Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
Dark Choir, the new novel from PAul Melhuish and Shamrock Silver Publishing, coming 21 April
Six victims. Six perpetrators. A means for the scarred, abused, and powerless to take their revenge upon those who have wronged them. To make them pay the ultimate price for their crimes. Dan Hepworth is forced to return to his home town of Scarsdale after his mother’s death where memories of fear and abuse still haunt him. His disabled sister, Lindsey, and her live-in nurse, Alison, still reside in his mother’s isolated rural house where Dan is to spend the next few days for his mother’s funeral. However, all is not right in Scarsdale. A ghostly robed man walks the hills around the town at night and unearthly singing had been heard coming from the derelict asylum across the valley. Worse still, retired nurses and ex-patients from the asylum are being targeted at night by unknown assailants, enduring psychological and physical attacks on their person and property with the word CHOIR scrawled across the walls of their homes after each attack. When Dan’s sister, Lindsey, is visited by the robed apparition and those around her are stalked by the violent assailants, Dan begins to uncover uncomfortable truths and dark secrets about the asylum and its former patients. Dark Choir is available 21 April and is available for pre-order now, here.
New from Things in the Well and editor Steve Dillon, Infected: Tales to Read at Home, released 12 April
A collection of terrifying tales set in the very near future… or perhaps it’s already here? It’s an infected apocalypse and we’re all (alone) in it together! ALL proceeds go to the Save the Children Coronavirus Response. Featuring an incredible roster of authors, including Lee Murray, Mark Cassell, Lisa Morton, Stephen Herczeg and Tabatha Wood, among others, Infected is the latest in a line of charitable anthologies produced by Australia-based Things in the Well. Released 12 April, you can pre-order your copy right now, here.
Both Sides: Stories From The Border, edited by Gabino Iglesias, available now from Polis Books
La frontera is full of stories. Real stories, not the ones you see in the news. The border is a powerful place where countries collide. It’s a weird space of dreams, struggles, promises, lies, fear, and redemption. It’s a multicultural and bilingual space where people know that hustling to protect your loved ones or offer them a better life is a drive strong enough to blur ethical codes. Sadly, the border is also a place where drugs make people a lot of money, corruption stains everything, and violence fills the landscape with danger and ghosts. Now, some of today’s most talented authors will visit this space from their perspective―showing the world what they see on both sides. In a landmark anthology, acclaimed author Gabino Iglesias (Coyote Songs) presents 15 stories from an incredibly talented and diverse roster of authors that look at all aspects of border crime―immigration, law, trafficking (both human and narcotics), and everyone trying to exploit the divide for their own benefit. Thought-provoking, shocking, violent, raw, emotional, and unforgettable, Both Sides will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about borders, both domestic and international. Featuring stories by Michelle Garza and Melissa Lason, Nick Mamatas, Cynthia Pelayo, Rob Hart, Shannon Kirk and many more, you can pick up your copy in paperback, hardback or eBook now, here.
New from Grindhouse Press and Kristopher Triana, Blood Relations, a collection, coming 5 May
Family. They create us and shape us, love us and traumatize us. We cling to them by a primal instinct to survive, but our ties to them make our family more capable of destroying us than anyone else. We’re bound to them for life by our very flesh and blood. Blood Relations is a collection of eight short stories and two novelettes from Kristopher Triana. Every story revolves around family, be it fathers hunting their sons, murder duo siblings, parental impostors, or children facing the end of the world. Ranging from conventional to extreme horror, this collection crafts a terrifying family album for readers, one with pages smudged by bloody thumbprints. Blood Relations lands 5 May and you can pre-order your copy right now, here.
Darkened Wings Flutter, the new novel from horror writer Lou Yardley, out now
The small town of Crow’s Foot Hollow is thrown into turmoil when a local boy called Dwayne goes missing. For teacher Beth Harwood, it soon becomes clear that the nearby forest is connected to his disappearance. Clouded in mystery, scary stories, and haunting nursery rhymes, that forest seems like just the kind of place to swallow a young boy whole. But the forest isn’t the only thing you have to worry about in Crow’s Foot Hollow. Sometimes the dangers are much closer to home. Chuck Graves lives next door to a family with their share of problems – a couple that always argues, a little girl called Imogen who creeps the hell out of everyone – but they appear to be held together by little Ryan who keeps on smiling regardless of what’s going on. Everything appears normal, but Chuck can’t help but wonder what’s going on behind closed doors. Crawling with monsters big and small, “Darkened Wings Flutter” wants to get under your skin. Released 2 April, you can get hold of your copy in paperback or eBook, here.
KEV HARRISON
