Southern Fantasy

For Max and the gang, the idea that dead is not the end has become second nature. But the idea that a ghost who has moved on could be ripped back into the world? That is new. And terrifying. When a woman hires the Porter Agency to help with this very problem, she doesn’t know half of what she’s roping them into. Now, it is up to Max, Sandra, and Drummond to find who is behind this atrocity and stop them. Plus, there’s a spirit to return to the Beyond, a missing girl who might have been murdered, and a possible murderer who happens to be the new client.

Emma Bartyle is a shy, sheltered teenager. At a bonfire with her first real boyfriend, which goes horribly awry from almost the beginning, she is yanked from her ordinary life into horrific events. If she wants to stay alive, she must trust herself, her instincts, and a complete stranger. Something is out hunting, something with a voracious appetite and a rage that can’t be quelled. Set in the autumn of 1973, The Mongrel is a lean, dark adventure, not only of things that go bump in the night, but of things with sharp teeth and sharper claws.

Within the deep woods of rural Alabama, along the forgotten southern course of the Black Warrior River, lies an unseen world long feared by the residents of the tiny town of Carlsdale. Down through the centuries, few people have survived a visit to this hidden place long enough to talk about it. Among these fortunate souls is Jack Kenney. Thirteen years old at the time of the event, Jack and his family were forced to flee Carlsdale in the aftermath and head north to the larger city of Tuscaloosa. Mercifully, the menace from their former home left them in peace for nearly eight years.

Twelve twisted tales from America's Deep South! This gripping collection of dark fiction from Matthew Weber (A Dark & Winding Road, Bobcats) goes straight for the throat. From backcountry curses and maniacal next-door neighbors to alien invasions and shape-shifting beasts, Teeth Marks delivers the most fun you’ll ever have listening to terrible things.

Phee St. Margaret is a daughter of the Reconstruction, born to a family of free Black business owners in New Charleston. Coddled to within an inch of her life by a mother who refuses to let her daughter live a life other than the one she dictates, Phee yearns to demonstrate she's capable of more than simply marrying well. When word arrives that her Aunt Cleo, long estranged from the family, has passed away, Phee risks her mother's wrath to step up and accept the role of pomp―the highly honored duty of planning the funeral service.

At night, Roddie still dreams of sitting at his mother’s feet while she braids his Afro down. But that’s a memory from before. Before his mom died in a tragic accident. Before he was taken in by an aunt he barely knows. Before his aunt brought him to Dogwood House, the creepiest place Roddie has ever seen. It was his family’s home for over a hundred years. Now the house—abandoned and rotting, draped in Spanish moss that reminds him too much of hair—is his home too.

After her father’s untimely death, Jenna Ashby moves to Koush Hollow, a bayou town outside of New Orleans, dreading life with her wealthy mother. As the 16-year-old eco-warrior is introduced to the Diamonds & Pearls, her mother’s exclusive social club, she comes to the troubling realization that secrets are a way of life in Koush Hollow: How do the Diamonds & Pearls look so young, where does their money come from, and why is life along the bayou disappearing?

Rebecca’s boyfriend, Ezra, has gone missing, but when she notifies the police, they seem surprisingly unconcerned. They suspect he has been playing the “stranger game”, a viral hit in which players start following others in real life. As the game spreads, however, the rules begin to change, play grows more intense and disappearances are reported across the country. Curious about the game and hoping she might be able to track down Ezra, Rebecca tries the game. In playing the game, what may lead her closer to finding Ezra may take her further and further from the life she once lived.

Colonel W.B. Townsend has fallen on rough times establishing the Little River Lumber Company due to strange occurrences preventing the construction of his railroad. Detectives William Rue and Johnny Walking-Stick from the Pinkerton Detective Agency are called to find the unknown saboteurs and bring them to justice. A new threat descends on this small, developing town, with nefarious plans that may one day threaten the entire world. Will the citizens of Townsend and the Foresters of Stillwater set aside their differences and join forces against the nightmare known as the Rougarou?

