I am a multi-published author of mainly Gothic, haunted house, and ghostly novels, novellas, and short stories. I love nothing more than exploring historic houses, ancient stone circles and places that are noted for having a certain atmosphere that hints – or, in some cases, screams – a macabre and interesting past. I am the person you will spot, hunched over an old gravestone peering at the much-degraded carving, searching for the name of its owner and a hint to their story. Why? I blame a childhood spent reading M.R. James.
Whenever people think of Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House springs to mind, and, for many years, I stopped right there. I was wrong.
In my opinion, We Have Always Lived in the Castle is actually a much better book – better in terms of plot and characterization. In telling the story of the decidedly disturbed and disturbing Blackwood family and their sinister home, Shirley Jackson explores small-town prejudice as well as the creeping impression that, while something awful has already happened, there is much worse to follow.
Merricat is a character I identified with. She is strong, determined, and a fighter. With the odds stacked so firmly against her, she needs to be. Jackson’s last novel is, for me at least, her greatest.
Living in the Blackwood family home with only her sister, Constance, and her Uncle Julian for company, Merricat just wants to preserve their delicate way of life. But ever since Constance was acquitted of murdering the rest of the family, the world isn't leaving the Blackwoods alone. And when Cousin Charles arrives, armed with overtures of friendship and a desperate need to get into the safe, Merricat must do everything in her power to protect the remaining family.
For me, he is the master of the horror genre in general and of the art of instilling creeping dread. It all starts quite innocently, with a driving lesson, but then...something not quite right happens. I love the way this author does this.
He weaves his stories like a tapestry, and in The Incubations, I felt myself transported into a Campbellesque world where nothing is quite right. Here we have a town which was twinned with one in Germany after World War 2 – and something has been festering ever since
This story enthralled and perplexed me. I loved the way the author blended the awful reality of the Nazi obsession with the supernatural and cult of the master race with Lovecraftian homages. For me, another masterpiece I wish I had written.
A collectable hardcover edition for Ramsey Campbell's 60 years in publication.
When a weight landed on his legs he raised his head from the violently crumpled pillow. The bed already had another occupant, and as Leo flung the quilt back so that it wouldn't hinder his escape the creature scurried up his body to squat on his chest, clutching him with all its limbs like half a spider...
Leo Parker's stay in Alphafen seems idyllic, but after he leaves, the nightmares begin: an airport turns into a labyrinth, his own words become treacherous if not lethal, and what…
Artist Nilda Ricci could use a stroke of luck. She seems to get it when she inherits a shadowy Victorian, built by an architect whose houses were said to influence the mind—supposedly, in beneficial ways. At first, Nilda’s new home delivers, with the help of its longtime housekeeper. And Nilda…
This is Daniel Church’s first novel, and he grabbed me from the first page.
The Hollows is isolated, and the book is depicting its raw bleakness in the dead of winter. I could almost feel the biting cold, the snow falling, soaking me through. Once I had encountered the family at the heart of this story, the true essence of the book really came alive for me.
This is real horror because for me, certainly, I could imagine it happening. All of it. The murders, the increasing fear of the local people, the menace of the place itself, and the fear that the evil might never stop.
Shortlisted for the 2022 British Fantasy Horror Award.
In a lonely village in the Peak District, during the onset of a once-in-a-lifetime snow storm, Constable Ellie Cheetham finds a body. The man, a local ne'er-do-well, appears to have died in a tragic accident: he drank too much and froze to death. But the facts don't add up: the dead man is clutching a knife in one hand, and there's evidence he was hiding from someone. Someone who watched him die. Stranger still, an odd mark has been drawn onto a stone beside his body. The next victims are two families…
It starts with arguably the most famous first line any novelist has ever written, and I certainly couldn’t stop reading once I had absorbed that.
Rebecca is a classic for all sorts of great reasons. For me, the house is a character here. Manderley is as Gothic as I could ever wish for (and I LOVE Gothic).
Mrs. Danvers, the housekeeper, is one of the most sinister characters ever written. When this novel was first published (1938), certain subjects were pretty much taboo. In the light of today's increased awareness of people’s differing sexualities, I think it’s probably easier to understand her motives – not that it makes her any less scary.
For me, this is a masterpiece of storytelling that defies genre categorization and puts du Maurier firmly in my top favourite authors list.
* 'The greatest psychological thriller of all time' ERIN KELLY * 'One of the most influential novels of the twentieth century' SARAH WATERS * 'It's the book every writer wishes they'd written' CLARE MACKINTOSH
'Last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again . . .'
Working as a lady's companion, our heroine's outlook is bleak until, on a trip to the south of France, she meets a handsome widower whose proposal takes her by surprise. She accepts but, whisked from glamorous Monte Carlo to brooding Manderley, the new Mrs de Winter finds Max a changed man. And the memory…
Winter Journeys is a story of music, memory, and imagination.
At summer’s end, Ilona Miller loses her job. Instead of adjusting her attitude and sending out resumes, she retreats into grief and paranoid imaginings by day and wanders the streets at night. A long-dormant alter ego awakes and prompts a…
Hunter Shea has provided me with many hours of creepy, scary enjoyment, but Creature, for me, is his best work to date.
The story rang true and authentic to me. The wife with a range of autoimmune illnesses, who needs a place to rest, and get mentally and physically well again. The close relationship she has with her husband and the gallows humour that helps to bond them and see them through the many daily crises of their lives together – all of this happening while, outside, in the woods, something frightening is lurking, biding its time.
Just out of sight. I love the tension and fear you can feel and almost taste. This one scared, thrilled, and captivated me. It also did something no other horror novel has ever done. It made me cry.
'It's much more than most creature features, it has heart and thought, and a superb, head-on horror conclusion. The best Hunter Shea I've read so far and by more than a little.' - Eddie Generous (Unnerving Magazine)
The monsters live inside of Kate Woodson. Chronic pain and a host of autoimmune diseases have robbed her of a normal, happy life. Her husband Andrew's surprise of their dream Maine lake cottage for the summer is the gift of a lifetime. It's beautiful, remote, idyllic, a place to heal. But they are not alone. Something is in the woods, screeching in the…
1940. Fourteen-year-old Pamela Courtney is evacuated to Chanterlands in the heart of the English countryside, where she will live with her two spinster aunts: Jilly is the eccentric one, who dreams of her days as a star of the silver screen, while Bunny is more severe, practical, and down-to-earth.
It’s not long before Pamela realizes that Chanterlands is home to more than just the living, and some of them don’t rest in peace. She hears footsteps in the dead of night. Could they be of the long-dead young boy whose room she now sleeps in? And then there’s the neglected attic. Pamela is tasked with sorting through it, and what she discovers unearths a centuries-old feud that refuses to die.
Former police detective Michael McLaren is looking forward to spending Christmas at his grandfather's ancient Hall with his grandfather, uncle, and his lady love, Melanie. But McLaren’s holiday plan gets snowed under when a dead man is discovered outside his grandfather’s house--in circumstances similar to an older murder. And it’s…
Winner of Indies Today’s 2021 Best Contemporary Novel
“A flawless literary gem."
Can anyone have both fame and love? Andrew O’Connell is Hollywood’s next big leading man, and the rakish Irishman is basking in his newfound celebrity while thirsting for both greater fame and for someone to love.
