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Synopsis
The year's best, and darkest, tales of terror, showcasing the most outstanding new short stories and novellas by both contemporary masters of the macabre and exciting newcomers.
As ever, this acclaimed anthology also offers the most comprehensive annual overview of horror around the world in all its incarnations; a comprehensive necrology of famous names; and a list of indispensable contact addresses for the dedicated horror fan and writer alike.
The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror remains the world's leading annual anthology dedicated solely to presenting the best in contemporary horror fiction.
Release date: October 20, 2011
Publisher: Little, Brown Book Group
Print pages: 160
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The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 22
Stephen Jones
STEPHEN JONES lives in London, England. He is the winner of three World Fantasy Awards, four Horror Writers Association Bram Stoker Awards and
three International Horror Guild Awards as well as being a twenty-one time recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A former television producer/director and genre movie
publicist and consultant (the first three Hellraiser movies, Night Life, Nightbreed, Split Second, Mind Ripper, Last Gasp etc.), he is the co-editor of
Horror: 100 Best Books, Horror: Another 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick, H.P. Lovecraft’s Book
of Horror, The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Great Ghost Stories, Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost
Stories and the Dark Terrors, Dark Voices and Fantasy Tales series. He has written Coraline: A Visual Companion, Stardust: The Visual Companion,
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, The Essential Monster Movie Guide, The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide, The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide,
The Illustrated Frankenstein Movie Guide and The Illustrated Werewolf Movie Guide, and compiled The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series, The Mammoth Book of Terror,
The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, The Mammoth Book of Dracula, The
Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women, The Mammoth Book of New Terror, The Mammoth Book of Monsters, The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror, Shadows Over
Innsmouth, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, Dark Detectives, Dancing with the Dark, Dark of the Night, White of the Moon, Keep Out the Night, By
Moonlight Only, Don’t Turn Out the Light, H.P. Lovecraft’s Book of the Supernatural, Travellers in Darkness, Summer Chills, Brighton Shock!,
Zombie Apocalypse!, Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts, A Book of Horrors, Exorcisms and Ecstasies by Karl Edward Wagner, The Vampire Stories of
R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Phantoms and Fiends and Frights and Fancies by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, James Herbert: By Horror Haunted, Basil Copper: A Life in Books,
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft, Eldritch Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, The Complete Chronicles of Conan and Conan’s Brethren by Robert E. Howard,
The Emperor of Dreams: The Lost Worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories by Leigh Brackett, The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales by
Rudyard Kipling, Darkness Mist & Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper, Pelican Cay & Other Disquieting Tales by David Case, Clive Barker’s A–Z of
Horror, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles, The Hellraiser Chronicles and volumes of poetry by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E.
Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. A Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2004 World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, he has been a guest
lecturer at UCLA in California and London’s Kingston University and St Mary’s University College. You can visit his website at www.stephenjoneseditor.com
Constable & Robinson Ltd
55–56 Russell Square
London WC1B 4HP
www.constablerobinson.com
First published in the UK by Robinson,
an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2011
Collection and editorial material copyright © Stephen Jones 2011
The right of Stephen Jones to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs & Patents Act 1988.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to
actual persons, living or dead, or to actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, re-sold, hired out or otherwise circulated in any
form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A copy of the British Library Cataloguing in Publication
Data is available from the British Library
UK ISBN 978-1-84901-618-6
eISBN 978-1-84901-772-5
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
First published in the United States in 2011 by Running Press Book Publishers,
A Member of the Perseus Books Group
All rights reserved under the Pan-American and International Copyright Conventions
This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part, in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system now known or hereafter invented, without written permission from the publisher.
Books published by Running Press are available at special discounts for bulk purchases in the United States by corporations, institutions, and other organizations. For more
information, please contact the Special Markets Department at the Perseus Books Group, 2300 Chestnut Street, Suite 200, Philadelphia, PA 19103, or call (800) 810-4145, ext. 5000, or e-mail
[email protected].
US ISBN: 978-0-7624-4270-6
US Library of Congress Control Number: 2010941550
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Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing
Running Press Book Publishers
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Printed and bound in the UK
I would like to thank David Barraclough, Mandy Slater, Amanda Foubister, Andrew I. Porter, Brian Mooney, Johnny Mains, Philip Harbottle, Sara and Randy Broecker, Vincent
Chong, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin (www.sfsite.com), Peter Crowther and Nicky Crowther, Gordon Van Gelder, Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker, Andy Cox, Ellen Datlow, Charles Black and,
especially, Duncan Proudfoot and Dorothy Lumley for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Variety, Ansible and all the other sources that were used
for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.
INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2010 copyright © Stephen Jones 2011.
WHAT WILL COME AFTER copyright © Scott Edelman 2010. Originally published in What Will Come After. Reprinted by permission of the author.
SUBSTITUTIONS copyright © Michael Marshall Smith 2010. Originally published in Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror. Reprinted by permission of the
author.
A REVELATION OF CORMORANTS copyright © Mark Valentine 2010. Originally published in A Revelation of Cormorants. Reprinted by permission of the author.
OUT BACK copyright © Garry Kilworth 2010. Originally published in FantasyCon 2010 Souvenir Programme. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FORT CLAY, LOUISIANA: A TRAGICAL HISTORY copyright © Albert E. Cowdrey 2010. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, No.688,
March/April 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
JUST OUTSIDE OUR WINDOWS, DEEP INSIDE OUR WALLS copyright © Brian Hodge 2010. Originally published on Darkside Digital. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FALLEN BOYS copyright © Mark Morris. Originally published in The End of the Line: New Horror Stories Set On and Around the Underground, the Subway, the Metro and Other
Places Deep Below. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE LEMON IN THE POOL copyright © Simon Kurt Unsworth 2010. Originally published in Lost Places. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE PIER copyright © Thana Niveau 2010. Originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FEATHERWEIGHT copyright © Robert Shearman 2010. Originally published in Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts. Reprinted by permission of the
author and the author’s agent, PBJ Management.
BLACK COUNTRY copyright © Joel Lane 2010. Originally published in Black Country. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LAVENDER AND LYCHGATES copyright © Angela Slatter 2010. Originally published in Sourdough and Other Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
CHRISTMAS WITH THE DEAD copyright © Joe R. Lansdale 2010. Originally published in Christmas with the Dead. Reprinted by permission of the author.
WE ALL FALL DOWN copyright © Kirstyn McDermott 2010. Originally published in Aurealis: Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction, No.44, September 2010. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
OH I DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE copyright © Christopher Fowler 2010. Originally published in Brighton Shock! The Souvenir Book of The World Horror Convention
2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LOSENEF EXPRESS copyright © Mark Samuels 2010. Originally published in The Man Who Collected Machen & Other Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LESSER DEMONS copyright © Norman Partridge 2010. Originally published in Lesser Demons and Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
TELLING copyright © Steve Rasnic Tem 2010. Originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.
AS RED AS RED copyright © Caitlín R. Kiernan 2010. Originally published in Haunted Legends. Reprinted by permission of the author.
WITH THE ANGELS copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2010. Originally published in Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts. Reprinted by permission of the
author.
AUTUMN CHILL copyright © Richard L. Tierney 2010. Originally published in Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.
CITY OF THE DOG copyright © John Langan 2009. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, No.687, January/February 2010. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
WHEN THE ZOMBIES WIN copyright © Karina Sumner-Smith 2010. Originally published in The Living Dead 2. Reprinted by permission of the author.
NECROLOGY: 2010 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2011.
USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2011.
Horror in 2010
AFTER ONLY A YEAR, Angry Robot left HarperCollins UK and became an independent imprint, backed by Osprey Publishing, best known
for its military history titles.
In March, the American Borders book-selling chain held off possible bankruptcy after securing two loans, totalling $790 million. This allowed the company to see if its recent restructuring,
which included closing Waldenbooks stores, could halt a continuing decline in sales.
With so many pundits proclaiming the demise of the traditional bookstore in favour of the Internet and e-books, London’s Foyles bookshop defied the trend and enjoyed its most successful
year for more than a decade, with a 9.7 per cent increase in sales on the previous year. It was, however, the first time that the store had made a pre-tax profit since 1999.
Industry figures revealed that the UK book industry suffered a 5.6 per cent decline in sales overall.
For the second year in a row, national SAT results in England revealed that reading standards had fallen amongst 11-year-olds in primary schools. This was borne out by a survey of 2,000 UK
schoolchildren which revealed that 11 per cent of them thought that Albert Einstein was Frankenstein’s brother and one in five believed that Disney’s Buzz Lightyear was the first person
to step on the Moon, not Neil Armstrong. Even more dispiriting, one in six thought Darth Vader’s Death Star was the furthest place from Earth, one in six believed that the Daleks occupied
Britain, and 12 per cent of kids thought that the Battle of Britain took place in outer space.
