The Ghosts of Kerfol by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick Press) is a tour de force by a writer best-known as the editor of two excellent young adult horror anthologies: The Restless Dead and Gothic! Retelling the Edith Wharton ghost story "Kerfol," about the murder of a French aristocrat in the seventeenth century from the point of view of a servant girl, Noyes then adds four new ghost tales, all of which take place in the unlucky house over the next four centuries.
Just After Sunset by Stephen King (Scribner) is this prolific author's first collection since 2002 and has thirteen stories published between 1977 and 2008, with "N," a very good novelette, appearing for the first time. With an introduction and story notes by the author.
The Number 121 to Pennsylvania by Kealan Patrick Burke (Cemetery Dance) contains fourteen stories, novellas, and a screenplay of one of the novellas. One novella and the screenplay appear for the first time.
How to Make Monsters by Gary McMahon (Morrigan Books) has fourteen stories about monsters, most human or produced from human fear or anger. Half of the stories appear for the first time.
Slivers of Bone by Ray Garton (Cemetery Dance) is the long-delayed hefty collection of thirteen stories (including two new novellas) by the author best known for his novel about vampire truck-stop hookers, Live Girls.
Halloween and Other Seasons by Al Sarrantonio (Cemetery Dance Publications) is the author's third collection and contains eighteen stories published between 1979 and 2007.
H. P. Lovecraft: the Fiction (Barnes & Noble), part of the B &N Library of essential writers, is a huge volume collecting all his stories in one volume for the first time. It has sixty-eight stories,.
The Strange Cases of Rudolph Pearson by William Jones (Chaosium) is a clever and entertaining collection of ten interrelated stories of Lovecraftian fiction with the framing device of a manuscript of "cases" left by a professor of Medieval studies at Columbia University. Four of the "cases" were previously published.
Haggopian and Other Stories: Best Mythos Tales, Volume 2 by Brian Lumley (Subterranean) collects twenty-four more of the author's Lovecraftian stories.
The Horror Stories of Robert E. Howard (Del Rey) has sixty-one stories, poems, and story fragments. Introduction by Rusty Burke and illustrations by Greg Staples.
Brimstone Turnpike edited by Kealan Patrick Burke (Cemetery Dance) features five novellas by Thomas F. Monteleone, Scott Nicholson, Mike Oliveri, Harry Shannon, and Tim Waggoner connected by interstitial material written by the editor. In each story, the main character meets an old man at a ruined gas station on a deserted highway, and is given a gift.
Shadows and Other Tales by Tony Richards (Dark Regions Press) is the British author's first U.S. collection and covers the globe with the twenty-one horror stories, two published for the first time. Passport to Purgatory also by Tony Richards (Gray Friar Press) occasionally overlaps with Shadows and Other Tales but most of the fifteen reprints cover different territory.
Voices from Hades by Jeffrey Thomas (Dark Regions Press) is a collection of stories loosely related to the author's novel Letters from Hades published in 2003. Here are seven stories (two published for the first time) about dead people who have been consigned to Hades.
Experiments in Human Nature by Monica O'Rourke (Two Backed Books), one of the few female proponents of extreme horror, has included an interesting mix of twenty-three stories, four published for the first time.
Other Gods by Stephen Mark Rainey (Dark Regions Press) collects sixteen stories published over the past twenty years, with one new story included.
Degrees of Fear and Others by C. J. Henderson (Dark Regions Press) features twenty stories and vignettes, two published for the first time, many inspired by Lovecraft.
Skeleton in the Closet and Other Stories edited by Stefan Dziemianowicz (Subterranean) is the second volume in the Reader's Bloch collection and contains a lot of his earlier stories originally published in the pulps.
Gleefully Macabre Tales by Jeff Strand (Delirium Books) showcases thirty-two of the author's mostly humorously grotesque horror stories. Most of the stories are very brief, some are gross (they were entries in WHC gross-out contests). This is most definitely taste specific. It's got appropriate jacket art by Alan M. Clark.
The Garden of Ghosts by Scott Thomas (Dark Regions Press) is a charming collection of eighteen brief ghost stories, all published for the first time. Most are more poignant than horrific but there are a few good scares here.
