The Halloween Mask And Other Strange Tales

Sherlock cocreator Mark Gatiss lends a foreword to this collection of short ghost stories, each with a shocking sting in the tail. Prepare to have your blood chilled and your nerves tingled. This collection of 18 short stories specially designed to shock and surprise takes you into the misty world of the supernatural where all kinds of dark mischief takes place. What is the secret of "The Dolls' House," what horror lies behind "The Halloween Mask," and what is the terrible secret of "The Fly House?" David Stuart Davies, a modern master of the unsettling narrative, provides a feast of ghoulish, ghostly, and gripping tales guaranteed to unsettle even the hardiest soul.

'An excellent and comprehensive exploration of this fascinating subject.' - Philip Carr-Gomm, author Druid Mysteries ' Samhain was the entry point into winter, a time of hardship, cold and hunger ... It was also a time of introspection, of communing with the dead and the otherworld – themes that have somehow survived, albeit distorted, into the modern era.' The modern celebration of Halloween is derived from the ancient festival of the dead known in Ireland as Samhain. It is from Ireland that we have inherited most of our Halloween traditions, mainly through the diaspora. Delving into the ancient past, this book uncovers the history of this festival in Britain, Ireland and Brittany, including the forgotten goddess Tlachtga and the sacred temple of the Druids in Co. Meath, where the first Halloween fires were lit.

As an unashamed admirer of Charles Dickens, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Edgar Allan Poe, and Roald Dahl’s quirky tales I have added a touch of my own black humour to this collection of short stories. My earliest childhood memories of blood curdling yarns on the radio, spoken by a man with a dark sepulchral voice, have left me with a lifetime’s passion for what were once known (long before my time I might add) as ‘Penny Dreadfuls’ or American Dime Novels: lurid tales of mysterious mayhem designed to deliciously shock and horrify our impressionable young minds. Science can explain away so many mysteries but it is often the creepy-unexpected that trips you up and opens the door to superstitious dread. However where my tales have a ghostly theme running through them they will often have a perfectly rational explanation. Occasionally they may even raise a smile or two. Modern lives are driven at such a fast pace with all the demands on our time and leisure that we often try and fit twenty-five hours into every working day, thus leaving very little space to absorb and do justice to the full length novel. This is why I believe the ‘Ten-Minute-Tale’ has a place to lift us out of the mundane. I hope you enjoy these offerings as you ‘cherry-pick’ your path along life’s crooked highway. Book reviews online: PublishedBestsellers website.

With over thirty tales in this collection I agonised over which of them should be the cover story. However, the bleak solitude of those storm-tossed light-towers, often built off some wild and windswept, rocky coast, has always fascinated me, and so I chose the drama of the sea, with: ‘Wreckers.’ Even the most elevated families seem to have a black sheep who does not conform, and in ‘Twice Loved’ a wayward young son is to be disowned and banished forever. In the ‘Curse of Khartoum’ a despised mis-fit goes off at a tangent, with surprising results for everyone concerned. Things are rarely as black and white or as straightforward as they seem, and I hope these little tales will show that nothing in life should be taken for granted, or at face value. I leave you to decide if you think I am right. H.R. Book reviews online: PublishedBestsellers website.

An introduction to the weird and unsettling world of H.P. Lovecraft, master and pioneer of horror. Between these pages you will find things that lurk, things that scurry in the walls, things that move unseen, things that have learnt to walk that ought to crawl, unfathomable blackness, unconquerable evil, inhuman impulses, abnormal bodies, ancient rites, nameless lands best left undiscovered, thoughts best left unspoken, doors best left closed, names best forgotten. You have been warned.

"The Jailer of Souls and Other Weird Tales" by Various. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

seventy yards distant. The first bullet knocked up a cloud of dust about three feet to his right and a little ahead, the second was still worse, but at the third he turned sideways, staggered on several paces, and fell among some loose rocks in a way that must have been unpleasant. He tried to get up again, but I now had his range pretty well and hit him again with the sixth shot; after that he lay pretty quiet, although I thought I saw him move his arm once or twice. I reloaded, having plenty of cartridges in my belt, and began shooting at him again. This time I hit him three times out of six shots, and as he had not moved for some minutes I concluded that he was dead...FROM THE BOOKS.

"Montezuma's Castle, and Other Weird Tales" is a spine-tingling collection of short stories by Charles B. Cory. These haunting tales take readers on journeys through supernatural realms and cursed forests, with vivid descriptions and unexpected plot twists that will leave horror fans enthralled.