Here’s a small selection of the horror and genre news that caught our eye during the last week …
North Carolina, 1949. When agricultural inspector Charlie Danwitter is sent on a special assignment to bucolic Ashe County, he expects an easy job cataloging heirloom apple varieties. However, when the local farmers grow suspicious of his motives, Charlie finds himself in far more trouble than he bargained for. In an attempt to salvage his assignment, he follows a mysterious woman deep into the beating heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains to a long-forgotten village where harvest rituals are rooted in bizarre Old World customs-and discovers that some traditions are better left in the past. Available now in eBook and paperback, you can pick up your copy here.
For a time in the 1940s, Alexander Bassett was one of the brightest stars in the literary firmament, an acclaimed novelist, poet, and playwright, a voice for social justice. But the years took their toll, Bassett’s work fell out of favor, and eventually, the man himself dropped out of sight. By the time the world learned of his death in 1969, few noticed or cared. Years later, a school teacher named Andy Gillespie sets out to write about Bassett’s life and visits the author’s hometown, eager to learn about his early years. He arrives in Rock Creek, Michigan, expecting to find a small town proud of its famous son, but what greets him is something much different. Only a handful of old-timers even remember Bassett’s name, and most have no interest in Andy’s quest. Doors are slammed in his face. People turn away. Even the few who seem willing to talk – an enthusiastic high school student, an eccentric shopkeeper, a colorful hotel owner, an elderly hermit – raise more questions than they answer. Despite the odds against him, Andy continues to dig. From dusty library shelves to the neglected stones in a lonely graveyard, from the pages of forgotten journals to the shores of a remote island, he keeps on searching, and gradually he begins to unbury fragments of the truth, revealing glimpses into Alexander Bassett’s past that are unexpected, mysterious, and frightening. Then the notes start to arrive. Available to pre-order now in paperback, with an eBook to follow, you can guarantee your copy here.
A collection of new and exclusive short stories inspired by the Baba Yaga. Featuring Gwendolyn Kiste, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Mercedes M. Yardley, Monique Snyman, Donna Lynch, Lisa Quigley, and R. J. Joseph, with a foreword by Christina Henry. Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds’ legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the baba yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the baba yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales. Edited by Lindy Ryan, this collection brings together some of today’s leading voices of women-in-horror as they pay tribute to the baba yaga, and go Into the Forest. Available for pre-order ahead of its 8 November release in paperback and eBook formats, you can guarantee your copy here.
New from writer Brennan LaFaro and Darklit Press, Noose
It’s been fifteen years since Noose Holcomb perpetrated the Buzzard’s Edge Train Robbery of 1872, leaving Rory Daggett an orphan. Settled in with a new family and a second chance at life, Rory never quite sheds the thirst for revenge. When one of the gang members returns to Buzzard’s Edge, Rory’s life is violently upended once more. Capturing the rogue spurs on a furious chain of events that pits Rory against each member of Noose’s gang, every one more twisted and terrifying than the last, in order to work his way to their leader. With the help of a fellow orphan whose life Noose turned upside down and the town’s sheriff, Rory will stop at nothing to be the man who ends Noose’s reign of terror, but can he do it without becoming the man he seeks to kill? Available right now in paperback and eBook, you can grab your copy here.
People have started disappearing again. Children are talking of strangers offering them sugared Almonds. Wet sucking noises have been reported coming from a wooded outcrop where the bloodless body of a Governess has been discovered. Unfortunately, the evidence is becoming disturbingly clear; Gilbert Townsworth is experimenting … again! Available now in eBook, with a paperback edition to follow, you can grab your copy here.
KEV HARRISON