When Gregory Tomasov moves into an abandoned farm on the edge of McGuane, Arizona, he discovers a terrible secret buried in the walls of the old building.

Barry and Maureen have just been approved as tenants by the Association. Pity they never read the fine print on the lease. It could be the death of them....

Once upon a time, waiting for the mail was filled with warm anticipation. But the suicide of the local mailman has left the residents of this tiny Arizona town shell-shocked. Nothing this bad has ever happened here. And now, there's a new mail carrier in town, one who's delivering lethal letters stuffed with icy fear. Nothing - not even the most outstanding citizens or the most secret weaknesses - is safe from the sinister power of this malicious mailman....

Successful author Todd Klein and his wife Rosita live a quiet small town life. Todd's latest novel is selling well and despite recent budget cuts, Rosita relishes her job at the local library. After years of marriage, they're still in love, the mortgage to their suburban home is paid off, and their future is bright. Until, that is, Todd makes an appointment at the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his license.

Opulent doesn't begin to describe the Arizona getaway where Lowell Thurman, his wife Rachel, and their three young sons have come for one glorious week. Everything at The Reata is perfect - although Rachel is a bit unnerved by the openly lustful gaze of one of the gardeners, something she doesn't mention to Lowell. Nor does he tell her about the frightening sensation he has in the pool of hands clutching at him, trying to pull him under.

Brad Woods has performed a lot of autopsies, but never one like this. The body is purged of all blood. Fear has made Sue Wing run from the darkened school and into night, a fear so powerful she can only name it using the Cantonese myths of her grandmother: Cup-hu-girngsi, the corspe who drinks blood. Reporters like Rich Carter don't believe in the supernatural, but all the signs are pointing to the same conclusion: a vampire is stalking the streets of Rio Verde. No, Rich Carter doesn't believe in such things. Not yet.

The formerly laid-back principal has become unusually strict. And with her toadying secretary, she seems to be running the show. That isn’t all. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on school grounds that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation. It’s just not anything that anyone can begin to believe — or hope to survive.

In the small town of Montgomery, Arizona, Kyle Decker's book shop is barely breaking even. When a bank opens in the empty storefront next door, he hopes the new establishment will bring in more foot traffic. Trouble is, nobody has ever heard of the First People's Bank, and the local branch has appeared mysteriously overnight. Their incentives for new customers seem reasonable...at first. But is it a coincidence when Kyle's wife has her identity stolen and his son receives emails that seem to know his private thoughts? Or when the manager of a competing bank dies a gruesome death?

After his divorce, Hunt Jackson decides to start over in Tucson, where an old buddy fixes him up with his wife's friend, Beth. The attraction is immediate, and they're married a few months later. But Hunt's happiness is marred by his bizarre encounter with an insurance agent whose insistence that Hunt increase his coverage sounds, incredibly, like a threat. The agent - tall, gaunt, oddly dressed in an old-fashioned suit and fedora - is himself a menacing figure.

In Beverly Hills, a wealthy CEO goes on a bloody rampage and videotapes the slaughter. He leaves behind a chilling cryptic message: “This is where it begins." Miles away, an alarmed mother receives an unsettling letter from her estranged husband, stained with bloody fingerprints. And all across California, children are becoming affected by a monstrous change - and their parents by a mounting fear. Social worker Carrie Daniels and reporter Brian Howells are determined to find the link between these baffling crimes....

Steve Nye writes for an alumni magazine and his long-term relationship is on the steady path to marriage. But his quiet life takes an unexpected turn when he receives a phone call from his mother. His father attacked her and has been committed to a mental asylum. The doctor says he’s suffering from dementia. But Steve’s father seems so calm, clear-eyed, and perfectly lucid. Is it simply another symptom of delusion and madness? To find the answer, Steve investigates the cryptic message leading him down a terrifying path of his own making—and of his own nightmares.

From the mind of the man Stephen King calls "a master of the macabre", comes a brilliant new collection of no-punches-pulled horror stories, some never-before-collected and many originals that have never been published anywhere before. Bentley Little can take the innocuous, twist it around, and write a story that will change your way of thinking. Walking Alone: Short Stories is a shining example of his talent to scare you, creep you out, and make you shudder.

Daniel Martin has never forgotten his childhood encounters with Frank Watkins, the man who built his family a summer home out of cardboard and plywood. Frank's gaze was oddly confusing, as if he was attempting to discern the proper way to behave because he didn't know how to respond in a human manner. Since Frank obviously wasn't an alien, young Daniel thought maybe the man was crazy. In the end, Daniel would learn the terrifying truth about Frank Watkins. And as an adult, Daniel is about to discover there are more of them out there.