In the annual rundown of the most popular names for newborn babies in 2009, issued by America’s Social Security Administration at the beginning of May,
“Cullen” was placed at #485 – a leap of almost 300 slots from the previous year, and the biggest increase for any boy’s name. This was put down to the fact that it is the
surname of moody vampire “Edward” in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga”. Perhaps more worrying, “Jacob” (the name of Meyer’s buff werewolf) was the
most popular boy’s name for the eleventh year running, while “Isabella” – the progenitor of Meyer’s heroine “Bella” (which itself rated #58) – topped
the list of girls’ names.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Inn Motel in Forks, Washington – home to Meyer’s fictional Cullen family of vampires – opened six Twilight-themed rooms decorated in black and red
Gothic trappings.
Stephenie Meyer’s The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella was about the “newborn” teenage vampire whom Bella met in Eclipse. It was originally
written by the author as an exercise. Published with a first print run of 1.5 million copies, with a dollar from each sale donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, the slim
hardcover was also available online as a free download in June, as a special thank-you to “Twi-hard” fans.
British horror writer James Herbert received an OBE in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. So, too, did scriptwriter/producer Brian Clemens, whose credits include TV’s The
Avengers and Thriller.
In October, J.K. Rowling was named the most influential woman in Britain. Victoria Beckham was the runner-up, followed by the Queen in third place. Earlier in the year, Rowling donated
£10 million to set up a multiple sclerosis research clinic in Edinburgh.
English professor Justin Cronin’s much-hyped The Passage, a large novel about an enigmatic young girl turned into an immortal vampire (called “virals”) through a covert
military experiment, was the subject of a bidding war amongst publishers, with Ballantine finally securing the rights. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions snapped up the movie rights and,
inevitably, the author was planning two sequels.
A group of four college friends, whose lives had been ruined one night in 1966 during a secret occult ritual, revisited the past in an attempt finally to face their very
different visions in Peter Straub’s A Dark Matter. An earlier and longer version of the novel, entitled The Skylark, was published by Subterranean Press in a 500-copy signed
edition and as a traycased and lettered edition of twenty-six copies ($250.00).
Frankenstein: Lost Souls was the fourth in the series by Dean Koontz, in which mad scientist Victor created a race of evil replicants who recycled their human counterparts into biological
components. From the same author, What the Night Knows was a supernatural serial-killer novel.
In Joe Hill’s eagerly anticipated second novel, Horns, a man let his inner devil loose when he found that he had grown horns and acquired the power to know the worst secrets and
darkest desires of everyone he met. A 500-copy signed and slipcased edition was also available from PS Publishing, along with a 200-copy traycased edition signed by Hill and artist Vincent Chong
(£200.00).
When a preserved giant squid mysteriously disappeared from London’s Natural History Museum, a clueless tour guide found himself caught up in the city’s criminal and magical
underworld in China Miéville’s sometimes Lovecraftian novel Kraken. Subterranean Press did a 500-copy signed and limited edition, along with twenty-six lettered and traycased
copies ($250.00).
The body of an old Native American shaman held the ghost of General Custer after the Battle of Little Big Horn in Dan Simmons’ sprawling historical fantasy Black Hills. Subterranean
produced a signed, limited edition of 500 copies, plus a twenty-six copy lettered and traycased edition ($500.00).
Simmons’ classic Nazi vampire novel Carrion Comfort was also reissued for the twentieth anniversary of its publication, in a revised edition with a new Introduction by the
author.
An alcoholic father returned to the mysterious island where his six-year-old daughter disappeared two years previously in John Ajvide Lindqvist’s spooky third novel, Harbour.
New father and serial killer Dexter Morgan found himself dealing with a group of cannibal killers in the Everglades in Dexter is Delicious, the fifth volume in Jeff Lindsay’s
increasingly silly series.
The Heavenstone Secrets and Secret Whispers were the first two volumes in a new Gothic series credited to “V.C. Andrews®”, while Daughter of
Darkness was a vampire novel from the same long-dead, yet still prolific, author.
