Occult Fiction

Is anybody out there, and what do they want with us? In June 1992, veteran reporter C.D.B. Bryan attended the Abduction Study Conferences at M.I.T. In this remarkable audio program, Bryan recalls the 4 days of the conference, during which he met with scientists, psychiatrists, physicians, and folklorists who have studied the growing phenomenon of alien abductions.

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.

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.

Tallulah “Lou” Thatcher has a gift: she can see dead people. But in New Orleans, Louisiana, this is not a drawback. On the contrary, her ability to see ghosts helps her host viral ghost tours through the historic Garden District. When rival tour guide Adam Brandt–who accused her of faking her encounters to undercut his business–is found murdered, Lou is the only one who can see him… his ghost, that is.

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.

In a new and major novel, the creator of fantastic universes of vampires and witches takes us now into the world of Isaiah and Jeremiah and the destruction of Solomon's Temple, to tell the story of Azriel, Servant of the Bones. He is ghost, genii, demon, angel - pure spirit made visible. He pours his heart out to us as he journeys from an ancient Babylon of royal plottings and religious upheavals to Europe of the Black Death and on to the modern world. There he finds himself, amidst the towers of Manhattan, in confrontation with his own human origins.

The Illuminati dominates any discussion of secret societies. Search the web, spark up a conversation, or search through a library shelf, and soon enough you will encounter their name. They have become an ancient order and a modern sensation at the same time. At once a ubiquitous herald of the new world order and the people who market pop albums, trying to discern the truth about the organization can get lost amid the hail of noise that inevitably follows any mention of their name.

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.

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....

This stunning anthology of classic colonial suspense fiction plunges deep into the native soil from which American horror literature first sprang. While European writers of the Gothic and bizarre evoked ruined castles and crumbling abbeys, their American counterparts looked back to the colonial era’s stifling religion, and its dark and threatening woods.

Broke and unemployed, “Jumper” Sirantha Jax accepts a diplomatic mission for the government - only to find herself up against Syndicate criminals, man-eating aliens, and her own grimspace-weakened body.

The fourth exciting episode in this continuing magical saga finds the two young sleuths continuing their seclusion in the abandoned east wing of the McMasters castle as their intriguing adventures continue. Yet tricked by the rivaling wizard Vincent Chalmers, they find themselves back on the doomed airline of flight 4652, but survive using powered magical wands to form a protective shield. And Maci rises from the flames of that crash and four attempts on her life—to take the rare but historical position of Phoenix.

An influential writer of supernatural fiction, Arthur Machen was born in Wales, in 1863. Many modern writers, such as Stephen King, have cited him as an inspiration. Perhaps most notably, though, was H.P. Lovecraft, who cites Machen as what led him down the road to eventually creating the Cthulhu Mythos. Presented here are two short stories and two novellas: "The Inmost Light", "A Fragment of Life", "The Shining Pyramid", and "The Terror."

Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a 10th member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips. But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, 'The Game'? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura's winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves?

There can be no light without darkness, pleasure without pain, or love without loss. Masters of supernatural and psychological horror have teamed up to create this macabre collection of 32 horror stories about love. Jealous murders, monstrous doppelgangers, heart-rending romances, devils and angels, cannibals, and virtual worlds - your most desperate longings and worst nightmares all rolled into one. Shocking twists and absolute mind-f--kery will thrill and terrify you to the end!

Over 45 spine-chilling and thought-provoking tales from one of the greatest writers in the realm of the supernatural - Tom Slemen.