The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 16

by Stephen Jones

  Days of Magic, Nights of War was the second volume in Clive Barker’s epic Abarat quartet that once again featured more than 125 full-colour paintings by the author. This time Candy Quackenbush and rescued slave Malingo explored the fantastical islands, pursued by Christopher Carrion’s agents. An audio version was also available from HarperCollins Audio as an unabridged CD. Barker’s artwork also featured on a line of clothing produced by Primal Wear’s Signature Series for all the family.

  Peter Straub’s In the Night Room was a follow-up to the author’s previous book, lost boy lost girl, and featured haunted novelist Tim Underhill in an enigmatic piece of metafiction in which creator and creation were brought together in the “real” world.

  A small community was cut off by aliens in Dean Koontz’s The Taking, while a man’s future was predicted by his dying grandfather in Life Expectancy, from the same author.

  Anne Rice’s Blood Canticle reportedly marked the conclusion of the author’s bestselling “Vampire Chronicles” sequence. Unfortunately for Rice, she decided to respond with a 1,200-word rebuttal to criticism of the book posted on Amazon.com: “Your stupid, arrogant assumptions about me and what I am doing are slander,” ranted the author. “You have used the site as if it were a public urinal to publish falsehood and lies.” It was perhaps not the best method to attract new readers. Meanwhile, Rice’s Interview With the Vampire and The Vampire Lestat were reissued by Ballantine in “special price” editions, and New Tales of the Vampires was an omnibus edition of Pandora and Vittorio, the Vampire.

  With the help of compiler Donn Albright, Ray Bradbury’s latest collection, The Cat’s Pajamas: New Stories contained twenty-two tales (two reprints, although around half the stories were written before 1952) and a narrative poem dated 1996–97. Eighty-four-year-old Bradbury received the 2004 National Medal of Arts, the American government’s highest honour for artistic achievement, from President Bush at a White House Oval Office ceremony on 17 November. Madeleine L’Engle was awarded the corresponding National Humanities Medal and was represented by her granddaughter.

  Brian Lumley’s enjoyable 1980 time-travel Egyptian novel Khai of Khem was published in a hardcover edition by Tor Books with a superb dustjacket painting by Bob Eggleton.

  Richard Laymon’s The Lake was posthumously published by Headline in the UK. It concerned a mother and daughter and a far from idyllic summer vacation by a haunted body of water.

  Greg Bear’s Dead Lines involved a new telecommunications technology in the near future that put its users in contact with the spirits of the dead. A family moved to a small town with a dark history in John Saul’s Black Creek Crossing, while F. Paul Wilson’s Crisscross was the eighth volume in his popular “Repairman Jack” series.

  The Lonely Dead (US: The Upright Man) was Michael Marshall (Smith)’s follow-up to his previous bestseller The Straw Men, as a former CIA agent became involved with a serial killer and dark secrets that should have remained hidden.

  A series of prostitute murders centred around a low budget film shoot in Belgium and a British film critic-turned-investigator were at the heart of Nicholas Royle’s new thriller Antwerp, which came complete with cover quotes from Jonathan Coe and an interview with the author in Time Out. Royle also edited Dreams Never End: New Noir Short Stories featuring a number of contributions each from Midlands writers Andrew Newsham, Mick Scully and H.P. Tinker.

  The Prayer of the Night Shepherd was the sixth volume in Phil Rickman’s “Merrily Watkins” series. In Spider Robinson’s Very Bad Deaths, a journalist with empathic powers found himself on the trail of a serial killer in British Columbia, while Paul McAuley’s biotech thriller White Devils involved the discovery of genetic engineering, ape-like creatures and a corporate cover-up in the Congo.

  Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child’s Brimstone once again teamed up FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast and former NYPD cop Vincent D’Agosta, who attempted to capture a murderer who left behind the burned impression of a cloven hoofprint.

  Cantankerous geriatric detectives Bryant and May were called in to investigate the bizarre death of an elderly woman found drowned inside her London home in their second case, The Water Room, by Christopher Fowler.

  Caitlín R. Kiernan’s novel Murder of Angels was a haunted house novel set in Birmingham, Alabama, in which schizophrenic musician Niki Ky heard her dead lover calling to her from another world. In Christopher Golden’s The Boys Are Back in Town, a man’s tenth high school reunion signalled a terrifying shift in reality.

  Golden also teamed up with comic book author Thomas E. Sniegoski for The Nimble Man: A Novel of the Menagerie, the first in a new series about a group dedicated to fighting the forces of darkness, while Operation Medusa was the second volume in Jim Grand’s series about paranormal investigators Unit Omega.

