Suspense Thriller Horror Supernatural Ghost

For more than 30 years, Ellen Datlow has been at the center of horror. Bringing you the most frightening and terrifying stories, Datlow always has her finger on the pulse of what horror fans crave. Now, with the 11th volume of the series, Daltow's back again to bring you the stories that will keep you up at night. With each passing year, science, technology, and the march of time shine light into the craggy corners of the universe, making the fears of an earlier generation seem quaint. This light creates its own shadows. The Best Horror of the Year chronicles these shifting shadows.

When Bailey Ruth Raeburn passed over into the great beyond, she was delighted to discover her sleuthing days would last an eternity. Joining Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, she uses her advantages as a ghost - sometimes you see her, sometimes you don't - to help those in need and ensure the wicked get their just deserts. However, on this latest mission, Bailey Ruth finds it more difficult than ever to keep up with her boss Wiggins' rules for good spirit deportment.

Museum curator Carl Fletcher is terrified by a mysterious woman seen haunting the mobile history museum. Who is she and what does she want? Those are questions that must be answered - and before the parade floats begin to roll! The Gulf Coast Paranormal team goes to work with some new tools and uncovers one of Mobile's oldest and most shameful secrets.

As a child, Henry Cadmus lived on Catalina Island, a scenic vacationland off the Southern California coast. But Henry's experiences were far from idyllic. Today, even though Henry has seen firsthand the horrors of war, the ghastly images that haunt his dreams are ones he associates with his childhood... and the island: a snarling pig-man holding a cleaver; a jackal-headed woman on a high balcony, dripping blood; strange occult rituals... and worse. If it was up to Henry, he would avoid the island entirely.

The identity of Elizabeth Cage has always been a mystery. Even she doesn't know who, or what, she is. But she's learned to live with it. Until now, when what should have been a peaceful holiday turns into anything but, and Elizabeth is forced to recognise that she isn't what she seems. But neither is anyone else. Has her whole life been a lie? Someone very badly wants to know the truth about Elizabeth Cage. And they'll do anything to find out. But who will live to regret it?

A woman commits suicide for no apparent reason. A week later, her son- fifteen-year-old Mark Underhill - vanishes. His uncle, novelist Timothy Underhill, searches his hometown of Millhaven for clues that might help unravel this horrible dual mystery. He soon learns that a pedophilic murderer is on the loose in the vicinity, and that shortly before his mother's suicide, Mark had become obsessed with an abandoned house where he imagined the killer might have taken refuge.

At the outskirts of Maple City sits the Crossroads Motel, a throwback to the days when the motor lodge was king. Two years ago, the motel was the site of an act so brutal that its buildings were left to rot. Jessie Voss, however, sees promise in the Crossroad's bare bones and buys it up, determined to breathe new life into the place. When the Larson family shows up on her doorstep, road-weary and desperate for a break, Jessie offers them lodging, even though her grand opening is still a week away. But the arrival of guests awakens the motel....

The details of the crime scene are no coincidence. The body — a promising starlet — has been battered, bloodied and then discarded between two of Manhattan’s oldest graveyards. One look and Detective Jude Crosby recognizes the tableau: a re-creation of Jack the Ripper’s gruesome work. But he also sees something beyond the actions of a mere copycat. Something more dangerous...and unexplainable.

Vitus Adamson is falling apart. As a pre-deceased private investigator, he takes the prescription Atroxipine hourly to keep his undead body upright and functioning. Whenever he is injured, he seeks Niko, a bombshell mortician with bedroom eyes and a way with corpses, to piece him back together. Decomposition, however, is the least of his worries when two clients posing his most dangerous job yet appear at his door looking for their lost son.

Still recovering from his recent tragedy, retired Marine Shane Ryan receives a call from James Moran, a well-known dealer of haunted items in New England. A robbery gone wrong has left Moran with a trail of dead bodies and a missing box of items from his inventory. And he wants Shane to track down the thief. There’s not much to go on, but Shane has an ace up his sleeve. He can communicate with the spirits of the dead, and their dark whispers guide him to a string of similar crimes.

