The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 18

by Stephen Jones (ed. )

  King’s second novel of the year, Lisey’s Story, explored many of the author’s familiar themes as widow Lisey Landon discovered that she may have been receiving messages from her murdered author husband while strangers attempted to force her to hand over his papers. The novel debuted at #1 in the US and, for the first time in a decade, King made a promotional visit to the UK in November to promote the book.

  In his occasional “The Pop of King” column in Entertainment Weekly, King discussed such diverse subjects as network morning TV, the Oscars, United 93, Britney Spears, dieting, HBO’s The Wire and audio books. The author also listed Dispatch as one of the Top 10 Books of 2006 and described its author Bentley Little as “the horror poet of ordinary things”.

  Little’s The Burning was an original mass-market novel about four disparate people across American whose lives converged in a series of ever weirder supernatural manifestations.

  A landscape gardener set out to rescue his kidnapped wife and learn about his own dysfunctional past in The Husband, a psychological thriller by Dean Koontz. Also from Koontz, Brother Odd was the third in the “Odd Thomas” series with an initial US print-run of 650,000 copies.

  James Herbert’s The Secret of Crickley Hall was a haunted house tale about a couple who moved into a remote building after the strange disappearance of their young son.

  With a first printing of 1.5 million copies from Bantam, Thomas Harris’ lazy prequel Hannibal Rising took the reader back to Hannibal Lecter’s roots as a war orphan in Eastern Europe. The book was written simultaneously with the screenplay for the 2007 film version.

  Farewell Summer, Ray Bradbury’s long-awaited sequel to Dandelion Wine, was once again set in Green Town, Illinois, during an idyllic summer that refused to end. Much of the book had been part of the earlier title’s original manuscript.

  The Southern Gothic Candles Burning, about a strange girl with acute hearing and a supernatural family mystery, was begun by Michael McDowell before his untimely death in 1999 and completed by Tabitha King.

  When an ancient Egyptian tomb went on display in New York, people started eviscerating each other and only framed FBI agent Aloysius Pendergast could solve the mystery in The Book of the Dead by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child.

  Robin Cook’s latest medical thriller, Crisis, featured Dr Laurie Montgomery and Dr Jack Stapleton investigating the dangers of “concierge medicine”.

  Parish vicar Merrily Watkins aided her daughter’s investigation of the spirit of a dead drug-dealer and help protect the local ley lines in The Remains of an Altar by Phil Rickman, while Caitlín R. Kiernan’s Daughter of Hounds involved a strange, yellow-eyed child and a woman who worked for a race of subterranean creatures.

  A new communicator with the dead confronted invading aliens in Brian Lumley’s Necroscope: The Touch, and a number of broken objects found in a summer house exerted a strange influence in John Saul’s In the Dark of the Night.

  After coming out of a period of writer’s block, Shaun Hutson’s latest was titled Dying Words and involved a contemporary murder mystery linked with a 13th-century philosopher reputed to have travelled to Hell.

  The first volume in the “Sissy Sawyer” series, Graham Masterton’s Touchy and Feely was about a fortune-teller with psychic powers. Cowboys for Christ was Robin Hardy’s sequel-of-sorts to The Wicker Man, set in another pagan Scottish community.

  The UK’s Headline imprint reissued the late Richard Laymon’s novels in “Richard Laymon Collection” omnibus paperback editions, with The Beast House Trilogy, The Woods Are Dark/Out Are the Lights, Beware!/Dark Mountain, Flesh/Resurrection Dreams, Funland/The Stake, Tell Us/One Rainy Night, Night Show/Allhallows Eve and Alarums/Blood Games.

  A new independent paperback imprint, Abaddon Books, was launched in Britain in August 2006. Simon Spurrier’s The Culled was the first volume in “The Afterblight Chronicles”. set in a world ravaged by a biological apocalypse, while Sniper Elite: Spear of Destiny by Jaspre Bark was inspired by the World War II video game. The “Tombs of the Dead” series was devoted to zombie fiction and kicked off with Matthew Sprange’s Death Hulk, an historical nautical adventure involving a warship crewed by the walking dead.

  On the eve of his wedding, a reluctant attorney teamed up with Jack Frost to prevent two realities encroaching on each other in Christopher Golden’s The Myth Hunters, the first volume in “The Veil” trilogy. Golden also teamed up with actress Amber Benson for Ghosts of Albion: Witchery, based on the BBC animated Internet serial.

