When, in 1940, Saul Prior receives a letter from Lady Caroline Degabaston to catalogue the library of Thool Abbey in Hertfordshire, he jumps at the chance. But he soon finds himself in a realm that seems cut off from the real world. In the cryptic fastnesses of the abbey, Prior is beset by bizarre dreams and seems incapable of leaving the place. Lady Caroline proves to be a baleful and mysterious presence, and Prior is mired in a landscape that mingles Gothic terror and surrealism. The actual books that Prior is tasked with cataloguing are themselves a farrago of occultism, psychological aberration, and cosmic horror. And when other presences manifest themselves in and around the castle, Prior knows that he has stumbled into an adventure that is unlikely to end short of death or madness. Mark Samuels has knitted together many of the themes that appear in his previous work into a grand synthesis of dread and awe. Impeccably written, with careful attention to historical detail and the portrayal of the strange characters he puts on stage, Witch-Cult Abbey is a triumph of supernatural terror.

"Cryptic and potent languages, bizarre cults, mysteries that span the gulf between life and death, occult influences that reverberate through history like a dying echo, irresistible cosmic decay, forces of nightmare that distort reality itself, gateways to worlds where esoteric knowledge rots the future. Here is a collection of tales that forms a veritable Rosetta Stone for scholars of cosmic wonder and terror"--Page 4 of cover.

This multiple award-winning anthology of twenty psychological and supernatural horror stories explores the outer limits of fear. To create this volume, renowned horror editor Ellen Datlow wrote to her favorite authors asking for stories that would “provide the reader with a frisson of shock, or a moment of dread so powerful it might cause the reader outright physical discomfort; or a sensation of fear so palpable that the reader feels impelled to turn up the lights very bright and play music or seek the company of others to dispel the fear.” Mission accomplished. The resulting collection draws together some of the most powerful voices in the field: Pat Cadigan, Terry Dowling, Jeffrey Ford, Christopher Fowler, Glen Hirshberg, K. W. Jeter, Joyce Carol Oates, and Lucius Shepard, to name a few. Each author approaches fear in a different way, but all of the stories’ characters toil within their own hell. Winner of the 2008 World Fantasy Award, International Horror Guild Award, and Shirley Jackson Award for Best Anthology.

In "Dark Awakenings," author and scholar Cardin explores the ancient intersection between religion and horror in seven stories and three academic papers.

Ophelia Jensen's good witch granny Abigail revels in her paranormal powers. But Ophelia never asked for her bothersome psychic abilities -- especially since they proved worthless when the thirty-something librarian's best friend Brian was murdered by a still-unknown assailant. Now, five years later, another friend is gone, killed in almost identical fashion. Even dear old Abby isn't safe, distracted as she is by her fight to prevent a massive, mega-polluting pig-farming operation from invading their small Iowa town. And Ophelia can't count on her snarling, scoffing nemesis, police detective Henry Comacho, to get the job done, so she'll have to take matters into her own hands. Because a common thread to the crimes -- and a possible next victim -- is suddenly becoming troublingly apparent . . . and it's Ophelia Jensen herself!

"From the hoodoo-inspired sounds of Elvis Presley to the Eastern odysseys of George Harrison, from the dark dalliances of Led Zeppelin to the Masonic imagery of today's hip-hop scene, the occult has long breathed life into rock and hip-hop--and, indeed, esoteric and supernatural traditions are a key ingredient behind the emergence and development of rock and roll ... [and in this book] writer and critic Peter Bebergal illuminates this web of influences"--Amazon.com.

For the past two decades, British author Mark Samuels has written some of the most vibrant and challenging weird fiction of any contemporary writer. But his work--collected in such volumes as The White Hands and Other Weird Tales (2003), The Man Who Collected Machen (2010), and Written in Darkness (2014)--has by and large appeared in limited editions not widely distributed in the United States. This volume features seventeen of Samuels's best weird stories. Several display his fascination with technology, advertising, and urban horror, as in "Apartment 205" and the title story. Other tales speak of the writing of weird fiction itself as a potentially hazardous and supernatural enterprise, as in "The White Hands" and "Vrolyck." In several of his lengthier narratives--notably "The Gentleman from Mexico" and "The Crimson Fog"--Samuels draws upon H. P. Lovecraft's pseudomythology to venture into realms of cosmic horror. "The Black Mould" and "My World Has No Memories" are distinctively existential tales of undeniable potency. Mark Samuels is one of the pioneering weird writers of today, and this selection makes plain why he has few rivals in the portrayal of the horrors that are unique to our troubled age.