Inconsequential Tales by Ramsey Campbell (Hippocampus) includes twenty-four stories never before collected-and two never before published. Campbell provides an introduction explaining the inspiration for each story in the volume.
Queen of the Country by d. k. g. goldberg (Prime) has fourteen horror stories (two, never before published) by the late author, who succumbed to cancer in 2005.
Beneath the Surface by Simon Strantzas (Humdrumming) is the debut collection by an expert in British urban ennui. Of the twelve stories, seven appear for the first time.
Tales of the Callamo Mountains by Larry Blamire is a self-published collection of thirteen stories of Western horror by a filmmaker and sometimes actor that's better than most self-published books, and I recommend that readers seek it out.
Mama's Boy and Other Dark Tales by Fran Friel (Apex Publications) has fifteen stories, a few published for the first time.
The Diving Pool by Yoko Ogawa, translated by Stephen Snyder (Picador) contains three novellas tinged with darkness by a multi-award-winning Japanese writer.
Peripheral Visions by Paul Kane (Creative Guy Publishing) collects twenty-one stories (three appearing for the first time) of dark fantasy and horror by this British writer.
Ennui and Other States of Madness by David Niall Wilson (Dark Regions Press) has sixteen diverse stories (two new) and an original novella-the collection includes Wilson's Stoker Award-winning story "The Gentle Brush of Wings."
Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand by Louise Hawes (Houghton Mifflin) is a young adult collection of seven dark, retold fairy tales.
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H. P. Lovecraft, Commemorative Edition edited and with an afterword by Stephen Jones (Gollancz) with illustrations by Les Edwards.
Sredni Vashtar: Sardonic Tales by Saki (Tartarus Press) collects thirty-one weird and macabre stories and one novel by noted satirist Hector Hugh Monroe, known by the pen name, Saki. Mark Valentine's introduction gives the reader a glimpse of Saki's life, and explores possible influences on his fiction.
The Triumph of Night and Other Tales by Edith Wharton (Tartarus Press) includes the preface to her collection, Ghosts. In it, she bemoans the literal mindedness of some of her readers who ask how a ghost "could write a letter or put it in a letterbox." The book includes fifteen stories, all those that first appeared in Ghosts and four that were published elsewhere.
A Natural Body and a Spiritual Body: Some Worcestershire Encounters with the Supernatural by J. S. Leatherbarrow (Ash-Tree Press) is a new edition of a twelve-story collection originally published privately in 1983. The Ash-Tree edition contains the original twelve ghost stories plus a previously uncollected story, a preface by the author, and an introduction by James Doig.
Tedious Brief Tales of Granta and Gramarye by Ingulphus (Arthur Gray) (Ash-Tree Press) with ten stories and one poem, is intended as the "true" history of Jesus College's Everlasting Club, whose members were sworn to meet annually on All Souls' Day. The stories were originally published between 1910 and 1919 in two Cambridge magazines under the pseudonym Ingulphus but then were collected by a publisher and their author revealed to be Arthur Gray, Master of Jesus College.
