to cleaning. There is just one way...

A young girl’s dollhouse comes alive at night, and its tiny residents possess a terrifying power. Fate stalks a young cult survivor as she struggles to escape a premonition of her own death. And a beautiful antique jewelry box reveals a dark hunger that threatens to consume its new owner....

It's not really about the boots … or is it? Boot Points is a set of short tales about Violet Parker's purple boots. It is set in the story time between the third and fourth books in the Deadwood Mystery series. Each tale not only explains more of Violet's history, but also shows the role each character plays in Violet's life. In addition to this short story, there is a deleted scene from Nearly Departed in Deadwood, the first book in the Deadwood Mystery Series.

It can’t happen to me, it can’t! A moment that paralyzes the body, freezes the soul, and curdles the blood; a few seconds of the depth of horror known only in nightmares can appear and scowl into your face. The horror stories in this anthology can create that effect on you; but nightmares are transient since they come, they go and the friendly light switch, the first rays of dawn, the sound of the milk deliverer; in short, a reunion with the mundane and the familiar brings us back to sanity. This collection of stories is not about dreams, horrifying though they might be, it is about ...

A cartoon character’s crazy antics take a sinister turn when viewers become trapped in his sadistic show. Matrimony turns deadly as a husband and wife compete in a grisly game of confession. And a young child unleashes the beast within after he discovers his neighbor is not what he seems.... Scare Street is proud to present 13 tales of supernatural horror in one volume. A cornucopia of nightmares that will capture your imagination. And it won’t let go until the final scream rings out....

With heart-stopping stories by Zane, Tananarive Due and Steven Barnes, Joy M. Copeland, Robert Fleming, Terence Taylor, Francine Lewis, Brandon Massey, and 12 other established or up-and-coming writers, Dark Dreams is a must-have contemporary anthology for fans of the supernatural.

Maddie Graves is psychic and can see ghosts. When she returns to her home in Blackstone Bay following her mother's death, she has more to do than find peace with her past, she also has to try and reclaim the future she discarded when she left town after graduation. Her former best friend Nick Winters has been bitter since she walked away without a backward glance. A murder mystery throws them back together, and Maddie must decide if she can trust Nick with her biggest secret - and her heart.

This collection features a menagerie of horror stories. Some are scary. Some are disturbing. Some are funny. Meet werewolves, vampires, zombies, psychopaths, aliens, cannibals, ghosts, and various things that go bump in the night. Previously published in dozens of anthologies and magazines, some of these tales are mild, but some are extreme. Let the reader beware...

Offering new stories from some of the biggest names in horror as well as some of the hottest up-and-coming talents, Other Terrors will provide the ultimate listening experience for horror fans who want to examine fear of “the other.” Be they of a different culture, a different background, a different sexual orientation or gender identity, a different belief system, or a different skin color, some people simply aren’t part of the community’s majority—and are perceived as scary.

Come take a dive. From sirens, mermaids, selkies, and more, these tales of the deep will tug at your heartstrings. Love can warm the iciest waters, but revenge is best served cold. Watery graves await for those who push boundaries or stray too far. Features stories by J.M. Rhineheart, Emma K. Leadley, K. Parr, Andria Kennedy, Fred Phillips, Barend Nieuwstraten III, Claire Davon, Nicholas Nethery, A.D. Watts, Toni Mobley, D.L. Lewellyn, Rienne French, Seth Taylor, Derek Kho, Anwen Redlake, and D.R. Birdsall.

Sin’s Doorway and Other Ominous Entrances is the 4th volume of Night Shade Books’ five volume Selected Stories of Manly Wade Wellman....

A teenage girl’s unnatural obsession with an ancient coin leads to bloodshed. Supernatural evil bides its time, as it lurks within the gears of an old grandfather clock. And a new bride discovers her mother-in-law is willing to go to terrifying lengths to build the perfect family....

Time slips. Doomsday scenarios. Killer butterflies. C. J. Tudor's novels are widely acclaimed for their dark, twisty suspense plots, but with A Sliver of Darkness, she pulls us even further into her dizzying imagination. Riveting, macabre, and explosively original, A Sliver of Darkness is C. J. Tudor at her most wicked and uninhibited.

Within realms of the unknown, superstition stalks. Primitives see god in a rainbow, but they also suspect a deadly serpent beneath every unturned stone. Ignorance and fear sometimes unite to inspire us or spare us, but more often this demonic duality serves to light the torches of enraged mobs. Indeed, history tells stories of witches burned alive amid great celebrations. We know these things happened. We also know witchcraft is a figment. Fearlessly now, step away from the staid, known world that shelters you. Venture into lands of conundrum and enigma to witness ciphered matters of mind. ...

The terror at Hotel Caligula continues, as ghost-hunting enthusiasts explore its sinister corners. Ancient forces of nature turn the table on a lonely old man. And bullied teenagers discover that supernatural vengeance comes with a deadly price....

In Dark Property, a woman carries a dying baby across a desert waste, moving toward a fortress harboring a mysterious resurrection cult. Menaced by scavengers, she nevertheless begins to suspect that the reality within the fortress may be even more unsettling than the blasted environment outside. In Contagion and Other Stories, Evenson takes his audiences into a world that is at once apocalyptic, dark, observant, and grotesque without ever dipping into static genre conventions.