Occult Fiction

NYPD detective John Decker thinks his family’s dark past is behind him when he’s offered the job as town sheriff in his sleepy southern hometown. Happy for a change in scenery, and a quieter way of life, he accepts the position. But when a pair of mutilated bodies are found in the woods just days before a massive storm is due to make landfall, the similarities dredge up the horrific memories of his mother’s unsolved murder almost thirty years ago. A murder that drove his father to madness and an early grave, and John to abandon his high school sweetheart and escape to New York.

On a soft summer night in Vermont, twelve-year-old Lisa went into the woods behind her house and never came out again. Before she disappeared, she told her little brother, Sam, about a door that led to a magical place where she would meet the King of the Fairies and become his queen.

Paris, 1866: When Baroness Sylvie Devereux receives a house call from Charlotte Mothe, the sister she disowned, she fears her shady past as a spirit medium has caught up with her. But with their father ill and Charlotte unable to pay his bills, Sylvie is persuaded into one last con. Their marks are the de Jacquinots: dysfunctional aristocrats who believe they are haunted by their great aunt, brutally murdered during the French Revolution.

In a world gone mad, no one is safe. Ever since leaving the salvage yard, Noah Chambers has been plagued by the infected and hunted by the men who patrol the streets. In order to survive, he'll need to summon strength he never imagined. Will he survive?

Repairman Jack doesn’t believe a house can be haunted. But he’s about to change that tune… In the borough of Queens, just across the river from Manhattan, two clever practitioners of spiritualist hocus-pocus use high-tech tricks to dupe their marks. Perhaps they’re too good: they’ve lured too many clients from other mediums and are now under attack. Unable to go to the police for fear of exposing their own scams, they hire Repairman Jack to fix their problem.

It is 1556 and the queen's astrologer, the prophet Nostradamus has uncovered a secret that could destroy the kingdom of France. The queen, Catherine de Medicis, a dabbler in black magic, has decided to get rid of the king's mistress by seeking out the legendary Undying Head of Menander the Magus, known as the Master of All Desires. But she does not know that evil befalls all those who wish upon this accursed object. And the head, in its coffer, has fallen into the possession of a charming, wryly perceptive but stubborn young woman: Sybille Artaud de la Roche.

One of Canada’s most acclaimed horror writers, Gemma Files presents a mosaic of interconnected stories about interconnected families. After fleeing Scotland, five clans settled in the fictional town of Dourvale in northern Ontario. Known as the Five-Family Coven, they are the descendants of witches and witch-children, none of whom were spared persecution in their native country. Now shamans, spellcasters, singers, and thieves, the members of the Devize, Druir, Glouwer, Roke, and Rusk families survive by trading their occult powers and talents.

Four months ago, a pretty young marathoner disappeared while training on the isolated trails of Griffith Park in Los Angeles. The police have few leads, no witnesses, and no results. As a last resort, they call in private investigator Lacey Fitzpatrick and Navajo medium Sam Firecloud to pick up the rapidly cooling trail.

The unifying factor of this collection is that, without exception, every author included here was in some way or another involved with or interested in the occult. In some cases, they were members of an occult organization, such as the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Theosophical Society, or similar such groups. Others simply had a strong personal interest in the subject matter or practiced some form of the esoteric sciences in private.

I’m an occultist living in a haunted brownstone in upstate New York. The building is a ghostly double-image of itself, like a picture painted brightly over an older, weirder picture. It’s an equinox place, my mother once said, where dark and light things are equally in power. I want to tell you, dear strangers, why I was there and what I found.

Aaron Andrews, a newly-minted doctor, returns to the village of Aetherton to take up his late father's practice. Hopes of easing into his new role and restoring the local clinic are dashed, however, when the disfigured body of a child is discovered in an empty flowerbed. Working closely with Evander Cochrane, the village's sole law enforcement officer, Andrews is forced to admit that the girl's death is anything but natural.

As a Level Eight telepath, I am the best police interrogator in the department. But I’m not a cop - I never will be - and my only friend on the force, Homicide Detective Isabella Cherabino, is avoiding me because of a telepathic link I created by accident. And I might not even be an interrogator for much longer. Our boss says unless I pull out a miracle, I’ll be gone before Christmas. I need this job, damn it. It’s the only thing keeping me sane.

Veronica McAllister died in 2018. She immediately opened her eyes again in 1958, all memories of her previous life intact. She goes from old age, pants suits, and a cane, to poodle skirts, saddle shoes, and Buddy Holly. At the end of her first life, Veronica said she “wasn’t any good at life.” With the most precious of gifts - perspective and a second chance - can she succeed where she failed during her first life? What would you do, if you could do it all again?

Leading the U.S.S. Nimitz survivors has forced Father Xavier Church to make some hard decisions, but he's protected his flock. Only, his fortress is about to fall, and, this time, he might not be able to save them all. Most people lost everyone they loved to the walking dead, but Evan Tucker didn't have anything to lose. The folks on the Nimitz are the closest family he's ever had. He'll fight to his last breath to make sure nothing comes between them - no matter whether it's the undead or the living.

A swirling, psychedelic, bleakly funny fugue by the Booker-shortlisted author of The Butcher Boy and Breakfast on Pluto. Una Fogarty, suffering from dementia in a seaside nursing home, would be all alone without her brother Dan, whose epic free-verse monologue tells their family story. Exile from Ireland and immigrant life in England. Their mother’s trials as a call girl. Young Una’s search for love in a seemingly haunted hippie squat, and the two-timing Scottish stoner poet she’ll never get over.

Caitlin Nylo gave up everything to turn her father’s game company into a worldwide success. Along the way, she lost her mother, her marriage, and she barely sees her children. She’s rich, driven, and brilliant. But she’s also alone. After her eccentric father passes away, Caitlin is furious when she learns that instead of leaving the company and its fortunes to her, he has chosen to make his heirs compete in one last game: a scavenger hunt with a multi-billion-dollar inheritance waiting at the end.

Alyssa Mann isn’t adventurous, not since her husband died and she found herself the single mom of a teenage daughter. But there’s no way to avoid celebrating the big 4-0, so when her best friends drag her out for drinks and a tarot reading, she throws caution to the wind and decides to see what the spirits have to say. It’s all fun and games, until she wakes up the next morning with a wicked hangover—and a ghost perched on the edge of her bed.

Sisters Zora and Sasha Porter are drifting apart. Bearing witness to their father’s violence and their mother’s worsening illness, an unsettled Zora escapes into her journal, dreaming of being a writer, while Sasha discovers sex and chest binding, spending more time with her new girlfriend than at home. But the sisters, like their parents, must come together to answer to something more ancient and powerful than they know—and reckon with a family secret buried in the past.

When occult enthusiast Sir Giles Tumulty comes into possession of a stone known as the Crown of Solomon, he is amazed at its startling powers. It can replicate itself infinitely, and can transport its holder to any place or time. Sir Giles and his nephew Reginald, an opportunistic businessman, conspire to exploit their new treasure. Seeking to enlist honest Lord Arglay in their plans, Arglay quickly realizes what is at stake. Unlimited power should not fall into the wrong hands...and it already had....

It started in the Middle East. A flu-like plague that infected thousands and killed roughly 10 percent of its victims. Those who died awoke once again, but they were no longer among the living - they came back as soulless, carnivorous corpses who desired only one thing: to feed on living human flesh. The citizens of Single Tree, California, want the stenches and those fleeing them to ignore the town long enough for it to be transformed.... But time is not on their side.