Justene Bell always wanted to travel, to escape the valley she had existed in for many years. Her spiritual mother, Odesa Freewoman Bell expects the same sacrifices from this girl, the one she had stolen as her own daughter. Together they claim the Bell House, for in the backyard lies a horrible family secret.

It would be just another beautiful day in the Deep South, if you were not a slave. Off in the distance, the Whip-poor-will is softly singing, lying to everyone, like all is right with the world. How can it be so happy when a child is lying naked in the hay, while its very young mother, covered in blood, is worried she will be killed for having him? What if Madam Tibbs found her child, the very blonde heir to Tibb's Plantation? The hanging trees in the woods are calling her name, "Lucinda, come float from my branches, sweetmeat, for you girl, have blasphemed God and your Master Tibbs."

A northern white couple has relocated to the South to operate a vineyard on a North Carolina plantation. There, they pass their idle hours listening to the stories of one Uncle Julius, who has a deep knowledge of the land. These stories, however, are more than mere entertainments. They all have their time and place, and they offer not only a quiet commentary on the events of the day but also a deeper reckoning with the plantation’s disturbing past.

For many years, Max Porter and his team have been caught between Mother Hope and Grandma Mobley, two witches that hated each other for over a century. Both witches hold power and both are dangerous. But now, their hatred has finally boiled over, and that power is about to be unleashed. Now, Max finds himself the rope in a tug-o-war that threatens to destroy his budding family, if not all of North Carolina. He will have to risk everything he knows and loves, push himself further than ever before. Because Max Porter will be in the fight of his life. And his death.

Archaeologist Caitlin Benoit’s mind has been left broken from the trauma of time traveling through the centuries. Now unable to grasp the world around her, Elizabeth and John are forced to take the lead as they struggle to meet basic needs while taking cover in the forests.

Set in the small town of Townsend, TN, this is a story where faith, family, friendship, and courage, are put to the test in the wake of a zombie outbreak in the Great Smoky Mountains. Fourteen-year-old Ricky Rue’s (Rue) life is changed one fateful night forever when he meets Buford, a 14-year-old Sasquatch. Buford introduces Rue to an underground community that has thrived for centuries. The two teens quickly become lifelong friends.

When Max and Sandra Porter moved down to North Carolina, they thought they were getting a new beginning - good job, good pay, and a lovely little place in Winston-Salem. But the family that hired him to research land deals in North Carolina is not all that they seem. And when Max discovers that his office is haunted by Marshall Drummond, PI - a ghost from the 1940s - what started as a simple research job sinks him neck-deep in a world of old mysteries and dangerous enemies.

When Max and the gang are hired by an art forging ghost to find a lost painting, Max thinks it'll be easy money. But villains old and new come out, and the race is on for the painting and the secrets it contains. A race that will lead Max into a mess of magic spells, haunted houses, ancient curses, and even Blackbeard the Pirate.

Foster kid Briar Givhans grew up on the wrong side of the Charleston society tracks. She has no idea who her parents are or where she came from. She showed up as a toddler on the door step of a fire station with a note stuck to her back with just her name and age on it. No one ever claimed her. Now she's an adult and has long since given up on figuring out her true identity. And then Hell's Belles comes knocking on her door.

Max thought he had enough trouble dealing with one witch in Winston-Salem. But a new case brings to light an entire coven of witches - angry, cursed, dead witches. Lucky for Max he has the aid of his partner, the ghost of 1940s detective Marshall Drummond, and his sharp-witted wife, Sandra. Together, they'll face enemies at every turn, and things only get worse when the mysterious Hull family and the FBI start poking into Max's life. He'll need all his team can give with a case that involves the theft of a cursed bell, dark magic, spirit possession, and ghastly murders.

Known as the dark-skinned princess from the southern colonies—formerly the kingdom of Marula—Ebony is no stranger to hardship and loneliness. Forced into royal servitude after the death of her father, Ebony resolved to keep her head held high despite her sorrow—no matter how much vitriol she endured from her stepmother, Varyes, queen of Pommier. As the queen’s son, Prince Rion, helps to piece her broken heart back together with his love and kindness, Ebony begins to hope she will one day find a new home for herself.