Frankenstein’s Monster by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe was a sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic novel that followed the creature down through the years following the death of its
creator. Meanwhile, Michelle Lovric’s equally literary The Book of Human Skin was a sweeping historical horror novel in which sibling rivalry took a decidedly evil turn during the late
18th century.
In A Matter of Blood, the first in Sarah Pinborough’s crossover “The Dog-Faced Gods” crime/horror trilogy, Detective Inspector Cass Jones discovered
that the three murder cases he was working on were somehow connected, including that of a serial killer who could turn himself into a swarm of flies.
Having moved to Pan Books, British author Adam Nevill’s first title from his new publisher was Apartment 16, about a haunted building in Knightsbridge.
The Chamber of Ten by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon was the third book in the “Hidden Cities” series, this time set beneath the city of Venice, while the end of the world
was only the beginning in Coldbrook, a solo novel by Lebbon.
Fatal Error was the latest novel about Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson, and a female arson investigator tried to avert the apocalypse in Fire Spirit by Graham Masterton.
Ghost of a Chance was the first book in the new “Ghostfinders” series by Simon R. Green, about agents from the Carnacki Institute.
Gary McMahon’s Pretty Little Dead Things featured psychic investigator Thomas Usher, who looked into the violent death of the daughter of a local gangster. The novel came with
glowing quotes from Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler and Tim Lebbon.
In Yvonne Navarro’s Highborn, a fallen angel seeking redemption teamed up with a Chicago detective tracking a serial killer in the first in a new series.
Those who desecrated an Etruscan tomb were apparently torn apart by a large beast in The Ancient Curse by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, while a recently widowed celebrity found himself at the
mercy of his malicious mansion in The Haunting of James Hastings by Christopher Ramsom.
A future Hollywood director filmed his extras really being killed onscreen while battling mechanical monsters in The Extra by Michael Shea.
Former accountant Owen Pitt was stalked by the “Shadow Man” in Monster Hunter: Vendetta by Larry Correia, and the inhabitants of a small Californian town were infested by a
wormlike parasite in Jeff Jacobson’s Wormfood.
Skinners: Teeth of Beasts and Skinners: Vampire Uprising were the third and fourth books, respectively, in the monster-hunting series by Marcus Pelegrimas.
Shift by Tim Kring and Dale Peck was the first book in the “Gate of Orpheus” trilogy, about an LSD mind-control experiment in the 1960s, while supernatural creatures attached
themselves to people in Drift by the pseudonymous “Sharon Carter Rogers”.
Ghost Shadow, Ghost Night and Ghost Moon made up Heather Graham’s “Bone Island” trilogy set in the Florida Keys.
A newly renovated spa hotel harboured ghosts in So Cold the River by Michael Koryta, and in Trish J. MacGregor’s Esperanza, a female FBI agent ended up in the eponymous
Ecuadorian city haunted by hungry ghosts.
When a woman opened a new guesthouse, she discovered that the property came with a pair of resident ghosts who wanted her to solve their murder, in Night of the Living Deed by E.J.
Copperman (Jeffrey Cohen), the first book in the “Haunted Guesthouse” series.
The Fuller Memorandum was the third Lovecraftian spy novel in Charles Stross’ “Laundry Files” series featuring computational demonologist Bob Howard.
Dog Blood was the sequel to David Moody’s Hater, about a plague that sparked sudden rage and killing. Moody’s horror novel Autumn, originally published free
online, also finally received a mass-market edition.
After all of humanity blacked out, one girl partially remembered what happened in Dalia Roddy’s A Catch in Time.
Cat’s Claw was the second novel about Death’s daughter, Calliope Reaper-Jones, by Buffy actress Amber Benson.
In The Devil, Ken Bruen’s sixth novel about an Irish alcoholic “finder”, Jack Taylor found himself up against the Prince of Lies himself, while The Devil’s
Playground was the fourth book in the series by Jenna Black featuring exorcist Morgan Kingsley.
Stephen Leather’s Nightfall was the first in a series featuring former cop Jack Nightingale, and a drug-addicted investigator for the only surviving Church in a world filled with
ghosts was the main protagonist of Stacia Kane’s Unholy Ghosts.
Police detective Kara Gillian could also summon demons in Diana Rowland’s mystery Blood of the Demon, and a sceptical homicide detective teamed up with a psychic to solve a
ritualistic murder in Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff.