  A serial killer apparently had a change of heart in Tom Piccirilli’s The Dead Letters, and a former convict returned home to face his past and make peace with the dead in the same author’s Headstone City.

  A town remembered for a series of serial killings thirty years earlier was forced to confront a new evil in Jonathan Maberry’s Ghost Road Blues, the first book in a trilogy.

  In Scott Nicholson’s lively horror novel The Farm, a North Carolina town was menaced by the ghost of a murdered preacher and beset with blood-drinking goats, while a dead family didn’t like their home being renovated in Deborah LeBlanc’s A House Divided.

  Simon Clark’s The Tower was about five young people house-sitting an empty edifice, and London Under Midnight involved a reporter investigating a vampiric menace that emerged from the River Thames. The author also made a short film, Secret Realms, Haunted Places, about locations around England that had inspired his work.

  While the crumbling building was being renovated after standing empty for forty years, the ghosts of Pittsburgh’s George Washington High School refused to stay buried in The Night School, and the refurbishment of an old opera house resulted in the haunting of a theatre company in Stage Fright, both by Michael Paine (John Michael Curlovich).

  Jeff VanderMeer’s Shriek: An Afterword was once again set in Ambergris and looked at the world of publishing in that legendary city.

  A widow and her small child moved into a haunted house in Gayle Wilson’s Bogeyman, and yet another small town was consumed by an ancient evil in Joseph Laudati’s In Darkness It Dwells.

  A murder in a remote village was linked to another committed in the summer of 1969 in Piece of My Heart, Peter Robinson’s 16th novel featuring Chief Inspector Banks.

  The cast of a reality TV show was deposited on an island with real demons in Surviving Demon Island by Jaci Burton, Mexican vegetation turned lethal in Scott Smith’s The Ruins, and an investigator discovered an underground world in The Water Wolf by Thomas Sullivan.

  A woman’s search for her daughter’s killer became a self-destructive obsession in The Mother by Australian musician Brett McBean.

  The nightmares of a number of murder victims were linked in In Dreams by Shane Christopher (Matthew J. Costello), and a reporter shared a psychic link with her murdered twin in Kindred Spirit by John Passarella.

  T. J. MacGregor’s Cold as Death was the fifth book in the “Tango Key” series, featuring psychic Mira Morales. A diver was warned of evil by the image of a dead woman in Heather Graham’s The Vision, while an investigation into missing tourists led to rumours of vampires in the same author’s paranormal romance Kiss of Darkness.

  Near-future necromancer Dante Valentine found she was Working for the Devil in Lilith Saintcrow’s dark fantasy. The character returned in Dead Man Walking.

  A man who disappeared during World War II reappeared thirty years later looking exactly the same in Frank Cavallo’s The Lucifer Messiah.

  A woman suspected that her boyfriend was evil in The Boyfriend from Hell by Avery Corman, and another woman’s boyfriend wouldn’t stay dead in D. V. Bernard’s humorous How to Kill Your Boyfriend (In Ten Easy Steps).

  A book had the power to release a great evil in Mr Twilight by Michael Reaves and Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff. Robert Masello’s Bestiary was about a cursed manuscript and was a sequel to the author’s The Vigil, while Alhazred: Author of the Necronomicon by Donald Tyson was an “autobiography” of the mad Arab created by H. P. Lovecraft.


  A mystical rock caused terrifying visions in Pete Earley’s supernatural thriller The Apocalypse Stone.

  MaxBrooks’ World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie Warwas a post-holocaust novel presented in the form of a non-fiction book.

  A hypochondriac San Francisco storeowner discovered that he had been given the job of Death’s assistant in Christopher Moore’s adult comedy A Dirty Job. The same author’s vampire comedy, You Suck: A Love Story, was a sequel to Bloodsucking Fiends and included characters from other works.

  Dorchester Publishing’s Leisure imprint continued to churn out numerous paperback originals as apocalyptic flood waters awakened a breed of monstrous worms in Brian Keene’s fun disaster novel The Conqueror Worms.

  Tim Lebbon’s Berserk was about zombies, and women in a sleepy Buckinghamshire village gave birth to spidery monsters in Sarah Pinborough’s third novel, Breeding Ground.

  A woman had the power to make other people’s dreams and fears corporeal in Tim Waggoner’s Pandora Drive, and something nasty arrived in the small town of Ptolemy in the same author’s Darkness Wakes.