  The Devil in Gray was a new title from Graham Masterton, while the author’s latest “Jim Rook” novel, Darkroom, involved spontaneous combustion.

  Elizabeth Hand’s haunting romantic novel Mortal Love revolved around a disturbing Victorian painting and a mysterious and apparently immortal young woman.

  The lost prophecies of Nostradamus could possibly save the United States in Jon Land’s thriller The Last Prophecy, and there were conspiracy theories aplenty in Shaun Hutson’s Necessary Evil.

  The long-deceased V.C. Andrews® (still probably Andrew Niederman) launched the “Gemini” series of Gothic novels with Celeste and Black Cat.

  As always, Dorchester Books’ dedicated Leisure imprint had a busy year with the first US edition of Richard Laymon’s Body Rides following the late author’s manuscript and not the edited UK version published by Headline in 1996.

  Frank M. Robinson’s The Donor was a medical thriller about organ harvesting. A man was haunted by his past in Black Fire by James Kidman (Brian Freeman), while P.D. Cacek’s protagonist could control the wind in The Wind Caller.

  An old man believed that his death would free a demon in Leah R. Cutter’s The Caves of Buda, a witch discovered there was a price to be paid for continued immortality in Sèphra Girón’s Borrowed Flesh, and a run-down dance hall was a home to evil in Simon Clark’s In This Skin.

  Hallows Eve was a new novel in the “Orangefield” series by Al Sarrantonio, and a group of people were trapped by magic in House of Blood by Bryan Smith. A woman returned to confront the madness in her Louisiana home in Deborah LeBlanc’s Family Inheritance, and an inheritance led to Possessions by James A. Moore.

  Edward Lee’s The Messenger was a reprint of a novel originally issued by Necro Publications, James Newman’s Midnight Rain was another mass-market paperback reprint, and other Leisure titles included MEG: Primal Waters by Steve Alten and The Hidden by Sarah Pinborough.

  Scott Nicholson’s Southern Gothic The Manor was a haunted house novel set in an isolated retreat for artistes situated in the heart of the Appalachian Mountains. The Appalachians were also the setting for Stephen Mark Rainey’s The Lebo Crown, in which a man investigated the mysterious disappearance of his brother from a small town.

  Douglas Clegg’s Afterlife involved a wife’s repressed memories and a government-funded research programme for psychic children.

  Convicts were possessed by the dead inmates of a former asylum in Patrick R. Gates’ The Prison, Cambodian ghosts were stirred up by a body-recovery mission in Jeff Long’s The Reckoning, and a private investigator and martial arts expert confronted the forces of evil in Chandler McGrew’s The Darkening.

  Laura Anne Gilman’s Staying Dead was the first in the “Retrievers” trilogy and involved a woman finding an angry ghost. A psychic started receiving abusive phone calls from her supposedly comatose ex-husband in Holly Lisle’s Midnight Rain, and a woman discovered she had healing powers in Edna Ventre-Auefeld’s Penny’s Gift.

  Christopher Moore’s comedic The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror was set in a small coastal California town with zombies. Meanwhile, a virus turned its victims into homicidal maniacs in Walter Greatsh
ell’s Xombies.

  A girl plagued with nightmares tried to remember her Missing Monday by Matthew Costello, the last deposit of dirt from the Biblical Paradise turned up in a rest home in Thomas Sullivan’s Dust of Eden, and Michael Laimo’s Deep in Darkness was set in the same world as the author’s “Golden Eyes” stories.

  Published by Gale Group/Five Star, David Niall Wilson’s novel Deep Blue was expanded from a short story by the author and involved a blues guitarist whose music had the power to release pain.

  Hunters discovered a Sasquatch in Jay Kumar’s Dark Woods. Rick Hautala published Looking Glass under his “A.J. Matthews” pseudonym, and there were more supernatural thrills in Dark Corner by Brandon Massey.

  Kelley Armstrong’s Industrial Magic was a sequel to Dime Store Magic and featured wild witch Paige Winterbourne on the trail of an unnatural-born killer, while a man used magic to pursue a murderer in Larry Segriff’s Nightmare Logic.

  In the comedic fantasy Dead Witch Walking by “Kim Harrison” (Dawn Cook), white witch Rachel Morgan, who worked for a law enforcement agency, teamed up with vampire Ivy and a pixie to become a private investigator. It was followed by The Good, The Bad, and the Undead, in which Rachel and Ivy investigated a serial killer murdering witches.