Johannes Cabal the Detective was the second volume in the series by Jonathan L. Howard, in which the titular necromancer found himself fleeing execution by escaping on a state-of-the-art
flying ship beset with mysterious murders.
Sir Richard Burton investigated a series of sexual attacks in an alternate 1861 London in Mark Hodder’s steampunk horror novel The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, the first
book in the “Burton & Swinburne” series.
Over at the struggling Leisure imprint, a group of travellers found themselves trapped in a snow-bound deserted town in Snow by Ronald Malfi, while a boy befriended a monster in the woods
in Dweller by Jeff Strand.
The government agents of Department 18 had to deal with vampire-like “Breathers” in Night Souls, the latest in the series by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims.
Magus Levi Stoltzfus tried to protect a small town from five demonic creatures in Brian Keene’s A Gathering of Crows, a grieving father was entranced by a legendary sea creature in
John Everson’s Siren, and a group of rich teens on spring break were stalked by serial killers in Bryan Smith’s The Killing Kind.
The teenagers in Nate Kenyon’s Sparrow Rock were stalked by mutant monsters in a post-apocalyptic future. The novel was also available as a 100-copy signed edition and twenty-six
lettered copies from Bad Moon Books.
Reprints from Leisure included John Skipp and Craig Spector’s The Bridge, Gord Rollo’s Strange Magic, Ray Garton’s Scissors, Ramsey Campbell’s
Creatures of the Pool, Brian Keene’s Darkness on the Edge of Town (in an expanded edition) and Jack Ketchum’s Joyride (with an added novella). The late Richard
Laymon’s Friday Night in Beast House was an omnibus edition of two reprint novellas.
Edited by Chris Keeslar, My Zombie Valentine contained four paranormal romance stories (one reprint) about the walking dead by Katie MacAlister, Angie Fox, Marianne Mancusi and Lisa
Cach.
In August, Dorchester Publishing, whose imprints include Leisure, Love Spell and Cosmos, announced that it was dropping its mass-market paperback lines for a revised business model that would
move titles to e-books and print-on-demand formats immediately. Declining mass-market paperback sales were blamed.
Just two weeks later, Dorchester CEO John Prebich confirmed that the company had let go of two of its top editors: editorial director Leah Hultenschmidt and senior editor Don D’Auria (who
was responsible for Leisure and other genre lines), along with all the sales reps. Prebich claimed that the departures were part of the company’s new operating plan, and that Dorchester would
still be publishing scheduled product through 2011. However, the changes came amid mounting complaints from Dorchester authors of late royalty payments and defaulted contracts, with several writers
reclaiming the rights to their works.
Prebich himself left the company in November, as agents and authors revealed that Dorchester was continuing to sell e-book editions even after the rights had been reverted. Robert Anthony
stepped into the top role and immediately reversed the earlier decision to stop publishing print editions.
Dead in the Family was the tenth book in Charlaine Harris’ phenomenally successful Southern vampire series featuring Sookie Stackhouse. The complicated plot
involved the aftermath of the brief but deadly Faery War and a number of more personal problems that the telepathic waitress had to deal with.
Flirt, the eighteenth volume in Laurell K. Hamilton’s “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series, featured an Afterword by the author, in which she discussed where she got her
ideas, and a graphic story illustrated by Jennie Breeden. It was followed by Bullet, in which the Mother of All Darkness attempted to possess Anita’s body.
The Fall was the second volume in the “Strain” trilogy about a vampire plague, written by film director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
Syrie James’ Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker retold Bram Stoker’s novel from the viewpoint of Mina Harker, while a soap opera writer named “Meena
Harker” fell for a talk, dark and fanged stranger in Insatiable, Meg Cabot’s paranormal riff on Dracula.
Credited solely to actress Adrienne Barbeau, Love Bites was a sequel to Vampires Over Hollywood (co-written with Michael Scott).
Humans and vampires teamed up in an unlikely alliance to fight back against alien invaders in Out of the Dark by David Weber, and a vampire saved a waitress from a serial killer in
Murder in Vein by Sue Ann Jaffarian.
An ordinary-seeming suburban family denied their unusual appetites in Matt Haig’s English vampire novel The Radleys, which strangely attempted to hide its genre roots.
Set during Napoleonic times, a 150-year-old vampire tried to cure his affliction in Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha, and a young 19th-century widow discovered she was a vampire hunter
in Jacqueline Lepore’s Gothic novel Descent Into Dust.