  Al Sarrantonio’s Horrorween was part of the author’s ongoing “Orangefield” series, the reanimated dead were used as servants in Simon Clark’s Death’s Domain, and the Five Night Warriors entered the nightmares of expectant mothers in Night Wars, the fourth volume in the series by Graham Masterton.

  Something hungry and evil waited in a subterranean well beneath the cellar of an old house in Shelter by L. H. Maynard and M. P. N. Sims, and other titles from the imprint included The Loveliest Dead by Ray Garton, Smiling Wolf by Philip Carlo, and Deathbringer by Brian Smith.

  Leisure reissued Jack Ketchum’s Off Season in “The Author’s Uncut, Uncensored Version!”, along with “Winter Child”, a cut section from the novel She Wakes. J. F. Gonzalez’s Survivor and The Beloved were other reissues, as were The Immaculate by Mark Morris, Wolf Trap by W. D. Gagliani, Live Girls by Ray Garton and Slither by Edward Lee. Douglas Clegg’s The Attraction was an omnibus of two previously-published novels.

  From Harlequin Books/Silhouette’s Nocturne imprint, a woman who could talk to ghosts was stalked by a witch-hunting killer in Lisa Childs’ Haunted, a paranormal romance in the “Witch Hunt” series.

  The Daughter of the Flames and The Daughter of the Blood were the first two paranormal romances in “The Gifted” trilogy by Nancy Holder, featuring psychic Isabella “Izzy” DeMarco, while Dangerous Tides was the latest volume in the “Drake Sisters” paranormal romance series by the prolific Christine Feehan.

  With reportedly six million copies of her “Anita Blake” books in print, Micah, the 13th volume and first mass-market original in Laurell K. Hamilton’s vampire series since 1998, went straight to #1 in the US with a first printing of more than 400,000 copies. The next volume in the series, Danse Macabre, returned to the hardcover format as Anita thought she might be pregnant. It also went to #1 with a 250,000-copy first printing that quickly sold out.

  Set in third century Rome, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro’s 19th century historical novel about vampire Ragoczy Germain Sanctus-Franciscus was entitled Roman Dusk.

  Proven Guilty was the eighth volume in Jim Butcher’s “Dresden Files” and involved wizard PI Harry Dresden in a war between the Faeries and the vampires of the Red Court.

  TV director Tony Foster had to halt a Demonic Convergence with the help of his friend, vampire Henry Fitzroy, in Tanya Huff’s Smoke and Ashes, the third in the humorous dark fantasy series. Meanwhile, Huff’s earlier “Vicki Nelson” books were repackaged by DAW Books as a three-volume series, The Blood Books, each containing two novels apiece.

  No Dominion was the second volume in Charlie Huston’s series about hardboiled vampire PI Joe Pitt. A private investigator who was half-human, half-elf had a vampire as her first client in Even Vampires Get the Blues by Katie MacAlister (aka Katie Maxwell), and a series of murders in a small town were blamed on vampires in Pale Immortal by Anne Frasier.

  Navajo Nightwalker police officer Lee Nez returned in David Thurlo and Aimee Thurlo’s Surrogate Evil, the fourth volume in the vampire mystery series.

  B. H. Fingerman’s Bottomfeeder was about a loser vampire in a dead-end job, and a man was recruited to hunt vampires in Graham Masterton’s Descendant.

  Barbara Hambly’s Renfield: Slave of Dracula retold the story of the Count’s fly-eating servant.

  Whereas once vampires were used as figures of fear in literature, they are now more likely to be depicted as humorous characters or, even worse, potential romantic partners in numerous paperback originals (“vampromcoms”?) apparently aimed at middle-class housewives and undiscerning supermarket shoppers.

  Reminiscent of the boom-and-bust horror cycle of the 1980s, vampire romances and – even more bizarrely – vampire/werewolf romances swamped the market in 2006. Not only were these volumes mostly aimed at people who read outside the horror genre, but the majority were written by authors (often under multiple pseudonyms) who had no other interest in horror. However, there was no denying that there was a huge audience for these types of books.

  Telepathic waitress Sookie Stackhouse had to recover a bracelet belonging to the vampire Queen of Louisiana in Definitely Dead, the sixth in the humorous Southern Gothic series by Charlaine Harris.

  An undead woman opened a vampire dating agency in Manhattan in Kimberly Raye’s Dead End Dating, while Undead and Unpopular was the fifth book in Maryjanice Davidson’s humorous “Betsy the Vampire Queen” series.

