The progenitor of the romantic vampire genre.

"For the first time in one volume, a collection of Shirley Jackson's scariest stories, with a foreword by PEN/Hemingway Award winner Ottessa Moshfegh After the publication of her short story "The Lottery" in the New Yorker in 1948 received an unprecedented amount of attention, Shirley Jackson was quickly established as a master horror storyteller. This collection of classic and newly reprinted stories provides readers with more of her unsettling, dark tales, including the "The Possibility of Evil" and "The Summer People." In these deliciously dark stories, the daily commute turns into a nightmarish game of hide and seek, the loving wife hides homicidal thoughts and the concerned citizen might just be an infamous serial killer. In the haunting world of Shirley Jackson, nothing is as it seems and nowhere is safe, from the city streets to the crumbling country pile, and from the small-town apartment to the dark, dark woods. There's something sinister in suburbia. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators"--

Sometimes, an animator just can't catch a break. As things come to a head at the Circus of the Damned, Anita learns some unfortunate news from Jeane-Claude about the new, ultra-powerful vamp in town, Alejandro. But these days, there are so many balls in the air, that it's hard to keep all the different players straight. But when Anita is summoned to see Master Vampire, Mister Oliver, even she can't predict the surprise that awaits her. COLLECTING: ANITA BLAKE: CIRCUS OF THE DAMNED--THE SCOUNDREL 1-5

In "The Brownie of the Alabaster Mansion" Andrew Barger brings a precocious monster of antiquity back to life. At times the tale is dark, at times it is funny. This is a short story contained in his first collection entitled MAILBOXES - MANSIONS - MEMPHISTOPHELES.The Abenaki Indian Tribe is awarded 15,000 acres in a U.S. Supreme Court decision for land taken illegally by the U.S. government in 1850. Their goal: to construct the world's largest casino inOgunquit, Maine, a quaint New England seaside village of 1200 in winter and explodes into the largest gambling casino in the world. The influx of people required to run the casino and support services (65,000) are absorbed into the bordering towns.Richmond Rand an ex-Marine sniper and identical twin infuriated by highly compensated CEO bonuses, plots to "shoot to main" but not kill the golden boys of the corporate world with the help of two accomplices.In a bizzare event, Richmond wins 17 million dollars on a slot machine and plans to kill his accomplices. However, in order to accomplish hismission he switches identity with his twin Richard who has no knowledge of the scheme. The accomplices are found dead in the trio' hotel room. Did Richard the inncent brother pay for the sins of the older twin? Sensational murder trial!

Maximillian Bacchus is the ringmaster, ruler, guide and owner of what he considers the greatest show in the world. Traveling with a Crocodile named Malachi, a trapeze girl named Ophelia, a strong man they call Hero, which is short for Hieronymus a clown named Domingo de Ybarrondo, who paints in a wagon pulled by a giant Ibis bird, the troupe wanders from adventure to adventure with mythic aplomb. From the first story, in which Indigo Murphy, the best bird handler in the world leaves the show to join in matrimony with the Duke Lorenzo de Medici, to the fabled court of Kubla Khan, the magic never stops. You will meet a young apple thief named Angelo with magic eyes, and an orang-outang named Bathsheba, and a host of other amazing characters with names and personas cut like a patchwork quilt from the mythologies and dreams of the world. Though written forty years ago, these pages are littered with the same magical side steps that have always been woven into Clive Barkers fiction. Worlds not quit our own, and yet so real they ring with truth and leave you wishing you could step from your mundane life into that other place into those caves of ice if only long enough to catch Maximillian's show.

Alma Harper has been trying to forget what happened in Widowsfield 16 years ago. She has a good life as a music now, and might rekindle her relationship with her one true love. However, the number 314 haunts her, and threatens to bring her back to the day that her brother disappeared. When a reporter shows up, just days before March 14th, Alma realizes that her past is coming back to haunt her.HOLLYWOOD ASSASSIN: A Hollywood Alphabet Series ThrillerThings could be worse for LAPD Detective, Kate Sexton. Okay, so her ex-husband cheated on her and the DVD of his indiscretions made the rounds of the entire department, she's broke and living above an appliance store with her canine partner, Bernie, who is a sexual predator, her British friend, Natalie, has a vocabulary that would make Howard Stern blush, and her mother is hallucinating about having sex with a dead president.But things could get worse, like Kate could be stalked by a sadistic serial killer while she tries to solve a thirty year-old murder and save the life and reputation of a cop wanted for the crime. Come to think of it, maybe things couldn't get any worse because this is Kate's life.Can Kate elude the killer, solve the cold case, keep Bernie’s sexual wanderlust under control, keep her best friend out of trouble, save a cop from death row, and find love again? Only time, loads of trouble, and tons of laughs will tell. Hollywood Assassin has more twists and turns than a car chase down Sunset Strip with a Hollywood starlet at the wheel. Hollywood Assassin is the first book in the Hollywood Alphabet Series. Other books include Hollywood Blood and Hollywood Crazy, with more to follow.

B Smith has been rescued from the den of torture she’d been trapped in—but her savior is none other than the murderous maniac clown Mr. Dowling. He’s desperate to woo B and have her become his bride. He disgusts her, but B knows an opportunity when she sees one. Can she marry a monster if it means saving the world?

Nate McDaniel has discovered a chilling thing. The World Humanitarian Society is planning the next Zombie Outbreak. It’s up to him, Walker and the Zombie Rebels to find the man behind it all and put an end to the madness. Henry Bawkula and his crew have survived the latest incident at the Zombie Rehab, but to what end? Imprisoned, they have been set aside for more diabolical testing.Who’s pulling the strings?Nate McDaniel has discovered a chilling thing. The World Humanitarian Society is planning the next Zombie Outbreak. It’s up to him, Walker and the Zombie Rebels to find the man behind it all and put an end to the madness. Henry Bawkula and his crew have survived the latest incident at the Zombie Rehab, but to what end? Imprisoned, they have been set aside for more diabolical zombie testing. Will they survive the labyrinth that awaits them filled with Zombie Soldiers while the WHS watches them die? And what about the XT Formula? Has a cure been found for the zombies or has the serum been turned into another weapon of war?Can the future of mankind survive in a world run by evil?