Alaya Johnson’s Moonshine was about a vampire in 1920s New York, while an opera singer carried the composer’s musical talent down through the centuries in Mozart’s
Blood by Louise Marley.
Nathaniel Cade was an undead secret agent who had protected successive American presidents down through the decades in Blood Oath, the first in the “President’s Vampire”
series by Christopher Farnsworth.
A vampire agent and a human police detective teamed up to find a killer bloodsucker in Uprising, the first volume in Scott G. Mariani’s “Vampire Federation” series.
Prisoners were transformed into the undead by a covert government experiment in The Passage, the first volume in a new vampire trilogy by Justin Cronin, and Vampire Empire: The
Gateway was the first volume in Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith’s steampunk trilogy.
Blood & Sex: Michael and Blood & Sex: Jonas were the first two volumes in Angela Cameron’s erotic vampire series, originally published as e-books.
Thirteen Years Later was the second volume in Jasper Kent’s historical vampire series that began with Twelve, while The Girls with Games of Blood was Alex
Bledsoe’s follow-up to Blood Groove and involved a century-old feud between a nest of vampires and two beautiful undead sisters in 1975 Memphis.
Terence Taylor’s Blood Pressure was the second book in the “Vampire Testament” series, and Blood Maidens was the third volume in Barbara Hambly’s
“James Asher” series.
Bite Me was the third in the humorous vampire series by Christopher Moore that began with Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck. This time San Francisco vampires Jody and Tommy
found themselves pitted against an enormous vampire cat named “Chet”.
Memories of Envy by Barb Hendee was the third in the “Vampire Memories” series, about a deadly bloodsucker who was turned into one of the undead during the Roaring
Twenties.
Demon Dance, the third volume in Sam Stone’s “Vampire Gene” series, was about a time-travelling female vampire, and The Season of Risks was the third in the
“Ethical Vampire” series by Susan Hubbard.
Latino vampire PI Felix Gomez became involved in a turf war amongst rival werewolf gangs in Werewolf Smackdown, the fifth volume in the mystery series by Mario Acevedo, and Chosen
was the sixth volume in Jeanne C. Stein’s series about vampire Anna Strong.
Vampire Mistress was an erotic paranormal romance by Joey W. Hill, while The Vampire Maker was the fourth book in Michael Schiefelbein’s gay vampire series about Victor
Decimus, who moved to New Orleans.
Blood Sacraments was an anthology of twenty gay erotica vampire stories edited by Todd Gregory, published by the aptly named Bold Strokes Books.
A descendant of the Homo Lupens who once ruled the world was forced to protect the woman he loved from those of his own blood in A Taint in the Blood, the first volume
in S.M. Sterling’s “Shadowspawn” series.
A TV bounty hunter set his sights on shape-shifter Mercy Thompson’s werewolf boyfriend Adam in Patricia Briggs’ Silver Borne, while Wolfsbane was the author’s
second book about female shape-shifting mercenary, Aralorn.
Wolfsa
three International Horror Guild Awards as well as being a twenty-one time recipient of the British Fantasy Award and a Hugo Award nominee. A former television producer/director and genre movie
publicist and consultant (the first three Hellraiser movies, Night Life, Nightbreed, Split Second, Mind Ripper, Last Gasp etc.), he is the co-editor of
Horror: 100 Best Books, Horror: Another 100 Best Books, The Best Horror from Fantasy Tales, Gaslight & Ghosts, Now We Are Sick, H.P. Lovecraft’s Book
of Horror, The Anthology of Fantasy & the Supernatural, Secret City: Strange Tales of London, Great Ghost Stories, Tales to Freeze the Blood: More Great Ghost
Stories and the Dark Terrors, Dark Voices and Fantasy Tales series. He has written Coraline: A Visual Companion, Stardust: The Visual Companion,
Creepshows: The Illustrated Stephen King Movie Guide, The Essential Monster Movie Guide, The Illustrated Vampire Movie Guide, The Illustrated Dinosaur Movie Guide,
The Illustrated Frankenstein Movie Guide and The Illustrated Werewolf Movie Guide, and compiled The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series, The Mammoth Book of Terror,
The Mammoth Book of Vampires, The Mammoth Book of Zombies, The Mammoth Book of Werewolves, The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, The Mammoth Book of Dracula, The
Mammoth Book of Vampire Stories by Women, The Mammoth Book of New Terror, The Mammoth Book of Monsters, The Mammoth Book of the Best of Best New Horror, Shadows Over