Dan thought his nightmares were over. He was dead wrong.... With new friends and a feeling of solace while repairing the local schoolhouse, things are finally looking up for Dan Tate. His therapy has finally quelled the PTSD and nightmares. He’s even developed romantic feelings for a special friend. But a part him fears it’s all too good to be true.... Dan soon finds his peace and tranquility shattered, when corrupt medium Janet Ladd unleashes Olivia, a vindictive spirit with a taste for blood. Once again, the small town finds itself frozen in the icy grip of terror.

Felix Castor is a freelance exorcist, and London is his stomping ground. It may seem like a good ghostbuster can charge what he likes and enjoy a hell of a lifestyle, but there's a risk: sooner or later he's going to take on a spirit that's too strong for him. When Castor accepts a seemingly simple ghost-hunting case at a museum in the shadowy heart of London, what should have been a perfectly straightforward exorcism is rapidly turning into the Who Can Kill Castor First Show, with demons and ghosts all keen to claim the big prize.

In Edwardian Suffolk, a manor house stands alone in a lost corner of the Fens: a glinting wilderness of water whose whispering reeds guard ancient secrets. Maud is a lonely child growing up without a mother, ruled by her repressive father. When he finds a painted medieval devil in a graveyard, unhallowed forces are awakened. Maud's battle has begun. She must survive a world haunted by witchcraft, the age-old legends of her beloved fen - and the even more nightmarish demons of her father's past.

It was supposed to be a fun girls’ weekend in Salem, but when a past-life regression session instead sends a terrifying vision of murder to Kylie Connelly, she’s shaken and not sure what to think. Worse, later she identifies the attacker from her vision: He’s a prominent local politician. Special Agent Jon Dickson of the FBI’s Krewe of Hunters is on the trail of a suspected serial killer based on the scantest of clues and unreliable witness testimony. When he realizes Kylie’s vision might be his best lead, he must gain her trust and get close enough to guide her new talent.

In winter, the Haunted Library is a refuge for homeless townspeople. When a group purchases a vacant house to establish a daytime haven for the homeless, Carrie offers the library as a meeting place for the Haven House committee, but quickly learns that it may be used for illegal activities. As the new Sunshine Delegate, Carrie heads to the hospital to visit her colleague, Dorothy, who had fallen outside the local supermarket. She tells Carrie that her husband tried to kill her - and that he murdered her Aunt Evelyn, the library's resident ghost, six years earlier.

The Gulf Coast Paranormal team heads north on I-65 to investigate reports of a strange blue light appearing outside an old fort. Locals call them ghost lights, and they say these orbs are responsible for the death of a young woman hundreds of years ago. An archaeological dig stirs up the activity, and Midas goes to uncover the truth about the Ghost Lights of Forrest Field.

Christmas is a time for family and giving, and a wealthy woman in Adelaide, Oklahoma, is about to embrace both. Discovering that she has a young grandson, the dowager decides to change her will to leave the bulk of her fortune to the young boy, an alteration that stuns the rest of her family. But a scrooge of a determined heir makes sure she never signs the new document. When she is found dead, it's up to that irrepressible spirit Bailey Ruth to save Christmas.

Terror never sleeps.... A young girl's emotional abuse transforms her into a horrific spirit. Hellfire and damnation await a woman whose psychiatrist may be more than he seems. And devastating secrets from the past are unleashed when an old man revisits his childhood bedroom.... Scare Street is proud to present the best in bone-chilling supernatural horror. This volume contains three terrifying tales for your listening pleasure. Each story will keep you up long past the midnight hour, eager to turn the next chapter.

Little girls are vanishing from Deadwood, South Dakota. Fearing her daughter might be next, single mom Violet Parker is desperate to find the monster behind the abductions. With her savings dwindling and just three weeks left to sell her first house or lose her realtor job, Violet is ecstatic when a handsome jeweler hires her to sell his century-old Victorian masterpiece - until she sees the dilapidated dwelling. Now if she could just convince her only buyer to stop rejecting vintage homes as if they're haunted.

Carnaki has a reputation as a ghost hunter. When a house seems haunted by a malignant spirit or a family suffering under a curse, they call for Carnaki, the only man able to help.