Mixed-Genre Collections
Unwelcome Bodies by Jennifer Pelland (Apex Publications) is this promising writer's debut collection, and features eleven, mostly dark science fiction stories, three published for the first time. Her best work terrifies in its brutal depiction of future possibilities, but I personally would welcome a little more subtlety. Crazy Love by Leslie What (Wordcraft of Oregon) showcases seventeen, mostly darkly edged stories. Bull Running for Girls by Allyson Bird (Screaming Dreams) is a promising debut with most of the twenty-one stories appearing for the first time, some very good. Islington Crocodiles by Paul Meloy (TTA Press) is a marvelous introduction to this talented author's work, most of which were originally published in The Third Alternative. Meloy's stories are sometimes science fiction, sometimes crime fiction but what they all have in common is his sharp, precise language and a very dark tone. Of the ten stories, three appear for the first time. Summer Morning, Summer Night by Ray Bradbury (P.S./Subterranean Press) contains twenty-seven old and new stories, all set in Greentown, Illinois. Midnight Call and Other Stories by Jonathan Thomas (Hippocampus Press) debuts a new voice with twenty-five stories, most published for the first time, several quite dark. Creeping in Reptile Flesh by Robert Hood (Altair Australian Books) contains fourteen stories (three previously unpublished) of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. Voices from Punktown by Jeffrey Thomas (Dark Regions Press) collects eleven more stories set in the terrifically vital, violent, and imaginative world created by Thomas. Two of the stories are new. Sheep and Wolves by Jeremy C. Shipp (Raw Dog Screaming Press) is a mix of the dark and the absurd, with the author taking a little too much delight in creating surrealist images at the expense of developing memorable characters and a story. But it's an interesting first collection. Wild Nights! by Joyce Carol Oates (Ecco) is a collection of five novellas about the last days of Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Dickinson, Mark Twain, Henry James, and Ernest Hemingway, each written in the author's style. Masks by Ray Bradbury (Gauntlet) features fragments of a never finished novel called The Masks written in the mid-1940s. There are also six previously unpublished stories written between 1947 and 1954 ranging in length from two pages to twenty pages. This is a fascinating view into the imagination of a master. Fourtold by Michael Stone (Baysgarth Publications) contains four novellas about war, magical powers, and grotesqueries. The book has a foreword by Garry Kilworth. Where Angels Fear by Ken Rand (Fairwood Press) is the first of two volumes of the collected short fiction by Rand, who died in 2009. Included are thirty-four sf/f/dark fantasy stories, of which thirteen are appearing for the first time. The Loved Dead and Other Tales by C. M. Eddy, Jr. (Fenham Publishing) is a collection of thirteen stories ranging from horror to mystery by a friend and sometimes collaborator of H. P. Lovecraft. Some of the stories are reprinted here for the first time since their original publication in the pulps. Edited and with an introduction by Jim Dyer. The Wall of America by Thomas M. Disch (Tachyon) includes twenty stories by the late author published between 1981 and 2008 in venues ranging from The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, OMNI Magazine, and Interzone to Playboy and The Hudson Review. The Best of Michael Swanwick by Michael Swanwick (Subterranean) has twenty stories from throughout this master craftsman's career including several award winners, some quite dark. With an introduction by the author explaining the origin of each story. Little Creatures by Michael McCarty [and Special Guests] (Sam's Dot) has twenty-five brief stories, eleven published for the first time. Some of the stories are sf/horror. Pump Six and Other Stories by Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade) is the first collection of this lauded young science fiction writer, several of whose short stories are tinged with horror. The ten stories included were published between 1999 and 2008 (one original to the collection). One, "The Fluted Girl," was reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 17. City of the Sea and Other Ghost Stories by Jerome K. Jerome (Ash-Tree Press) is best known for his comic novel Three Men in a Boat and this is the first book collecting all his ghost stories, humorous and horrific in one volume. With an extensive introduction about the author and his work by Jessica Amanda Salmonson. Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link (Viking), aimed at the young adult market, contains nine stories, several award winners-and all but one previously published. At least a few of the stories are darkly tinged. Australian artist Shaun Tan has created wonderful black and white decorations. PS reissued a beautiful boxed set of the classic Ray Bradbury collection alternately titled The Day It Rained Forever and A Medicine for Melancholy. There is a lot of overlap between the two volumes, but some stories only appeared in one or the other. Both books have different jacket covers and endpapers by Tomislav Tikulin. Jonathan Eller introduces A Medicine for Melancholy and Caitlín R. Kiernan introduces The Day It Rained Forever. Some of Bradbury's most memorable stories appear here, including the two title stories, "The Wonderful Ice-Cream Suit," and "Perchance to Dream." The books also contain the story illustrations that originally accompanied them in their first magazine publications. The Drowned Life by Jeffrey Ford (Harper Perennial) consists of sixteen science fiction, fantasy, and dark fantasy stories published between 2002 and 2008, two appearing for the first time. Ford's got a prodigious imagination and always seems keen to push the limits of dream logic. The Best of Lucius Shepard (limited edition includes a trade paperback titled Skull City and Other Lost Stories (Subterranean) is a retrospective of eighteen stories and novellas-or twenty-nine with the extra book-ranging from very early work like "The Taylorville Reconstruction" to his recent award-nominated novella "Stars Seen Through Stone." Oddly, for a project that should be very special, nowhere in either book is there anything other than the stories: no introduction, no commentary by Shepard or anyone else. Nor is there a first publication page.