Ronald Kelly returns to the land of his ancestry and explores the dark superstition and frightful folklore of Ol’ Éire. Seven stories of Celtic gothic terror… tales to quicken the beat of the heart and chill one’s bones to the very marrow.

Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine, keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies. But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes.

It's 1998, and Alicia Waters is a young college student in Oklahoma. She lives with her best friend Monica, and life is good for once—until she meets him. Now, Alicia is on a journey of survival while Monica tries to locate and bring home her missing friend. How far will Alicia have to go to survive? She isn't sure, but she is certain life will never be the same.

Talons is a new restaurant looking for food tasters, and Jordan Carter jumped at the chance to join the focus group. However, the qualifying questions embarrassed him. The first appetizer was a stale piece of bread. And worst of all, Jordan felt sick after the meal. When Talons offers him double the money for a second tasting, he agrees and shrugs off the illness as a coincidence. After the second meal, though, he’s convinced something is wrong. Daily nightmares and concerning voices culminate in Jordan vomiting blood.

This short story collection will take you into the depths of Beck’s dark imagination: from what happens when the deepest bore hole on Earth has just passed nine miles and hits a strange open space – and it's hellishly hot down there; to an Antarctic research team examining fragments from a deep ice glacier and discovers a tiny seed that, once thawed, grows into something terrifyingly unexpected.

Drug dealer AJ has just discovered he’s been murdered. Trapped in the surreal complexities of the afterlife, he realizes he’s still bound in service to his killer, the ruthless drug kingpin Governor Tyson. Meanwhile, homicide detective Maleek Shapiro is closing in on "skooches", an enigmatic and dangerous drug at the heart of the case.

Deadline is a suspenseful and haunting story where fear and family secrets intertwine in a race against time. To uncover the truth about her mother’s mysterious disappearance years ago, the estranged daughter of a renowned illusionist must overcome her fear and spend three nights in her father’s secluded gothic mansion, where he has vowed to return from the grave. Helped by an adventurous reporter, she discovers a terrifying childhood.

For the last year, Holly and Brian have been out of sync. Neither can forget what happened that one winter evening; neither can forgive what’s happened since. Tonight, Holly and Brian race toward Pinebuck, New York, trying to outrun a blizzard on their way to the ski village getaway they hope will save their relationship. But soon they lose control of the car—and then of themselves. Now Sheriff Kendra Book is getting calls about a couple in trouble—along with reports of a brutal and mysterious creature rampaging through town.

Contents: Edgar Allan Poe - The Murders in the Rue Morgue - The Gold Bug - The Black Cat - The Pit and the Pendulum - The Tell-Tale Heart - The Fall of the House of Usher - The Masque of the Red Death - The Cask of Amontillado - The Facts in the Case of M. Valdemar - Hop-Frog - The RavenBram Stoker - DraculaMary Shelley - FrankensteinJoseph Sheridan Le Fanu - CarmillaRobert Louis Stevenson - The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. HydeH.P. Lovecraft - The Alchemist - At the Mountains of Madness - Azathoth - The Beast in the Cave.

After the death of her estranged father, artist Rita struggles with grief and regret. There was so much she wanted to ask him–about his childhood, their family, and the Mi'kmaq language and culture from which Rita feels disconnected. But when Rita's girlfriend Molly forges an artist’s residency application on her behalf, winning Rita a week to paint at an isolated cabin, Rita is both furious and intrigued. The residency is located where her father grew up.

Clara Woods is a killer—and perfectly fine with it, too. So what if she takes a couple of lives to make her own a little bit better? At the bottom of her garden is a flower bed, long overgrown, where her late husband rests in peace—or so she’s always thought. Then the girls arrive. Lily and Violet are her nieces, recently orphaned after their affluent parents died on an ill-fated anniversary trip. In accordance with their parents’ will, the sisters are to go to their closest relative—who happens to be Clara.

Sadie has spent her life haunted by the horrors of her childhood in Merryville, where Christmas is anything but merry. Now, as the season looms again, she faces a terrifying choice: confront her darkest memories or risk losing everything she loves. And Christmas is coming to town ...

A year ago Sophie Wickham stumbled into the isolated Lancashire village of Withered Hill, naked, alone and with no memory of who she is. Surrounded by a thick ring of woodland, its inhabitants seem to be of another world, drenched in pagan, folklorish traditions. As Sophie struggles to regain the memories of her life from before, she quickly realises she is a prisoner after multiple failed escape attempts. But is it the locals who keep her trapped, with smiles on their faces, or something else, lurking in the woods?

In the town of Ashgrove, the past never stays buried. Cloaked in dense fog and shadowed by tales of those who vanished without a trace, the town keeps its secrets hidden. Mara thought she had escaped its eerie grip—until her brother, Sam, disappeared on Halloween night, leaving behind only whispers of a spectral procession called The Night Parade.

Since her husband’s unsolved murder three years ago, Iris Blodgett’s life has unraveled. Awash in grief and buried in debt, she can’t pay her mortgage—and now that she’s lost her job, she has no idea how she’ll provide for her unruly teenage daughter, Ellory. Facing eviction, Iris turns to her new beau, prominent architect Hugh Smoll, for a shoulder to cry on. But the seemingly perfect Hugh offers her something more: an invitation to move in to his mother’s centuries-old mansion while he renovates the property.