Innsmouth, Weird Shadows Over Innsmouth, Dark Detectives, Dancing with the Dark, Dark of the Night, White of the Moon, Keep Out the Night, By
Moonlight Only, Don’t Turn Out the Light, H.P. Lovecraft’s Book of the Supernatural, Travellers in Darkness, Summer Chills, Brighton Shock!,
Zombie Apocalypse!, Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts, A Book of Horrors, Exorcisms and Ecstasies by Karl Edward Wagner, The Vampire Stories of
R. Chetwynd-Hayes, Phantoms and Fiends and Frights and Fancies by R. Chetwynd-Hayes, James Herbert: By Horror Haunted, Basil Copper: A Life in Books,
Necronomicon: The Best Weird Tales of H.P. Lovecraft, Eldritch Tales by H.P. Lovecraft, The Complete Chronicles of Conan and Conan’s Brethren by Robert E. Howard,
The Emperor of Dreams: The Lost Worlds of Clark Ashton Smith, Sea-Kings of Mars and Otherworldly Stories by Leigh Brackett, The Mark of the Beast and Other Fantastical Tales by
Rudyard Kipling, Darkness Mist & Shadow: The Collected Macabre Tales of Basil Copper, Pelican Cay & Other Disquieting Tales by David Case, Clive Barker’s A–Z of
Horror, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles, The Hellraiser Chronicles and volumes of poetry by H.P. Lovecraft, Robert E.
Howard and Clark Ashton Smith. A Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2004 World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona, he has been a guest
lecturer at UCLA in California and London’s Kingston University and St Mary’s University College. You can visit his website at www.stephenjoneseditor.com
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First published in the UK by Robinson,
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Collection and editorial material copyright © Stephen Jones 2011
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to
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I would like to thank David Barraclough, Mandy Slater, Amanda Foubister, Andrew I. Porter, Brian Mooney, Johnny Mains, Philip Harbottle, Sara and Randy Broecker, Vincent
Chong, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin (www.sfsite.com), Peter Crowther and Nicky Crowther, Gordon Van Gelder, Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker, Andy Cox, Ellen Datlow, Charles Black and,
especially, Duncan Proudfoot and Dorothy Lumley for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Variety, Ansible and all the other sources that were used
for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.
INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2010 copyright © Stephen Jones 2011.
WHAT WILL COME AFTER copyright © Scott Edelman 2010. Originally published in What Will Come After. Reprinted by permission of the author.
SUBSTITUTIONS copyright © Michael Marshall Smith 2010. Originally published in Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror. Reprinted by permission of the
author.
A REVELATION OF CORMORANTS copyright © Mark Valentine 2010. Originally published in A Revelation of Cormorants. Reprinted by permission of the author.
OUT BACK copyright © Garry Kilworth 2010. Originally published in FantasyCon 2010 Souvenir Programme. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FORT CLAY, LOUISIANA: A TRAGICAL HISTORY copyright © Albert E. Cowdrey 2010. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, No.688,
March/April 2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
JUST OUTSIDE OUR WINDOWS, DEEP INSIDE OUR WALLS copyright © Brian Hodge 2010. Originally published on Darkside Digital. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FALLEN BOYS copyright © Mark Morris. Originally published in The End of the Line: New Horror Stories Set On and Around the Underground, the Subway, the Metro and Other
Places Deep Below. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE LEMON IN THE POOL copyright © Simon Kurt Unsworth 2010. Originally published in Lost Places. Reprinted by permission of the author.
THE PIER copyright © Thana Niveau 2010. Originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.
FEATHERWEIGHT copyright © Robert Shearman 2010. Originally published in Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts. Reprinted by permission of the
author and the author’s agent, PBJ Management.
BLACK COUNTRY copyright © Joel Lane 2010. Originally published in Black Country. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LAVENDER AND LYCHGATES copyright © Angela Slatter 2010. Originally published in Sourdough and Other Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
CHRISTMAS WITH THE DEAD copyright © Joe R. Lansdale 2010. Originally published in Christmas with the Dead. Reprinted by permission of the author.