  Legend of the Jade Dragon was the second volume in Yasmine Galenorn’s “Chintz ’n’ China” series of mysteries about witch Emerald O’Brien; Merilynn was the second in Tamara Thorne’s The Sorority trilogy, about a school’s secret coven of witches, and Daniel Hecht’s Land of Echoes was the second novel to feature psychic investigator Cree Black, this time investigating a case of possession in New Orleans.

  Koji Suzuki’s 1995 novel Spiral (Rasen), the sequel to Ring, was translated by Robert B. Rohmer and Glynne Walley for publisher Vertical. From the same author and imprint, Dark Water (Honogural mizu no soko kara, 1996) collected seven stories framed by opening and closing sections.

  The Ghost and Mrs McClure was the first in Alice Kimberly’s “Haunted Bookshop” mystery series, featuring a phantom detective; Nora Roberts’ Blue Dahlia was the first in the “In the Garden” trilogy, about a haunted house in Memphis, and Snowbound was the ninth volume in Nancy Atherton’s “Aunt Dimity” supernatural mystery series, set in a haunted abbey.

  Mr and Mrs Darcy from Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice investigated a supernatural mystery in Carrie Bebris’ Pride and Prescience, or, A Truth Universally Acknowledged.

  Tor Books moved the launch of its new paranormal romance line from July to October, publishing one title per month. The imprint launched with Constance O’Day-Flannery’s Shifting Love.

  Dark of the Sun by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro was the seventeenth novel about the undead Count Saint-Germain, set against the eruption of Krakatoa. Yarbro’s In the Face of Death was a vampire novel set during the American Civil War featuring Madelaine de Montalia. Published by BenBella Books, it was previously available only as an e-book.

  Under the pen-name “Trystam Kith”, Yarbro was also the author of Trouble in the Forest Book 2: A Bright Winter Sun, about vampires in Sherwood Forest.

  Nancy A. Collins’ “Sonja Blue” novel In the Blood was published for the first time in a separate North American trade edition by White Wolf Publishing’s Borealis inprint.

  Involving a frustrated were-leopard and strippers being murdered by vampire serial killers, Incubus Dreams was the twelfth volume in Laurell K. Hamilton’s erotic “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series. The book was profiled in the September issue of Publishers Weekly.

  In Tanya Huff’s Smoke and Shadows, the undead Henry Fitzroy teamed up with a gay production assistant and a special effects wizard (literally) to investigate the evil centred around a vampire detective TV show. Meanwhile, Jim Butcher’s wizard-for-hire Harry Dresden became involved with murders in the porn movie business in Blood Rites, the sixth book in “The Dresden Files” series.

  Charlaine Harris’ telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse went looking for her missing brother with the help of vampires, werewolves and Wiccans (oh, my!) in the author’s fourth Southern vampire mystery, Dead to the World. Harris also had new stories about the character in the anthologies Powers of Detection edited by Dana Stabenow, which featured contributions from Simon R. Green, Anne Bishop and Laura Anne Gilman, and in Night’s Edge, along with Barbara Hambly and Maggie Shayne.

  In Andrew Fox’s Bride of the Fat White Vampire, a comedic sequel to his first novel, reassembled New Orleans vampire Jules was recruited to hunt down a serial killer preying on the undead. Katherine Ramsland’s The Blood Hunters was a sequel to the author’s The Heat Seekers, while Blood Retribution by David Thurlo and Aimée Thurlo was the second volume featuring vampire Navajo policeman Lee Nez.

  E.E. Knight’s “The Vampire Earth” series continued with Book Two, Choice of the Cat, while Thief of Lives and Sister of the Dead were Barb Hendee and J.C. Hendee’s sequels to the bestselling Dhampir.

  Kiss of the Night and Night Play were the fourth and fifth volumes, respectively, in the “Dark-Hunters” series by Sherrilyn Kenyon (a.k.a. “Kinley MacGregor”). Both titles were also available in hardcover from the Science Fiction Book Club.

  Siege Perilous by actor Nigel Bennett and P.N. Elrod was the fourth volume in the series about a vampiric Lancelot in contemporary Canada, and Blood Red Dawn was the seventh book in Karen E. Taylor’s “Vampire Legacy” series.

  Vampires had taken over the world in David Sosnowski’s Vamped, in which the undead Martin Kowalski put aside his suicidal tendencies to adopt a mortal daughter. A tough female vampire and a cop teamed up in Urban Legend by the unlikely-named Erica Orloff, a vampiric Marquis confronted New Orleans voodoo queen Marie Laveau in Mary Ann Mitchell’s The Vampire De Sade, and Michael Cross’ After Human featured more bloodsuckers.

