Ghost Horror

Darkly thrilling, these 20 new ghost stories have all the chills and power of traditional ghost stories, but each tale is a unique retelling of an urban legend from the world over. Multiple award-winning editor Ellen Datlow and award-nominated author and editor Nick Mamatas recruited Jeffrey Ford, Ramsey Campbell, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin Kiernan, Catherynne M. Valente, Kit Reed, Ekaterina Sedia, and 13 other fine writers to create stories unlike any they've written before.

Cassidy Wright hunts ghosts with the Gulf Coast Paranormal team, but she may be in over her head when she's tasked with confronting a ghost who refuses to leave Bloodgood Row. With the power to paint scenes from the past, Cassidy dives into her art to find clues that will lead her to the truth about the life and death of Sabrina Elizabeth. But Sabrina isn't the only spirit haunting Bloodgood Row. The malevolent ghost of a jealous, cruel doctor doesn't want to set Sabrina free, and now he's interested in claiming someone on the team.

The house breathes. The house contains bodies and secrets. The house is visited by ghosts, by angels that line the roof like insects, and by saints that burn the bedsheets with their haloes.

When Jocelyn Graves left the Leaf Academy after her solo investigation, she was determined to return for another look. Only not by herself. The Gulf Coast Paranormal team accompanies Jocelyn as she faces down her fears at the haunted school. As they deploy for the paranormal investigation, ominous black feathers begin to appear and the team has to work hard at avoiding the entity's dangerous invitation. An evil ghost in a leather jacket targets one of the team members, and Sierra begins to hear ghostly music that leads her down a dangerous path. Will she be able to return to Joshua?

Felix Castor has reluctantly returned to exorcism after a successful case convinces him that he really can do some good with his abilities. His friend Rafi is still possessed, the succubus Ajulutsikael still technically has a contract on him, and he's still dirt poor. Doing some consulting for the local cops helps pay the bills, but Castor needs a big private job to really fill the hole in his bank account. That's what he needs. What he gets is a seemingly insignificant "missing ghost" case that inexorably drags him and his loved ones into the middle of a horrific plot.

Claire Hendricks can see ghosts, but she can't see herself having a fun vacation. Yet when her new friends/found family, Basher and Alex, insist, Claire and her dead BFF, Sophie, pack themselves off to a remote Irish island. This tempest-tossed isle is indeed full of noises: not only is the hotel where the gang is staying double booked with a posh private party, the island's crumbling old fort is being fought over by rival ghost pirates. In death, as in life, they're vying over a legendary stash of loot, supposedly hidden somewhere on the island or in the surrounding rough seas.

One of the new guests at Eternal Rest Bed and Breakfast is a real jerk. Even one of the ghosts says so! Emily’s guests for the week are in town to revamp the abandoned hotel on the edge of town, but already they are making enemies all over Oak Hill. When Emily finds one of her guests dead inside the old hotel, she and her best friend, Sage, will have to unravel strange messages from the ghosts there to find the killer.

What do you do when the family curse kicks in and Chloe finds herself in a paranormal fight for her life? Tamara decides to get to the bottom of it. She hopes to set Chloe free but cannot do it alone. A talented curse breaker, with a secretive past of her own, joins forces with them and the outcome is not what anyone expected.

For hundreds of years, the Durupinen have carried the power of the Gateway in their bloodlines. Now, a dire warning from the past might mean that power must come to an end. Jess Ballard has often considered her gift a curse - but now it may truly become one, unless she can convince the leaders of the Durupinen world to restore the power of the Gateways where it rightly belongs. The Durupinen have always considered themselves a force for what is good in the world, but has the intoxication of power left them unable to distinguish between what is right and wrong?

Beneath the brilliance that was behind The Age of Innocence and Ethan Frome was a dark side. A dark side which produced magnificent tales of the unseen influences in our lives, such as "Mr. Jones", "The Eyes", "Kerfol", "The Ladie's Maid's Bell", and "The Looking Glass".

Twenty-six brand-new tales of ghosts, spirits, and the afterlife to chill even the most hardened listener to their very marrow. Grandmasters and newcomers alike serve well to petrify with stories to keep you lying awake in the dead of night - long after the last of the light has died - listening for that telltale scratching at the door, a soft whisper of disembodied voices, and the icy caress of long-dead fingers upon your ankle.

Where is Lara Mayhew? Lara, a congressman's media assistant, suddenly quits her job - and disappears on the way to her Washington, DC, apartment. Novice FBI agent Meg Murray, a childhood friend of Lara's, gets a message from her that same night, a message that says she's disillusioned and "going home." To Richmond, Virginia. Meg discovers that she never got there. And bodies fitting Lara's description are showing up in nearby rivers....

A cemetery full of the restless dead. A town so wicked it has already burned twice, with the breath of the third fire looming. A rural, isolated bridge with a terrifying monster waiting for the completion of its summoning ritual. A lake that allows the drowned to return, though they have been changed by the claws of death. These are the shadowed, liminal spaces where the curses and monsters lurk, refusing to be forgotten.

The Nameless Dark debuts a major new voice in contemporary weird fiction. Within these minutes, you'll find whispers of the familiar ghosts of the classic pulps - Lovecraft, Bradbury, Smith - blended with Grau's uniquely macabre, witty storytelling, securing his place at the table amid this current Renaissance of literary horror.

Ruth has returned to Edinburgh after many years of exile, left rootless by the end of her marriage and career and now the death of her father, from whom she had long been estranged. She is faced with the daunting task of clearing his house, believing he had removed all traces of her mother. Yet hidden away in a barely used top-floor room, she finds he had secretly kept a cupboard full of her possessions. Sifting through the ancient papers, Ruth discovers the diary and letters written by her ancestor from the 18th century, Thomas Erskine.

The inevitable moment of crisis has arrived, and it's left Castor with blood on his hands. Castor drowns his guilt in cheap whiskey, while an innocent woman lies dead and her daughter comatose, his few remaining friends fear for their lives, and there's a demon loose on the streets. But not just any demon - this one rides shotgun on Castor's best friend's soul and can't be expelled without killing him.

Clifford Island. When Willow Stone finds these words written on the floor of her deceased son’s bedroom, she’s perplexed. She’s never heard of it before, but soon learns it’s a tiny island off Wisconsin’s Door County peninsula, 200 miles from Willow’s home. Why would her son write this on his floor? Determined to find answers, Willow sets out for the island. After a few days on Clifford, Willow realizes: This place is not normal. Everyone seems to be stuck in a particular day in 1994.

Hamming it up with equal parts history and histrionics, Phillip leads an archaeological dig of the farm's original dump site - until one student stops the show by uncovering some human bones. When a full skeleton is later excavated, Kath can't help but wonder if it's somehow connected to Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, and whom she met at this very site. After Phillip is found dead, it's up to Kath to thread the clues together before someone else becomes history.

Seventeen-year-old Mattie Hathaway has enough on her plate without having to deal with the latest teenage ghost drama. The ghosts of eight murdered girls are out for her blood. They blame Mattie for their deaths. She has to figure out what happened to them before they make sure she ends up just like them…dead and angry. Not only that, but she has to face the greatest fear of her young life, the death of the only person she’s ever loved. Can she let nature take its course or will she interfere and cause the balance of life and death to spiral out of control?

Barely surviving his last battle against malevolent forces, retired marine and ghost hunter Shane Ryan is surprised to receive an invitation to a new Iron Tournament. But before he can turn his attention to this supernatural death match, he must first track down a shipment of unusual metal, torn from the foundation of a cursed cathedral.