Enjoy eight Christmas-themed horror flash fictions that’ll make you see Christmas differently this year. In this collection, you’ll find the following spooky tales: A woman meets her boyfriend’s parents for the first time and unknowingly brings the perfect Christmas gift. A young man learns that no wish, not even a Christmas one, comes without consequences. A young couple discovers that a Christmas Instagram challenge can be fatal. A real Christmas tree doesn’t give a family the perfect Christmas they hoped for. Santa and his reindeers are missing. And when Mrs Claus tracks them down, what she discovers is worse than she could ever have imagined. A woman discovers the real meaning behind the nickname her boyfriend calls her when she visits his home for the first time. A young boy gets more than he bargained for when he attacks an intruder on Christmas Eve. A woman has an idea to kill her boss with poisoned mince pies, but her plan doesn’t give her the results she was expecting. The characters in this collection are all different, but they have one thing that unites them: they all learn that not everyone has a Merry Christmas; some have a Merry Dreadmas.

A New York Times Notable Book Winner of the Bram Stoker Award "One of the best collections of the 21st century." — Stephen King A chilling collection of psychological suspense and literary horror from the multiple award-winning author of the national bestseller The Cabin at the End of the World and A Head Full of Ghosts. A masterful anthology featuring nineteen pieces of short fiction, Growing Things is an exciting glimpse into Paul Tremblay’s fantastically fertile imagination. In “The Teacher,” a Bram Stoker Award nominee for best short story, a student is forced to watch a disturbing video that will haunt and torment her and her classmates’ lives. Four men rob a pawn shop at gunpoint only to vanish, one-by-one, as they speed away from the crime scene in “The Getaway.” In “Swim Wants to Know If It’s as Bad as Swim Thinks,” a meth addict kidnaps her daughter from her estranged mother as their town is terrorized by a giant monster . . . or not. Joining these haunting works are stories linked to Tremblay’s previous novels. The tour de force metafictional novella “Notes from the Dog Walkers” deconstructs horror and publishing, possibly bringing in a character from A Head Full of Ghosts, all while serving as a prequel to Disappearance at Devil’s Rock. “The Thirteenth Temple” follows another character from A Head Full of Ghosts—Merry, who has published a tell-all memoir written years after the events of the novel. And the title story, “Growing Things,” a shivery tale loosely shared between the sisters in A Head Full of Ghosts, is told here in full. From global catastrophe to the demons inside our heads, Tremblay illuminates our primal fears and darkest dreams in startlingly original fiction that leaves us unmoored. As he lowers the sky and yanks the ground from beneath our feet, we are compelled to contemplate the darkness inside our own hearts and minds.

New York Times Bestseller: A baker in small-town Minnesota finds the heat is on after a musician is murdered… When bakery owner Hannah Swensen hears that the Cinnamon Roll Six jazz band will be playing at Lake Eden, Minnesota’s Weekend Jazz Festival, she's more than happy to bake up a generous supply of their namesake confections to welcome them to town. Before the festival even begins, tragedy strikes when the tour bus overturns. Among those injured is Buddy Neiman, the band’s beloved keyboard player. His injuries appear minor, until his condition suddenly takes a turn for the worse—as in dead. Hannah’s no doctor, but she suspects that the surgical scissors someone plunged into Buddy’s chest may have something to do with it. Fortunately, she’s on the case, because she knows from experience that nothing’s sweeter than bringing a killer to justice… Features cookie and dessert recipes from The Cookie Jar, including Peaches and Cream Cookies and Chocolate Caramel Bars! “Joanne Fluke is the doyenne of deadly desserts with her deliciously popular Hannah Swensen series.”—Publishers Weekly “Fans of this wildly popular series will not be disappointed. Fluke has kept this series strong for a long time, and there is still plenty to enjoy for foodie crime fans.”—Booklist

A half-human, half-vampire hunts the bloodsucker who bit her in this “compelling” Bram Stoker Award-winning debut (Publishers Weekly). One spring night in London, heiress Denise Thorne disappears while partying at a nightclub, never to be seen again. That very same night, Sonja Blue, a tough-as-nails punk vampire/vampire-slayer, conceived in terror and blood, is borne from the city’s gutters. Saved by modern medicine before she could die, she is a living vampire who still possesses a soul and is determined to fight for what remains of her humanity. In the years since her bizarre resurrection, Sonja Blue travels the globe, hunting down and disposing of those creatures that prey on the innocent while searching for the vampire Noble who created her. But when she investigates a sleazy televangelist named Catherine Wheele, who is exploiting Denise Thorne’s parents, Sonja finds herself up against a powerful inhuman adversary. But as dangerous as Catherine Wheele proves to be, Sonja’s greatest foe remains the Other, the demonic personality with whom she is locked in a constant battle for control of their shared body. Can Sonja Blue overcome her inner demon in time to rescue an innocent man from Catherine Wheele’s unholy clutches? Acknowledged as one of the first Urban Fantasy novels, Sunglasses After Dark burst onto the fantasy/horror scene in 1989, garnering widespread critical praise and winning the Horror Writers Association’s coveted Bram Stoker Award, as well as the British Fantasy Society’s Icarus Award. New edition: Revised and edited by the author.

'The Secret History for Millennials' Belinda Bauer A golden summer, and six talented teenagers are looking forward to the brightest of futures - until a daredevil game goes horribly wrong, leaving three strangers dead. 18-year-old Megan takes the blame for the crime, leaving her friends to get on with their lives. In return, they each agree to a 'favour', payable on her release from prison. Twenty years later Megan is free. It is payback time. And her friends start disappearing, one by one . . . Richard & Judy bestseller Sharon Bolton is back, with her twistiest thriller yet.

A dark and unsettling tale from a bold voice in horror writing "A scary read that will chill you to the bone," --Library Journal. After the battlefront death of her husband, a soldier, in the sands of the Middle East, a distraught Cass decides to move to the bucolic village of Darnshaw--a place she once knew and loved--with her teenage son, with the hope that a change in scenery will be just the thing to help her family heal. But the locals aren't as friendly as she had hoped and the iInternet connection isn't as reliable as her work requires. Ben begins to display an uncharacteristic hostility. A blizzard strikes Darnshaw, marooning it in a sea of snow, and Cass begins to despair. She finds a sympathetic ear in the person of her son's substitute teacher. But his attentions can't put to rest her growing anxiety about her son and her business. And soon, she finds herself pitted against dark forces she can barely comprehend. The cold season has begun...

Murder rearranges the Yuletide carols into unexpected eulogies... The O’Sullivans are spending Christmas in West Cork with brother James’s fiancée Elise’s family, including her grandfather, the famous orchestral conductor Enda Elliot. When they learn everyone will choose a name from a hat to buy a music-related Christmas gift for someone else at the gathering, it seems like their greatest concern–until the cantankerous conductor is discovered crushed under a ninety-pound harp in a local concert hall. With the extended family–including Enda’s much-younger new wife Leah, a virtuoso violinist–suspected in his murder, it’s up to Siobhán to ensure the guilty party faces the music. But as a snowstorm strands both families in a lavish farmhouse on a cliff, Siobhán had better pick up the tempo–before the killer orchestrates another untimely demise... A charming Christmas cosy mystery, perfect for fans of Margaret Mayhew and Dee Macdonald.