  The Damned was the latest volume in the “Vampire Huntress Legends” series by L. A. Banks (Leslie Esdale Banks) and included a limited edition poster inside the back cover of the hardback edition. Banks also edited Vegas Bites, an anthology of four stories by J. M. Jeffries, Seressia Glass, Natalie Dunbar and the editor, set in a casino run by vampires, werewolves and other creatures.

  An undead casino owner became involved in politics in Erin McCarthy’s High Stakes, the latest volume in the humorous “Vegas Vampires” series, while a female security guard at a Las Vegas concert encountered her former vampire boyfriend in Cameron Dean’s Passionate Thirst, the first book in the “Candace Steele Vampire Killer” series. It was followed by Luscious Craving and Eternal Hunger.

  In Kerrelyn Sparks’ Vamps and the City, two CIA vampire hunters became involved in a reality TV show, and a female FBI agent had a vampire lover in Caridad Piniero’s Death Calls.

  Mario Acevedo’s comedy debut novel, The Nymphos of Rocky Flats introduced Latino vampire investigator Felix Gomez, while Happy Hour at Casa Dracula by Marta Acosta involved a Latina finding love amongst a family of bloodsuckers.

  Traitor to the Blood was the fourth volume in Barb Hendee and J. C. Hendee’s “Noble Dead” series, while both Desire Calls and Death Calls by Caridad Piñeiro featured women involved with vampires.

  In Touch the Dark, the first in a new series by newcomer Karen Chance, necroscope Cassie Palmer was forced to rely on the protection of a dangerously seductive master vampire.

  A bounty hunter became involved with vampires in Hunting the Hunter, the first in a series by Shiloh Walker, and after being left for dead, bounty hunter Anna Strong tracked down the vampires that transformed her in The Becoming by Jeanne C. Stein.

  Blood Ties Book One: The Turning was the first in a new series by Jennifer Armintrout about a vampire doctor.

  A woman discovered that she had a new destiny in Alexandra Ivy’s vampire romance When Darkness Comes, the first book in the “Guardians of Eternity” trilogy, and a succubus worked as an exotic dancer in Jackie Kessler’s Hell’s Belles, the first in another trilogy.

  Lover Eternal and Lover Awakened were the first two volumes in the “Black Dagger Brotherhood” vampire romance series by J. R. Ward (Jessica Bird).

  A biochemist pursued by the undead was helped by a vampire hunter in Seduced by the Night, the second book in the “Night Slayer” series by Robin T. Popp, while Past Redemption by Savannah Russe (Charles Trantino) was the
second book in “The Dark-wing Chronicles”.

  The Devil’s Knight and Dark Angel were the second and third volumes, respectively, in the “Bound in Darkness” Medieval vampire romance series by Lucy Blue (Jayel Wylie).

  Nora Roberts’ Dance of the Gods and Valley of Silence were the second and third books in the author’s vampire “Circle” trilogy, and I Only Have Fangs for You by Kathy Love was the third in the series about vampire brothers.

  Prince of Twilight was the latest title in the “Wings in the Night” series by Maggie Shayne, and Dark Demon and Dark Celebration were the next two novels in the “Carpathian” series by Christine Feehan, whose Conspiracy Game was the fourth in the “GhostWalkers” series.

  Tall Dark & Dead was a humorous novel by Tate Hallaway (Lyda Morehouse) which involved a witch attracted to a vampire alchemist. Kathryn Smith’s Be Mine Tonight combined vampires with the legend of the Holy Grail, while The Vampire’s Seduction by Raven Hart featured a playboy bloodsucker confronting an ancient enemy.

  A female PI discovered that her former fiancé had become a vampire and was accused of murder in Jenna Black’s Watchers in the Night. Stolen computer files were at the heart of Susan Sizemore’s vampire romance Master of Darkness, and a bloodsucker fell in love with a police officer in the same author’s Primal Heat.

  Just One Sip featured three vampire romance stories by Katie MacAlister, Jennifer Ashley and Minda Webber, while Love at First Bite contained original tales from Sherrilyn Kenyon, Susan Squires, Ronda Thompson and L. A. Barks.

  Originally published in different form as an e-book in 2001, The Hunter’s Prey: Erotic Tales of Texas Vampires contained eleven stories by Diane Whiteside. From the same author, Bond of Blood was the first novel in the “Texas Vampires” trilogy.

  Blood Red was an erotic Regency vampire romance by Sharon Page, and The Burning by Susan Squires was an erotic vampire novel set in early 19th-century England that featured psychic Ann Van Helsing.