Humorous Horror

Welcome to another kind of terror as Peter Straub leads us into the outer reaches of the psyche. Here the master of the macabre is at his absolute best in seven exquisite tales of living, dying, and the terror that lies in between.

Murders are happening outside Charlotte's hottest nightspots. A new vampire society has set up shop in the sewers. And Jimmy Black's about to run afoul of the Master of the City. If Jimmy weren't already a vampire, the week ahead would be the death of him.

More than three decades have passed since the events described in John Updike's The Witches of Eastwick. The three divorcées - Alexandra, Jane, and Sukie - have left town, remarried, and become widows. They cope with their grief and solitude as widows do: they travel the world, to such foreign lands as Canada, Egypt, and China, and renew old acquaintance. Why not, Sukie and Jane ask Alexandra, go back to Eastwick for the summer?

The witch of Tophet County has three primary preoccupations: Kentucky bourbon, Amish romance novels . . . and protecting her true identity from the chthonic monsters who rule humanity with an iron tentacle. Despite her best efforts to get fired, the witch is trapped in a draconian, century-long contract that condemns her to work for the Archons of the Nether Realms in the banal misery of county government. But when she accidentally pleases her many-armed overlords, the Dread Lord of Human Resources curses her with an unwanted promotion. And it involves meetings.

All Cadence wanted was a one-night sleep, but when he slept, he fought demons in his dreams. They were demons that terrorized the human world. In his battles, he would use his sword called Ethereal to send them back to hell, where they had escaped from. But now the demons were quiet. They were no longer in his dreams. The demons are now attacking him on earth, letting him know the blue-purple flame is coming for him. Cadence stumbles on an ancient three-headed dagger from his past. The three witches are using the dagger to kill young women, collecting their blood. Why do they need the blood...

Goldilocks' latest case takes her to the Plains of the Rocky Mountains, in search of a killer who has murdered before. Goldilocks' professional reputation is in tatters, her name blacklisted as a result of her actions the previous year. She’s got few friends, and even more enemies, both within the tribes and her own agency. To make matters worse, she’s assigned lead on the murder investigation of two teenagers, their deaths seemingly designed to create strife between the Plains Striders Tribes and the Forest Service. The message from the top is clear, play it straight and solve the ...

Bestselling author Jason Hutchinson is at it again! By day, Brian is a talented, yet low-tier IT consultant... ...by night? Well, he's generally even less than that! Living in the big city isn't all it's cracked up to be. Brian's job sucks, his boss is overbearing, and he doesn't see much future in it. That is, until he walks into the halls of MCC, Magical Community College. Things are going well, at least until his first class session. He might have been a little bit distracted by gorgeous Pandora, the hot and overly-curious subject of his magical history class and allowed her to open ...

In this story from the novel, “SuperHero – Retirement”, when a recently retired SuperHero in his Alternative Identity meets his daughter’s father-in-law to be sparks fly.

Yes, Andrew Mayhem, hero of Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) is back. Still incredibly brave. Still ridiculously irresponsible. And this time, becoming chainsaw fodder is one of his lesser worries. He’s forced to pose as a serial killer known as The Headhunter in order to infiltrate a group of maniacs who’ve gathered in an isolated Alaskan mansion for a weekend of murderous games. Can he free the potential victims in time...or will he be forced to participate in their demise?

Doug Lee is undead quite by accident... attacked by a desperate vampire, he finds himself cursed with being fat and 15 forever. When he has no luck finding some goth chick with a vampire fetish, he resorts to sucking the blood of cows under cover of the night. But it's just not the same. Then he meets the new Indian exchange student and falls for her - hard. Yeah, he wants to bite her, but he also wants to prove himself to her. But like the laws of life, love, and high school, the laws of vampire existence are complicated.

In this short story from the novel, “SuperHero- Retirement”, recently retired Arch-Villains can’t help themselves. It’s so good to be bad.

In this story from the novel, “SuperHero – Retirement”, retired SuperHeroes Trisha & Winston learn the hard way why their daughter told them not to give her kids sugar, while they babysat them as she went off to save the world.

In this short story from the novel “SuperHero – Retirement”, a recently retired SuperHero gives a young SuperHero lessons on humility.

Doug Backus is a normal young man trying to lead a clean Christian life. But when mysterious and gruesome deaths begin occurring in his town of Clover, Kentucky, he learns that his life can never be as wholesome as he wants. Along with his heathen friend Crank and pariah neighbor Whitney, he becomes involved in an exploration of the town's secrets that will either lead them to their doom or answer all the questions Doug has about almost everything.

Jaunty the Clown just wants to entertain families with lighthearted slapstick antics, but people think of clowns as terrifying, nightmarish creatures who hide in closets or under beds. When Jaunty, along with his fellow performers, are fired from the circus, they're told that the world just doesn't like clowns anymore. Still, clowns have to eat. And since these clowns don't eat children, to make ends meet they're eventually forced to take a job in a popular haunted attraction, the Mountain of Terror. But millions of oversized spiders are about to invade....

"Stranger's Thing" by Robert Bevan: Four friends get more than they bargained for when they break into a seemingly abandoned research lab. "The Shingling" by Steve Wetherell: Johnny Terry, a recovering meth addict, is excited to start his new life as the caretaker at the Underpass Motel. Unfortunately, the Underpass is haunted by the ghosts of dead porn stars. "The Haunting of Whore House" by Robert Bevan: Lucy and her brother, Junkie, find out that moving was only the beginning of their troubles when they encounter the ghost of a little boy in the woods. Plus three more!

A hitman is hired to assassinate the Prince of Darkness himself. A short, whimsical story that takes a serious look at Bible prophecy.

After everything that went down in Nevada, to say that we were reeling was an understatement. Now, I’ve got an additional little liability riding around with me, an Archeri on the loose, some cryptic clues from a dead god, a supernatural CPA to find, Death, Disneyland, kidnappers in polo shirts, angels, and a new conspiracy theory from Stacks and Luke that might just be true. Trust me when I say the working man has nothing on an armed and sleep-deprived working woman.

Herb, Dallas, and Stanley live in Wisconsin, where life is nice and simple. Until Herb becomes a vampire. And Dallas becomes a werewolf. And Stanley becomes a zombie. Join the three friends on their hilariously awkward adventures as they learn that sometimes it takes a really big change to become who you were always meant to be.

What if you had to pretend to be a zombie to survive? Hanson’s been living like a zombie since the apocalypse, until he learns that his zombie crush is, like him, a human pretending to be a zombie.