Occult Horror Fiction

A deadly black widow has eliminated three husbands and counting. But Nameless knows her one weakness. To bring truth and its consequences to her crimes, the vigilante must spin a web of his own in part three of the Nameless series. Lucia - current last name, Rickenbah - has made a fortune by marrying rich men who tend to drop dead. But the superstitious blonde believes in more than money and murder. Nameless’s job is to scare a confession out of Lucia, and as the psychological warfare escalates, even he may be in for a shock.

Zoe Lake is heading off to college - and she's excited. It's not a regular college, though. It's a magical college full of vampires, werewolves, ghosts, witches, sphinxes - and pretty much everything else you can imagine. Despite the monsters, it's often human nature that threatens her life most.

Book 3 of the Demon Accords. Partnered in an uneasy alliance with federal law enforcement, Chris Gordon has been hunting down the outlaw gang Loki's Spawn, who attacked his vampire girlfriend. But when he finds unexpected hostages who trigger his baser instincts, Chris is thrown into a search for answers to dark questions: how to control his inner demon, what do the Spawn want with children, and who is hunting him?

Daxas' trials continue. He has defeated those with the temerity to face him and claimed the dark elf Dungeon Mistress Jen'Zadeer Shadestar for his own. His guild, the Dark Moon Rising, continues to flourish despite its figurehead Chief Simeon Reedwhistle's reservations.

Set against the stark background of the Southwestern desert, Lena Valencia’s Mystery Lights glows with the promise—and fear—of the world we know and the worlds we don’t, following women and girls as they navigate dangers both supernatural and existential. From the all-too-real horror of a sexual predator on a college campus to a lost sister transformed by cave-dwelling creatures, Mystery Lights grapples with terrors both familiar and fantastic.

Connie's mother asks her to sell an abandoned house once owned by her grandmother in Salem, Mass. Relunctantly, Connie moves to the small town and inhabits the crumbling, ancient house, trying to restore it to a semblance of order. Curious things start to happen when Connie finds the name "Deliverance Dane" on a yellowed scrap of paper and begins to have visions of a long ago woman condemned for practicing "physick," or herbal healing, on her neighbors in 1690s Salem.

Jacqueline Carey is the New York Times best-selling author of the award-winning Kushiel's Legacy series. Dark Currents introduces Daisy Johanssen, a hell-spawn living in a Mid-west resort town that also boasts fairies, vampires, and a Norse goddess. As police department liaison for the paranormal, Daisy takes notice when a drowning victim shows signs of eldritch involvement. Paired with officer - and werewolf - Cody Fairfax, she must solve the case before tourist season is ruined.

After surviving the destruction of Chaenbalu, new mysteries and greater threats await Annev and his friends in the capital city of Luqura. As they navigate the city’s perilous streets, Annev searches for a way to control his nascent magic and remove the cursed artifact now fused to his body. But what might removing it cost him?

The 15 stories in After the People Lights Have Gone Off, by Stephen Graham Jones, explore the horrors and fears of the supernatural and the everyday. Included are two original stories, several rarities and out-of-print narratives, as well as a few "best of the year" inclusions.

In Midcoast Maine, Jamie Flint and her K-9 team search for the cognitively challenged son of a local animal hoarder, while recently licensed private investigator Jack Juarez looks into a murder related to the case. Unfortunately, each new clue Jack finds in the investigation seems to lead him back to a suspect police already have in their sights: Jamie's son. Meanwhile, Jamie fights to save a critically ill pit bull pulled from the hoarder's home who could hold the key to the woman's dark secrets.

With a name like Quinn Calahan, I sounded as Irish as a leprechaun dancing a jig on a four leafed clover, but the truth was, I’d never been closer to the emerald isle than drinking green beer at the St Patrick’s day street party in Boston until I messed up so badly I had to leave the US. I was offered a job in a tiny village in Ireland that no one’s ever heard of. And I think that was the point in sending me there.

Victor Bayne, the psychic half a PsyCop team, is a gay medium who's more concerned with flying under the radar than in making waves. He hooks up with handsome Jacob Marks, a non-psychic (or "Stiff") from an adjacent precinct at his ex-partner's retirement party, and it seems like his dubious luck has taken a turn for the better. But then a serial killer surfaces who can change his appearance to match any witness' idea of the world's hottest guy.

The police are convinced that Julia Ransom was guilty of the brutal murder of her husband, renowned psychic August Ransom. But after six months of investigation and media frenzy, she is free of their scrutiny, because of the lack of evidence. One afternoon she walks from her Pacific Heights home to Fisherman's Wharf, alone, unwatched - and, she realizes, happy. But not for long.

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful green witch. She blew into my life every bit as wild as the storm magic that lived within my veins. My heart had been nothing but a lifeless organ within my chest until she breathed life back into me, ensuring that each beat from that moment forward was for her. Saige Wildes was everything good. Sun-kissed freckles in the summer, hair that shimmered like fire when touched by light, and a smile that brought six men to their knees. Her magic was the magic of life.

Go into Hell, the hot demons said. It’ll be no big deal, they said. I was only supposed to walk through a Hellish Ring or two so we could find out my demonic origin. Easy peasy, Right? Wrong. Now I’m alone, locked up in some freak’s dungeon, and mourning the loss of my demons. Could they have done the impossible and survived the attack? Can they find me here? I don’t even know where here is. And...why the hell do I have wings? I don’t have time for this shit. I need to figure out what I am, where I am, and how to get out of here.

Ghost hunter Shane Ryan has never had an easy life. Years of battling paranormal forces and supernatural evil have taken their toll. But the former marine isn’t ready to give up the fight yet. So when a missing girl stirs up memories of an old case, Shane sets out to investigate.

When a redundant church is bought by a young pagan couple, the local fundamentalist minister reacts with fury. In an isolated community on the Welsh border, a modern witch hunt begins. Diocesan exorcist Merrily Watkins is expected to keep the lid on the cauldron...but what she finds out will seriously test her beliefs.

It has been two years since Violet Eden walked away from the city, her friends, her future and most importantly, her soulmate, Lincoln. Part angel, part human, Violet is determined to stand by the promises she made to save the one she loves.

Juniper should have known better after her last foray into the otherworld. But when she’s asked to look into a mysterious box full of poltergeists she ends up making a promise to seven teenage ghosts that puts here directly in the crosshairs of a blood witch’s deadly ire.

At the end of our days we will most likely lie for eternity in the cemetery or graveyard. Many of these, now wreathed in time, have a romance and overgrown beauty as nature keeps and shelters the dead. For our varied and talented authors, a major theme, or indeed character of the stories in this volume is that very location, and how they weave it into their narratives is both fascinating, enlightening and a wonderfully distinct way of telling classic short stories.