Andreas's disappearance is a mystery to all, including his inseparable friend Zipp. But as much as the police question him, its not easy for Zipp to come forward with details of the last time he saw his friend: following an old woman into her home, brandishing his knife. Zipp waited anxiously outside but Andreas failed to reappear. Inspector Sejer and his colleague Skarre are baffled but while the confusion in the outside world continues, a chilling and heart-stopping drama is unfolding inside the old woman's home. In a plot in the tradition of Stephen King, Fossum deploys her trademark skill of looking realistically, terrifyingly, into the minds of criminal and victim. Appearances aren't always to be believed, and people are not always what they seem.
p.B. J. Whiting savors proverbial expressions and has devoted much of his lifetime to studying and collecting them; no one knows more about British and American proverbs than he. The present volume, based upon writings in British North America from the earliest settlements to approximately 1820, complements his and Archer Taylor's Dictionary of American Proverbs and Proverbial Phrases, 1820-1880. It differs from that work and from other standard collections, however, in that its sources are primarily not "literary" but instead workaday writings - letters, diaries, histories, travel books, political pamphlets, and the like. The authors represent a wide cross-section of the populace, from scholars and statesmen to farmers, shopkeepers, sailors, and hunters. Mr. Whiting has combed all the obvious sources and hundreds of out-of-the-way publications of local journals and historical societies. This body of material, "because it covers territory that has not been extracted and compiled in a scholarly way before, can justly be said to be the most valuable of all those that Whiting has brought together," according to Albert B. Friedman. "What makes the work important is Whiting's authority: a proverb or proverbial phrase is what BJW thinks is a proverb or proverbial phrase. There is no objective operative definition of any value, no divining rod; his tact, 'feel, ' experience, determine what's the real thing and what is spurious."
From 1968 to 1977, Spain experienced a boom in horror-movie production under a restrictive economic system established by the country’s dictator, Francisco Franco. Despite hindrance from the Catholic Church and Spanish government, which rigidly controlled motion picture content, hundreds of horror films were produced during this ten-year period. This statistic is even more remarkable when compared with the output of studios and production companies in the United States and elsewhere at the same time. What accounts for the staggering number of films, and what does it say about Spain during this period? In Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema: The Spanish Horror Film, Nicholas G. Schlegel looks at movies produced, distributed, and exhibited under the crumbling dictatorship of General Franco. The production and content of these films, the author suggests, can lead to a better understanding of the political, social, and cultural conditions during a contentious period in Spain’s history. The author addresses the complex factors that led to the “official” sanctioning of horror films—which had previously been banned—and how they differed from other popular genres that were approved and subsidized by the government. In addition to discussing the financing and exhibiting of these productions, the author examines the tropes, conventions, iconography, and thematic treatments of the films. Schlegel also analyzes how these movies were received by audiences and critics, both in Spain and abroad. Finally, he looks at the circumstances that led to the rapid decline of such films in the late 1970s and early 1980s. By examining how horror movies thrived in Spain during this decade, this book addresses a sorely neglected gap in film scholarship and also complements existing literature on Spanish national cinema. Sex, Sadism, Spain, and Cinema will appeal to fans of horror films as well as scholars of film history, European history, genre studies, and cultural studies.
“Early in my working life I had discovered that salesmanship consisted not of providing people with what they needed, but with that was essential to their dreams. I was confident that our dining-room suite, complete with carpets, curtains and an artificial fireplace, would shortly be snapped up by people occupying oven-hot semis in the newer and, as yet, treeless, housing estates on the island. The possibility of winter is essential to the happiness of people living in the tropics.” Hernie Perera runs the furniture department in Benson’s, the largest store in Singapore. In his spare time, he writes stories. Suddenly, his comfortable life is shattered. His father is found to have terminal cancer, he loses his job, and his lover joins the ‘Children of the Book’, a Christian sect committed to overthrowing an oppressive government. An old acquaintance and government official promises Hernie literary success in exchange for information on the ‘Children of the Book’. He must now decide between the rewards of political corruption and his conscience. With passion and humour, A Candle or the Sun reveals a Singapore far different from the tourist brochures.