When Ross Lowry moves into his cousin's guest house in the small community of Magdalena, Arizona, he expects nothing more than breathing room and a brief respite from his economic woes. But something is not right in the desert. After a raucous party on New Year's Eve, the luck of the attendees undergoes an immediate U-turn. The rich and successful suddenly find themselves facing catastrophic failure while the less well-off are unexpectedly flush with good fortune.

The Perry family's new house is perfect - except for the weird behavior of the neighbors, and that odd smell coming from a dark corner in the basement. Pity no one warned the family about the house. Now it's too late. Because the darkness at the bottom of the basement stairs is rising.

It looked for all the world like a terrible, tragic accident. Susanna Morgan had gotten up in the middle of the night, tripped, fallen, and broken her neck. Yet when detective Justin Westwood inspects the victim's apartment, he can't help noticing that the details don't quite add up. The glass on the bedside table is knocked over but there are no cuts on her body. The scrape on her knee looks suspiciously fresh. And then a terrified witness comes forward, confirming his worst fear.

Private Investigator Smokey Dalton works for Memphis, Tennessee’s black community. He has almost no interaction with the white hierarchy, even though they exist only blocks away. So he’s surprised the day a white woman walks into his Beale Street office. Laura Hathaway has sought him out because he’s a beneficiary in her mother’s will, and Laura wants to know why. So does Smokey. He’s never heard of the Hathaways, but his search will take him on a journey that will change everything he’s ever known.

Ex-cop Frank Harper doesn't want to get involved. Harper is visiting the small Ohio town of Cooper's Mill, trying to reconnect with his estranged daughter and a grandson he's never met. But he finds the town gripped in fear - two young girls have gone missing, taken in broad daylight from a busy street. And the police are coming up blank. But once Harper is drawn reluctantly into the investigation, he'll stop at nothing to find the girls. And he doesn't care who gets in the way.

Bernadine Brown is a woman with money to spend. Henry Adams is a town in desperate need of cash. But after Bernadine puts up the money, she has some ideas about how the town should be run. Will the townspeople be willing to shake up their comfortable lives to share the gift they’ve been given with others who really need it?

International best-selling author Linwood Barclay delivers pulse-pounding suspense that puts him among the masters of the genre. A Tap on the Window finds private investigator Cal Weaver making an ill-advised decision to pick up a young female hitchhiker who reminds him of his dead son. But something is off about the girl, and Cal is soon drawn into a host of nightmarish secrets.

Our love story is simple. I met a gorgeous woman. We fell in love. We had kids. We moved to the suburbs. We told each other our biggest dreams and our darkest secrets. And then we got bored. We look like a normal couple. We're your neighbors, the parents of your kid's friend, the acquaintances with whom you keep meaning to get dinner. We all have our secrets to keeping a marriage alive. Ours just happens to be getting away with murder.

Katie Connelly has lived in San Francisco all her life. Her late father made his career as an ironworker on the Golden Gate Bridge, and the many stories of him trying to save jumpers still haunt her. When she's asked to write a history about the bridge, her research uncovers a secret journal hidden in her father's desk, pages of familiar advice penned by the hand of a stranger. The scribbled words tell of a promise ring and a distant love, clues that Katie hopes may answer her own unresolved sorrow.

Thomas Kilbride is a map-obsessed schizophrenic so affected that he rarely leaves the self-imposed bastion of his bedroom. But with a computer program called Whirl360.com, he travels the world while never so much as stepping out the door. He pores over and memorizes the streets of the world. He examines every address, as well as the people who are frozen in time on his computer screen. Then he sees something that anyone else might have stumbled upon - but has not - in a street view of downtown New York City: an image in a window. An image that looks like a woman being murdered.

When Skye Denison left Scumble River years ago, she swore she'd never return. But after a bout with her boyfriend and credit card rejection, she's back to home sweet - homicide....

In the still shadows of the confessional, a madman tauntingly reveals his plan for a murder he is going to commit, pulling Father Thomas Madden into a twisted game by disclosing his next intended victim: Tom's sister, Laurant. In a frantic race to protect her, Tom calls upon his best friend, elite FBI agent Nick Buchanan, to track the predator who is closing in on Laurant. Now, as an electrifying attraction grows between Laurant and Nick, so does the danger - and one false move will cost both of them everything that matters.

When Kate Watts opens a food pantry in Minneapolis, she never dreamed it would be this difficult. Facing the prospect of turning hungry people away, she is grateful for the anonymous donations that begin appearing. Determined to identify and thank her secret benefactor, she launches a plan and catches Ian in the act.

With an agoraphobic mother and a barely-there father, Sang abhors the isolation keeping her in the shadows. The only thing Sang craves is a fresh start and to be accepted as ordinary by her peers, because for her being different meant being cast out alone. When her family moves to a new school district, Sang infiltrates a group of boys nearly perfect in every way.

