Horror Mystery Anthology

Actor David Ian Davies' telling of Poe's Gothic horror tale "The Tell-Tale Heart" captures this classic narrative of the unnamed murderer in all its exquisite vileness, its self-effacing insanity that poses rationality where none exists.

There's something out there in the dark. There's always something watching. There's always something reaching for you. Always. And sometimes there?s someone you can call. Someone you can hire. Someone who knows these dark streets and back alleys. Someone who knows how things work in this part of town. Private eyes who are often as dark as the things they hunt. Investigators who know how to look in the shadows for the things that go bump. Good guys but not always nice guys. Hardboiled Horror collects fifteen original tales of noir mystery shot through with elements of horror and the supernatural.

From atop the choppy waves to the choking darkness of the abyss, the seas are full of mystery and rife with tales of inexplicable events and encounters with the unknown. In this anthology we see a thrilling spread of narratives: sailors are pitched against a nightmare from the depths, invisible to the naked eye, a German U-boat commander is tormented by an impossible transmission via Morse Code, a ship ensnares itself in the kelp of the Sargasso Sea and dooms a crew of mutineers, seemingly out of revenge for her lost captain.

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.

Bad things have been happening since Mia began to mature. Her dad left. Boys at school can’t keep their hands to themselves. A lecherous stepfather has moved in. Her only refuge is an abandoned lot on her suburban cul-de-sac, crawling with feral felines - one of which follows Mia home. Ghostly white and affectionate, she is Mia’s new companion and - as Mia’s tormenters will soon discover - her fierce protector.

In every locked room, there's a secret waiting to be found—and a body left behind. From elite rehearsal spaces to package vaults, from forgotten hotel bathrooms to séance parlors sealed tight, this chilling collection of original locked-room thrillers explores what happens when the walls close in and the truth can't escape. Inside you'll find: A detective trapped in his own interrogation. A woman who wakes in a bath with her wrists taped—and no memory of why. A séance interrupted by someone who was never invited. A delivery crate that holds a body—and your name. An acting class ...

Can you handle this chilling feast of fear...? A romantic getaway turns to a horrific ordeal when evil falls from the stars. A terrified young woman is stalked by a grim specter in the form of man’s best friend. A beleaguered wage slave discovers that playing with toys at work can have deadly consequences.... Scare Street’s team of horror authors brings you 12 delightedly macabre morsels of terror in this new, spine-tingling collection. Indulge yourself in a delicious feast of chilling nightmares and dark fantasies.

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.

In this classic collection of four novellas, the grand master takes you on irresistible journeys into the far reaches of horror, heartache and hope. 'Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption' is the story of two men convicted of murder - one guilty, one innocent - who form the perfect partnership as they dream up a scheme to escape from prison. In 'Apt Pupil' a golden schoolboy entices an old man with a past to join in a dreadful union.

In the title story, a young boy becomes obsessed with his cousin's doll after she tragically passes away from leukemia. As he grows older, he begins to collect "found dolls" from the surrounding neighborhoods and stores his treasures in the abandoned carriage house on his family's estate. But just what kind of dolls are they?In The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror, Joyce Carol Oates evokes the “fascination of the abomination” that is at the core of the most profound, the most unsettling, and the most memorable of dark mystery fiction.

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....

Ghost stories date back centuries, but those written in the Victorian era have a unique atmosphere and dark beauty. Michael Sims, whose previous Victorian collections Dracula’s Guest (vampires) and The Dead Witness (detectives) have been widely praised, has gathered twelve of the best stories about humanity’s oldest supernatural obsession. The Phantom Coach includes tales by a surprising and often legendary cast, including Charles Dickens, Margaret Oliphant, Henry James, Rudyard Kipling, and Arthur Conan Doyle, as well as lost gems by forgotten masters such as Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and W. F. Harvey. Amelia B. Edwards’s chilling story gives the collection its title, while Ambrose Bierce ("The Moonlit Road"), Elizabeth Gaskell ("The Old Nurse’s Story"), and W. W. Jacobs ("The Monkey’s Paw") will turn you white as a sheet. With a skillful introduction to the genre and notes on each story by Sims, The Phantom Coach is a spectacular collection of ghostly Victorian thrills.

The rich and powerful gather deep in the bayous of Louisiana to witness the birth of a scientific creation that will forever change reality. A savage storm traps them inside the inventor’s mansion, an impossible murder blurs the line between guilt and innocence. Join in on this one-of-a-kind murder mystery about the fight for time and fate, where the answer to the crime lies within a paradox. Can you solve the murder?

A zealous aviator penetrates the highest strata of our atmosphere and discovers a groundbreaking new form of life. And yet he knows that this strange alien life form has claimed the lives of two aviators before him, and it may claim his own.

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. ...

Los Angeles and Lucifer are a lot alike. They both seduce and lure with promises of wealth, fame, beauty, or love. But those promises are often empty; and even when they’re not, there’s a price to pay.

Stranded on a desert island, a young man yearns for objects from his past. A local from a small coastal town in England is found dead as the tide goes out. A Norwegian whaling ship is stranded in the Arctic, its crew threatened by mysterious forces. In the nineteenth century, a ship drifts in becalmed waters in the Indian Ocean, those on it haunted by their evil deeds. A surfer turned diver discovers there are things worse than drowning under the sea. Something from the sea is creating monsters on land.

A fourth floor room, a door locked with the key inside, no way in, no way out. Edgar Allan Poe is the true grandfather of the murder mystery. Decades before Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot, Poe gave us C. Auguste Dupin, a man able to solve mysteries through observation and deduction.

Darrell Scott said it best when he said country music sounds tired, but it doesn't sound Haggard, that is has money, but it doesn't have Cash. Well, Bubba is visited by the Ghosts of Music Past, Present, and Yet to Come in a Christmas Carol-style romp guided by legends of song to save Music from Auto-Tune Hell, literally!

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.