Showing results by publisher "Valancourt Books" in All Categories

David Warwick, an Englishman living in New York, has a sudden premonition that his twin brother, Colin, is in danger. He returns to England and learns the shocking truth: both Colin and his young bride Helen have died ghastly deaths - deaths that no one in the village wants to talk about.

Thousands, even millions, of birds are descending on London - gathering, sitting, watching. At first their arrival is met with curiosity and amusement, as people debate where the birds have come from and what they're doing here. But soon the feathered invaders start to show their sinister side, attacking, maiming, and even killing in incidents of tremendous brutality and violence. Are they an example of nature gone horribly awry, or a paranormal manifestation? Only one thing is certain: Their aim is the destruction of mankind, and nobody has any idea how to stop them...

Once a celebrated singer, Rosemary Paul is now an embittered woman in her 60s, forgotten by nearly everyone but her assistant, Carrie Markham, who idolizes her and panders to her every need. When Rosemary receives the unexpected news that her record company is dusting off one of her albums for a reissue, the old hunger for fame and success is reignited, and with Carrie's help she begins to plan her big comeback. But as preparations commence, long buried secrets begin to resurface, and Rosemary's quest for fame at any price will lead to murder.

Maggie Caine and her family leave New York to visit the Caine family home, an old farmhouse in Ohio, which her husband has just inherited from a distant aunt. The house, 10 miles away from the nearest neighbor, was once owned by a Civil War general reputed to have been a Satanist. But when strange and terrible things begin to happen, it soon becomes clear that satanic worship is still alive and well in the community, and so might be the general, who Maggie suspects is taking possession of her teenage son.

The Norfolk coast made for a perfect holiday - as long as the sun still shone. But when the rain came, the creatures left the shadows. Spectres from the past tortured James Hildebrand's mind. His blackest nightmares were crowded with malevolent, coiling images of decay. Then, suddenly, he knew the threat was real. The dead alone could not quench their hunger. And, for the living, the horrors that fed and multiplied in the darkness of the night became more terrible with the dawn.

Garnet Montrose returns home from Vietnam to small-town Virginia with injuries so terrible that people become ill at the sight of him. Seeking assistance and companionship in his isolation, Garnet hires two young male caretakers, Quintus and Daventry. His interest and curiosity are awakened by the books Quintus reads to him, but in the handsome Daventry he finds a powerful, transformative love unlike anything he has experienced before.

Arthur Geary, a 45-year-old research scientist, quits his job and leaves his wife and children, taking up residence in a hotel near Paddington Station, where he passes all his time sitting on the platforms, watching the people and trains come and go. Overwhelmed by the stresses of modern life, including his difficult job and failing marriage, Geary finds the limitless sky of London unbearable and seeks refuge beneath the 'smaller sky' of the glass-roofed station.

In the worlds of Steve Rasnic Tem, a father takes his son "fishing" in the deepest part of downtown, flayed rabbits visit a suburban back yard, a man is haunted by a surrealistic nightmare of crutches, a father is unable to rescue his son from a nightmare of trees, a bereaved man transforms memories of his wife into performance art, great moving cliffs of detritus randomly prowl the world, a seemingly pointless life finds final expression in bits of folded paper, a nuclear holocaust brings about a new mythology, an isolated man discovers he’s part of a terrifying community, and more.

"If you were to go into your bedroom tonight - perhaps by candlelight - and sit quietly before the large mirror, you might see what I have seen." The image in the mirror of 14-year-old Elizabeth Cuttner is that of the fey and long-dead Frances, who introduces Elizabeth to her chilling world of the supernatural. Through Frances, Elizabeth learns what it is to wield power - power of a kind that is malevolent and seemingly invincible. Power that begins with the killing of her parents...

To Florence Hackett and her daughters Elinor and Louisa, Richard Baurie, a handsome young bookstore clerk and aspiring poet, seems a little odd but harmless enough. With his amusing conversation and his eager-to-please attitude, Richard works his way into the Hacketts' confidence until he is almost one of the family. When he suggests they rent Wisteria Cottage, a charming seaside residence, it seems to promise a summer of pleasant companionship and fun.

This collection of 18 short tales, a novelette, and a short novel takes the listener inside the dark imagination of Elizabeth Engstrom, author of acclaimed horror classics like When Darkness Loves Us. In these stories, you will hear about a woman asked to be complicit in her own mother’s death, a grandmother with a macabre hobby, a bizarre, phallic-shaped flower that portends evil for a married couple, a father whose son is caught up in a sinister government experiment. These are weird and unsettling tales that will linger with the listener.

For two centuries, the body of Sir Martin Railstone, poet, artist, and libertine, has lain undisturbed in its crypt, amidst rumours that important artistic works of genius are buried with him. The Church of England has refused to allow the opening of the tomb, believing that Railstone was a murderer and dabbler in the black arts, and that anything buried with him must be diabolical in nature.

Answering an ad for a job as live-in tutor to a teenage boy, Christopher Beal arrives at the big, old house deep in the woods with no idea what he’s getting into. His pupil is Lawrence Lundy, an odd boy who practices strange rituals by moonlight and is haunted – perhaps literally – by the spirit of his dead father. For mysterious reasons, his mother, Juliet, keeps him at home, isolated from the world. During the suffocating heat of a long summer, Christopher finds himself entangled in the madness of this strange household and must uncover a deadly secret before it’s too late...

These 21 stories - four published here for the first time - explore some of our fundamental fears: death, loss, grief, and aging. In “Reflections in Black”, a man takes a phantasmagoric Halloween journey in search of a former love. In “The Parts Man”, a man enters a desperate contract with a sinister entity in a long, vintage automobile. The darkly beautiful “The Dead Outside My Door” is a haunting post-apocalyptic tale unlike any you’ve ever experienced.

Welcome to the Black Triangle, New York's decadent district of opium dens, gambling casinos, drunken sailors, gaudy hookers, and back room abortions. The queen of this unsavory neighborhood is Black Lena Shanks, whose family leads a ring of female criminals-women skilled in the art of cruelty. Only a few blocks away, amidst the elegant mansions and lily-white reputations of Gramercy Park and Washington Square, lives Judge James Stallworth.