“I dreamed a dream of angels. I saw them and heard them in a great and endless galactic night. I saw the lights that were these angels, flying here and there, in streaks of irresistible brilliance . . . I felt love around me in this vast and seamless realm of sound and light . . . And something akin to sadness swept me up and mingled my very essence with the voices who sang, because the voices were singing of me . . . ” Thus begins Anne Rice’s lyrical, haunting new novel, a metaphysical thriller of angels and assassins that once again summons up dark and dangerous worlds set in times past. Anne Rice takes us to other realms, this time to the world of fifteenth-century Rome, a city of domes and rooftop gardens, rising towers and crosses beneath an ever-shifting layer of clouds; familiar hills and tall pines . . . of Michelangelo and Raphael, of the Holy Inquisition and of Leo X, second son of a Medici, holding forth from the papal throne . . . And into this time, into this century, Toby O’Dare, former government assassin, is summoned by the angel Malchiah to solve a terrible crime of poisoning and to search out the truth of a haunting by an earthbound restless spirit—a diabolical dybbuk. O’Dare soon discovers himself in the midst of dark plots and counterplots surrounded by a darker and more dangerous threat as the veil of ecclesiastical terror closes in around him. As he embarks on a powerful journey of atonement, O’Dare is reconnected with his own past, with matters light and dark, fierce and tender, with the promise of salvation and with a deeper and richer vision of love. From the Hardcover edition.

A departure from the stories Elizabeth Gaskell wrote for Charles Dickens’s Household Words magazine, The Poor Clare is a dark, gothic novella of thwarted love and a family curse that vividly illustrates the social tensions of Victorian England. The purposeful slaying of lonely Bridget’s beloved dog unleashes a torrent of rage that surges down through the generations. In her desire for revenge, Bridget utters a fearsome curse upon the dog’s killer: All that the murderer loves most, he will lose. This haunting story of “the sins of the father being visited upon the children” brilliantly shows off Gaskell’s pioneering understanding of the tensions between Catholics and Protestants, and the harsh realities of class society. The Poor Clare stands as an innovative and exciting gem in Elizabeth Gaskell’s oeuvre. From the Trade Paperback edition.

All that glitters isn't gold.... Wealth. Extravagant parties. Celebrity status. These are things Willow De Beers could only dream of — until now. After discovering deep family secrets in her adoptive father's journal, Willow bids farewell to her North Carolina college town and sets out in search of her birth family amid the ritzy glamour of Palm Beach. Using an assumed name and pretending to conduct a study of one of the nation's wealthiest communities, Willow takes Florida's gem city by storm and quickly encounters Thatcher Eaton, a young lawyer who sweeps her off her feet. But as Willow spirals into a passionate love affair and becomes intoxicated with the lifestyle of the rich and famous, the dark truth about her birth family threatens her fabulous new life, pushing her to the brink of insanity....

Horrific tragedy becomes disturbingly ordinary in The Black House, a masterful collection of short stories, written during a particularly dark time in Patricia Highsmith's life. As readers will discover, the work eerily evokes the warm familiarities of suburban life: the manicured lawns, the white picket fences, and the local pubs, each providing the backbone for her chilling portraits. Seemingly small indiscretions and infidelities—along with love affairs and murder—consume the characters that commit them. Cycles of destructive jealousy overwhelm the cheating protagonists of "Blow It" and "When In Rome," and the title story explores small-town male camaraderie and the destructive secret it masks. This enthralling collection of eleven stories presents Highsmith at her finest: melancholy, suspenseful, and sizzling with a powerful awareness of human emotion.

Jack has been on hiatus since the events in Harbingers. With his lover Gia's encouragement he dips a toe back into the fix-it pool. Christy Pickering's eighteen-year-old daughter is dating Jerry Bethlehem, a man twice her age. Christy sensed something shady and sinister about him, so she hired a private investigator to look into his past. But the PI isn't returning her calls. Will Jack find out why? Jack learns there's a very good reason for the unreturned calls: The PI is dead, a victim of a bizarre water-torture murder. As Jack delves into Jerry Bethlehem's past he learns that the man is not who he says he is. Who--and what--he is will have a devastating effect on Jack's life and future, adding another piece to the puzzle of who he really is and why he's been drafted into this cosmic shadow war.

A New York Times Notable Book of the Year Colette and Alison are unlikely cohorts: one a shy, drab beanpole of an assistant, the other a charismatic, corpulent psychic whose connection to the spiritual world torments her. When they meet at a fair, Alison invites Colette at once to join her on the road as her personal assistant and companion. Troubles spiral out of control when the pair moves to a suburban wasteland in what was once the English countryside. It is not long before the place beyond black threatens to uproot their lives forever. This is Hilary Mantel at her finest--insightful, darkly comic, unorthodox, and thrilling to read.

Bestselling author Peter Straub's Koko is a gripping psychological thriller in which horror and paranoia are indistinguishable from reality.Koko. Only four men knew what it meant. Now they must stop it. They were Vietnam vets-a doctor, a lawyer, a working stiff, and a writer. Very different from each other, they are nonetheless linked by a shared history and a single shattering secret. Now, they have been reunited and are about to embark on a quest that will take from Washington, D.C., to the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York, hunting someone from the past who has risen from the darkness to kill and kill and kill. From the Trade Paperback edition.