It was inescapably chilling, as if the murderer was methodically working his way down a page torn from the phone book. The three victims brutally killed in their own homes had one thing in common: They were all listed as M. Douglas. The fact that Mara Douglas is next on the list has her jumping at shadows, until FBI agent Aidan Shields shows up to make sure she doesn't become the fourth victim.

Somewhere in the once-placid streets of San Francisco, a young man is on the run, charged by the media with a crime he didn't commit, hounded by demagogues, hunted by a desperate police department. One cop knows that Kevin Shea is innocent of a brutal racial murder. An ambitious politician will use Shea for her own ends. And a down-and-out lawyer is all that stands between Kevin Shea and an even more atrocious crime. For when there's no law left, justice is the only hope.

The Stranger appears out of nowhere, perhaps in a bar or a parking lot or at the grocery store. His identity is unknown. His motives are unclear. His information is undeniable. Then he whispers a few words in your ear and disappears, leaving you picking up the pieces of your shattered world.

Successful author Todd Klein and his wife Rosita live a quiet small town life. Todd's latest novel is selling well and despite recent budget cuts, Rosita relishes her job at the local library. After years of marriage, they're still in love, the mortgage to their suburban home is paid off, and their future is bright. Until, that is, Todd makes an appointment at the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew his license.

Opulent doesn't begin to describe the Arizona getaway where Lowell Thurman, his wife Rachel, and their three young sons have come for one glorious week. Everything at The Reata is perfect - although Rachel is a bit unnerved by the openly lustful gaze of one of the gardeners, something she doesn't mention to Lowell. Nor does he tell her about the frightening sensation he has in the pool of hands clutching at him, trying to pull him under.

Brad Woods has performed a lot of autopsies, but never one like this. The body is purged of all blood. Fear has made Sue Wing run from the darkened school and into night, a fear so powerful she can only name it using the Cantonese myths of her grandmother: Cup-hu-girngsi, the corspe who drinks blood. Reporters like Rich Carter don't believe in the supernatural, but all the signs are pointing to the same conclusion: a vampire is stalking the streets of Rio Verde. No, Rich Carter doesn't believe in such things. Not yet.

Once upon a time, waiting for the mail was filled with warm anticipation. But the suicide of the local mailman has left the residents of this tiny Arizona town shell-shocked. Nothing this bad has ever happened here. And now, there's a new mail carrier in town, one who's delivering lethal letters stuffed with icy fear. Nothing - not even the most outstanding citizens or the most secret weaknesses - is safe from the sinister power of this malicious mailman....

Springerville is famous for the legend of the Mongolian Monster. Of course nobody really believes it. It’s just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists ­until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child’s toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man’s face found hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real.

Jason has a gift for writing—and his talent has its rewards. His first letter results in free meals at a fast-food chain. Another yields passes to an amusement park. As he goes through life, writing letters makes things go his way—opening doors to colleges, connecting him with the President— and Jason feels the might of his own power.

Daniel Martin has never forgotten his childhood encounters with Frank Watkins, the man who built his family a summer home out of cardboard and plywood. Frank's gaze was oddly confusing, as if he was attempting to discern the proper way to behave because he didn't know how to respond in a human manner. Since Frank obviously wasn't an alien, young Daniel thought maybe the man was crazy. In the end, Daniel would learn the terrifying truth about Frank Watkins. And as an adult, Daniel is about to discover there are more of them out there.

When Gregory Tomasov moves into an abandoned farm on the edge of McGuane, Arizona, he discovers a terrible secret buried in the walls of the old building.

The formerly laid-back principal has become unusually strict. And with her toadying secretary, she seems to be running the show. That isn’t all. The janitors no longer work nights because of what they hear. The students are frightened by what they see. And things are happening on school grounds that defy rational explanation. But there is an explanation. It’s just not anything that anyone can begin to believe — or hope to survive.

Five complete strangers from across America are about to come together and open the door to a place of evil that they all call home. Inexplicably, four men and one woman are having heart-stopping nightmares revolving around the dark and forbidding houses where each of them were born. When recent terrifying events occur, they are each drawn to their identical childhood homes, only to confront a sinister supernatural presence which has pursued them all their lives and is now closer than ever to capturing their souls....

In the small town of Montgomery, Arizona, Kyle Decker's book shop is barely breaking even. When a bank opens in the empty storefront next door, he hopes the new establishment will bring in more foot traffic. Trouble is, nobody has ever heard of the First People's Bank, and the local branch has appeared mysteriously overnight. Their incentives for new customers seem reasonable...at first. But is it a coincidence when Kyle's wife has her identity stolen and his son receives emails that seem to know his private thoughts? Or when the manager of a competing bank dies a gruesome death?

The Collection, Volume One contains 14 terrifying stories from Bentley Little.