Showing results by author "Al Sarrantonio" in All Categories

The best stories pull readers in and keep them turning the pages, eager to discover more—to find the answer to the question: "And then what happened?" The true hallmark of great literature is great imagination, and as Neil Gaiman and Al Sarrantonio prove with this outstanding collection, when it comes to great fiction, all genres are equal.

For untold ages a dark presence has shrouded the small town of Orangefield. In addition to the plentiful pumpkins that gave the town its name, Orangefield is home to the dreaded Lord of Death himself, Samhain. Despite rumors of his existence, and rare, brief sightings, Samhain has long been content to leave the local inhabitants alone. But that's about to change.

Jack Paine was on what passed for a vacation, or maybe it was a regrouping, an opportunity to forget the events of the last year and especially of the last month. When the phone rang, he tried to ignore it. There were only a few people who knew where to reach him, and none of them would try. But the phone kept ringing. And Jack Paine finally answered it. Of course, it was bad news. Bob Petty, a friend from Paine's days on the force, had disappeared. Petty's wife, Terry, knew that he hadn't gone undercover....

After 12 years, Corrie Phaeder is returning home to Orangefield - the last place in the world he wants to be. Orangefield is a town of nightmares, a town where the impossible and the horrific happen all too often, where ghosts rise screaming from their graves, and where trick-or-treating goblins have no need for scary costumes. Something is waiting patiently for Corrie's homecoming. This Halloween, a messenger from a realm of shadows, with the body of a scarecrow and the head of a pumpkin, will usher Corrie into what might prove to be his last nightmare.

This is the first book in the long out of print Five Worlds Trilogy by award-winning author Al Sarrantonio. As the 25th century draws to a close, Prime Cornelian, a ruthless usurper of Martian rule, will do anything to control all of human civilization, and the fate of all humankind is in the hands of the exiled King of Earth, Dalin Shar. Find more novels by Al Sarrantonio at Audible.com. Search Crossroad Press to find more titles by Al Sarrantonio and many other science-fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, western and mainstream authors.

A thousand years ago, something evil made a bold attempt to cross into this world. Now it's ready to try again. She's eternally young, lovely, and lethal. Her cry for help is heard by a teenage boy in Bermuda. A confused orphan in Montreal. A political prisoner in Poland. A raging paraplegic on the Pacific coast. And a bloodthirsty psychopath in New York City. Each of them is lost, confused, alone. Too weak to resist her siren call. They come cutting a path of carnage across the globe. And at last they meet. In a lonely mountain mansion. A place of unutterable evil

A young couple travel to the girl's hometown and are plunged into a living nightmare of evil -- an evil from deep in the past which appears in a shocking and deadly form. Provine, Massachusetts, is one of those picturesque New England towns where nothing ever seems to change. At least that is how it has always seemed to Felicity Cramer.

When amateur astronomer Jason Blake and his son are out star-gazing one night, thousands of meteors suddenly fill the sky. Some of them fall nearby, but when Jason and Ritchie go to investigate, they are attacked by a werewolf-like creature, and Ritchie is injured. This is a novel of relationships, of apocalyptic adventure, and very personal sacrifice. Moonbane is a poetic novel that works on a number of unexpected levels, running the gamut from taut suspense to outright mayhem.

Third in the Haydn of Mars trilog y -from an award-winning author. Young Princess Clara must defend her crown, as the atmosphere gradually leaks away from the Red Planet.

In Moscow, the sound of bones echoes across Red Square. In America, skeletons patrol the streets of Manhattan and blood stains the cornfields of the Midwest. While in Washington, D. C., Abraham Lincoln is heading for his third term in the White House. The best-and worst-of humanity are back with a vengenace, a skeletal army hell-bent on conquering the living and uniting the world under the banner of the dead.

It wasn't the worst sound Paine had ever heard, but it came very close - a single strangled cry, and then a terrible gasping, then the sound of the receiver banging against a table leg again and again. Paine's caller had said that he was going to hang himself; the private detective didn't have time not to believe him. In a haunting novel of detection which calls to mind the writing of Ross Macdonald, Al Sarrantonio has created an investigator whose search uncovers clues about his own past and a crime that has its roots in secrets not only thought buried, but lost as well.

Little Selene was bored. And then came the mysterious Toyman, carrying a very special toybox, filled with wonders and terrors beyond imagination. As Selene peered into the toybox, the stories tumbled out: a quiet little girl whose horrible secret bursts forth at a Halloween party... a doll made of corn that hides a very nasty surprise... a depraved celebration for the last vampire... All of these and many more awaited Selend - and now they wait for you - inside the toybox. Go ahead, open it, if you dare.

On Mars, in the distant future, the princess Haydn's arranged marriage cannot save her beloved Republic. Her arch-enemy, the warrior-woman Frane, seeks to make herself Queen while Haydn - the legitimate heir - must flee for her life. A reluctant symbol for those who would restore the monarchy, Haydn is too young and unprepared to assume the throne - but determined to become a great Queen. With a bounty on her head, she will journey to the realization that - in order to save her world - she must sacrifice all that she holds dear.

After the assassination of his mother, Haydn, Sebastian now rules Mars. But a revolt by Haydn's old enemy forces Sebastian to make his stand.

Here, to treasure, a new story collection from award-winning horror master Al Sarrantonio. In Halloween and Other Seasons there's a neighborhood rivalry that grows to monstrous proportions, a hedgerow with an appetite, the ultimate Charles Fort story, and the end of the world from the beginning. Halloween and Other Seasons contains 18 gems of weirdness, including Al Sarrantonio's very first published story.

In Orangefield, Halloween is never normal - and this year will be no exception. For Orangefield is now the home of Halloweenland, a bizarre carnival run by the mysterious Mr. Dickens. No one who sees the carnival doubts that it's a very strange place, but its real secrets can hardly be imagined. Orangefield is also the home of Detective Bill Grant, who thinks he's seen it all. He's on the trail of an odd little girl, a girl who could hold the end of the universe in her hand.

Billy Potter is 11 years old. He never smiles. He never laughs. His copper-colored eyes stare calmly at the world. He is not quite human. He cannot love. He is searching for something - or someone. Where Billy Potter travels, death follows.

Retirement does not agree with former lieutenant Thomas Mullin. So when he receives a whiskey-stained letter detailing the disappearance of his friend's daughter Abby, he jumps on the first train to Arizona. Folks around town think Abby has gone back to the reservation where she was raised, yet the more Mullin investigates, the more suspicious he becomes. But even his agile mind and gift for deduction can't prepare him for the wild legends of the Papagos or the terrifying truth of what's really in store for Abby.

Professor Kevin Michaels has returned to the picturesque town of New Polk to fill a teaching position at the local university and a long-held ambition: to revive interest in the town's most illustrious citizen, author Eileen Connel and her neglected masterpiece "Season of Witches". But first, he must uncover the horror locked away inside the old woman's failing mind - a horror that had its birth one tragic Halloween night, over forty years ago.

Lieutenant Thomas Mullin may be retired from the U.S. Calvary, but he's still considered the best tracker around. So when a senator's son turns up missing, Mullin is the man called upon to find him. It doesn't take long for Mullin to figure out that quite a few travelers and cowboys have disappeared recently in the same area. And the desolate, inhospitable land is offering no clues - only shallow graves.