  A female hitchhiker encountered a truck-driving serial killer vampire in Edo van Belkom’s Blood Road. Michael Romkey’s American Gothic was about American Civil War soldiers turned into vampires, Andrew Niederman’s Deficiency featured a vitamin vampire, and The Fraternity by Stephen Gresham was about a pair of rival undead fraternities.

  “Edited” by Allen C. Kupfer, The Journal of Professor Abraham Van Helsing was packaged by Bill Fawcett & Associates.

  Lynsay Sands’ Love Bites, a prequel to Single White Vampire, was a vampire romance about an undead video game designer and a Toronto coroner stalked by a crazed vampire-slayer.

  Chick-lit mixed with the undead in Mary Janice Davidson’s Undead and Unwed, the first in a series featuring shopping and sucking vampire Betsy Taylor. The character was back in the sequel, Undead and Unemployed. There was more of the same in Katie MacAlister’s Sex and the Single Vampire, when fledgling psychic Allegra Telford discovered that she may be the soul-mate of an arrogant English vampire.

  I Thirst for You was Susan Sizemore’s vampire romance sequel to I Burn for You, while Dark Destiny was the latest in Christine Feehan’s romantic series about Carpathian vampire hunters.

  The second and third volumes in the “Vampire Huntress Legend” series by “L.A. Banks” (Leslie Esdale Banks), The Awakening and The Hunted, were optimistically billed as “Blade meets Buffy!”

  In “Maggie Shayne’s” (Margaret Benson) “Wings in the Night” romance Edge of Twilight, a vampire was out for revenge. Twilight Begins was an omnibus of Shayne’s earlier novels, Twilight Phantasies (1993) and Twilight Memories (1994).

  A government agent seduced a vampire descended from the Knights of the Round Table in Angela Knight’s Master of the Night, Ria Dimitra’s Fiend Angelical was a vampire romance from Ragnell Press, and there were more romantic bloodsuckers in A Whisper of Eternity by Amanda Ashley.

  Despite praise from Caitlín R. Kiernan, Nancy Kilpatrick and Michael Rowe, Patrick Califia’s Mortal Companion was an erotic novel about bi-sexual vampires that bordered on the pornographic.

  Wendy Swanscombe’s Vamp was a sexually explicit version of Dracula, as told through the diaries of Jonathan Harker. Lisette Ashton’s
Faith was the first volume in the erotic “Bloodlust Chronicles” trilogy, while Derek McCormack’s The Haunted Hillbilly was a humorous story about a gay vampire who controlled the career of a country music singer.

  Edited by Angela C. Allen, Dark Thirst was an anthology of six vampire stories by African-American writers, while Midnight Thirsts from Kensington contained four erotic gay vampire stories by Greg Herren, Michael Thomas Ford, Timothy Ridge and Sean Wolfe.

  Immortal Bad Boys included three vampire romance novellas by Rebecca York, Rosemary Laurey and Linda Thomas-Sundstrom, and Cravings collected four sensuous supernatural romance stories by Laurell K. Hamilton (a new “Anita Blake” novel extract), Mary Janice Davidson and Eileen Wilks (both humourous), and Rebecca York (a werewolf mystery).

  Hot Blooded featured four erotic vampire and werewolf stories by Christine Feehan, Maggie Shayne, Emma Holly and Angela Knight.

  Hunter’s Moon by C.T. Adams and Cathy Clamp was a werewolf romance involving a lycanthropic hit man who became involved with his target. San Diego homicide detective Lily Yu investigated the killing of a werewolf in Eileen Wilks’ Tempting Danger, and David A. Page’s mystery novel Surviving Frank was about a werewolf detective in Boston.

  A forest ranger discovered that orphan wolf cubs turned out to be shape-shifters in Edo van Belkom’s young adult novel Wolf Pack, while Stephen Cole’s The Wereling: Resurrection was the third book in another YA series. Michelle Paver’s Wolf Brother was the first volume in the “Chronicles of Ancient Darkness”.

  Set in New York City in 1919, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Harry Houdini, H.P. Lovecraft and voodoo priestess Marie Laveau comprised the eponymous secret group of investigators on the trail of a serial killer and a mysterious tome in screenwriter Thomas Wheeler’s debut novel The Arcanum.

  A serial killer stalked those who could communicate with the dead in Stephen Woodworth’s first novel, Through Violet Eyes. A tie-in competition web site included a game based on the book and a sequel, With Red Hands, followed.