The definitive biography of Alan Shepard, America’s first man in space, with a new Foreword by Chris Kraft “One of the finest books ever written about the space program.”—Homer Hickan, author of Rocket Boys “A wonderful and gripping biography . . . meticulously reported in the best tradition of David Halberstam.”—Buzz Bissinger, New York Times bestselling author of Friday Night Lights Alan Shepard was the brashest, cockiest, and most flamboyant of America’s original Mercury Seven, but he was also regarded as the best. Intense, colorful, and dramatic, he was among the most private of America’s public figures and, until his death in 1998, he guarded the story of his life zealously. Light This Candle, based on Neal Thompson’s exclusive access to private papers and interviews with Shepard’s family and closest friends—including John Glenn, Wally Schirra, and Gordon Cooper—offers a riveting, action-packed account of Shepard’s life.
Morgan Kingsley, an exorcist with an attitude, returns in this paranormal fantasy follow-up to "The Devil Inside"--but this time a demon is living inside her and Morgan must do everything she can to protect him for the sake of herself and humanity. Original.
Sebastian St. Cyr thought a notorious killer had been brought to justice until a shocking series of gruesome new murders stuns the city in this thrilling historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Who Speaks for the Damned. It's October 1814. The war with France is finally over and Europe's diplomats are convening in Vienna for a conference that will put their world back together. With peace finally at hand, London suddenly finds itself in the grip of a series of heinous murders eerily similar to the Ratcliffe Highway murders of three years before. In 1811, two entire families were viciously murdered in their homes. A suspect--a young seaman named John Williams--was arrested. But before he could be brought to trial, Williams hanged himself in his cell. The murders ceased, and London slowly began to breathe easier. But when the lead investigator, Sir Edwin Pym, is killed in the same brutal way three years later and others possibly connected to the original case meet violent ends, the city is paralyzed with terror once more. Was the wrong man arrested for the murders? Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for assistance. Pym's colleagues are convinced his manner of death is a coincidence, but Sebastian has his doubts. The more he looks into the three-year-old murders, the more certain he becomes that the hapless John Williams was not the real killer. Which begs the question--who was and why are they dead set on killing again?
Thirteen-year-old Theo, who has lived in seclusion his entire life, discovers he is the descendant of the Candle Man, a Victorian vigilante with the ability to melt criminals with a single touch.
"The stories of Orrin Grey are fun, fast, and, surprising enough in a genre where doom, gloom, and ultra-gore are standard issue, rather good-natured. It's not often you come across 'pleasant horror, ' but that's the best way to describe this collection-put a load of classic horror movies and comic books in a blender, liberally add some splashes of Mike Mignola-cool, and you've got yourself a monster mash to be reckoned with." - Jesse Bullington, author of Enterprise of Death and The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart A WORLD JUST BEYOND KNOWING By Orrin Grey As a reader and writer, I love the economy and freedom of the short story form. When it comes to matters of the supernatural, short stories are particularly well-suited to delivering the inexplicable, the indefinable, the numinous, something still left unexplored, an edge of the map marked "Here, there be monsters." I seek out these stories in anthologies, in films, and in comics like the old Warren Creepy and Eerie magazines, but my favorite way to read them is in a collection written by the vision of a single author. Collections let you see the stories all stacked up next to each other, see how the author changes from one story to the next, and how they stay the same. Whether it's Clive Barker's The Books of Blood or the ghost stories of M.R. James and E.F. Benson, a collection by a contemporary master or one of the billion-or-so compilations of tales by Lovecraft, Bradbury or Poe, there's no other kind of book I'd rather curl up with. So when the opportunity presented itself for me to put together my first collection of stories, I jumped at the chance. I must have drafted the table of contents for the book that would become Never Bet the Devil & Other Warnings at least a million times, trying to find just the right balance, the right combination. The title story is little more than a fragment, written for a contest that it didn't win, but I think it sets the right tone, invites you into the world that I'm building, one story at a time. A world made from old movies and horror comics and ghost stories, filled with golems and necromancers, cursed books and haunted houses, ghouls and jazz musicians and the skeleton of, well, something. That's the real beauty of a short story collection: it lets you build a world that somehow always remains just beyond the reach of knowing, a house that's always full of cobwebs and dark corners. A short story collection is never just one ride, it's an entire dark carnival, a cabinet of curiosities that gives you a glimpse into a place of infinite strangeness, but never quite lets you see the whole picture. - OG "Orrin Grey writes tales that are as eloquent as they are eerie. He deftly blends the high Gothic aesthetics of classical horror with a raconteur's innate knack for storytelling. Grey is a unique talent, and is destined to become a major name in weird fiction." - Richard Gavin, author of The Darkly Splendid Realm "Never Bet the Devil is a creepy foray into the realm of the weird and the sinister. An intriguing exploration of traditional and modern horror modes. Grey's debut shows a great deal of promise." Laird Barron, author of Occultation and The Croning