WE ALL FALL DOWN copyright © Kirstyn McDermott 2010. Originally published in Aurealis: Australian Fantasy & Science Fiction, No.44, September 2010. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
OH I DO LIKE TO BE BESIDE THE SEASIDE copyright © Christopher Fowler 2010. Originally published in Brighton Shock! The Souvenir Book of The World Horror Convention
2010. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LOSENEF EXPRESS copyright © Mark Samuels 2010. Originally published in The Man Who Collected Machen & Other Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.
LESSER DEMONS copyright © Norman Partridge 2010. Originally published in Lesser Demons and Black Wings: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
TELLING copyright © Steve Rasnic Tem 2010. Originally published in The Seventh Black Book of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.
AS RED AS RED copyright © Caitlín R. Kiernan 2010. Originally published in Haunted Legends. Reprinted by permission of the author.
WITH THE ANGELS copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2010. Originally published in Visitants: Stories of Fallen Angels & Heavenly Hosts. Reprinted by permission of the
author.
AUTUMN CHILL copyright © Richard L. Tierney 2010. Originally published in Savage Menace and Other Poems of Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.
CITY OF THE DOG copyright © John Langan 2009. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, No.687, January/February 2010. Reprinted by
permission of the author.
WHEN THE ZOMBIES WIN copyright © Karina Sumner-Smith 2010. Originally published in The Living Dead 2. Reprinted by permission of the author.
NECROLOGY: 2010 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2011.
USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2011.
Horror in 2010
AFTER ONLY A YEAR, Angry Robot left HarperCollins UK and became an independent imprint, backed by Osprey Publishing, best known
for its military history titles.
In March, the American Borders book-selling chain held off possible bankruptcy after securing two loans, totalling $790 million. This allowed the company to see if its recent restructuring,
which included closing Waldenbooks stores, could halt a continuing decline in sales.
With so many pundits proclaiming the demise of the traditional bookstore in favour of the Internet and e-books, London’s Foyles bookshop defied the trend and enjoyed its most successful
year for more than a decade, with a 9.7 per cent increase in sales on the previous year. It was, however, the first time that the store had made a pre-tax profit since 1999.
Industry figures revealed that the UK book industry suffered a 5.6 per cent decline in sales overall.
For the second year in a row, national SAT results in England revealed that reading standards had fallen amongst 11-year-olds in primary schools. This was borne out by a survey of 2,000 UK
schoolchildren which revealed that 11 per cent of them thought that Albert Einstein was Frankenstein’s brother and one in five believed that Disney’s Buzz Lightyear was the first person
to step on the Moon, not Neil Armstrong. Even more dispiriting, one in six thought Darth Vader’s Death Star was the furthest place from Earth, one in six believed that the Daleks occupied
Britain, and 12 per cent of kids thought that the Battle of Britain took place in outer space.
In the annual rundown of the most popular names for newborn babies in 2009, issued by America’s Social Security Administration at the beginning of May,
“Cullen” was placed at #485 – a leap of almost 300 slots from the previous year, and the biggest increase for any boy’s name. This was put down to the fact that it is the
surname of moody vampire “Edward” in Stephenie Meyer’s “Twilight Saga”. Perhaps more worrying, “Jacob” (the name of Meyer’s buff werewolf) was the
most popular boy’s name for the eleventh year running, while “Isabella” – the progenitor of Meyer’s heroine “Bella” (which itself rated #58) – topped
the list of girls’ names.
Meanwhile, the Pacific Inn Motel in Forks, Washington – home to Meyer’s fictional Cullen family of vampires – opened six Twilight-themed rooms decorated in black and red
Gothic trappings.
Stephenie Meyer’s The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella was about the “newborn” teenage vampire whom Bella met in Eclipse. It was originally
written by the author as an exercise. Published with a first print run of 1.5 million copies, with a dollar from each sale donated to the American Red Cross International Response Fund, the slim
hardcover was also available online as a free download in June, as a special thank-you to “Twi-hard” fans.
British horror writer James Herbert received an OBE in the 2010 Queen’s Birthday Honours list. So, too, did scriptwriter/producer Brian Clemens, whose credits include TV’s The
Avengers and Thriller.
In October, J.K. Rowling was named the most influential woman in Britain. Victoria Beckham was the runner-up, followed by the Queen in third place. Earlier in the year, Rowling donated
£10 million to set up a multiple sclerosis research clinic in Edinburgh.
English professor Justin Cronin’s much-hyped The Passage, a large novel about an enigmatic young girl turned into an immortal vampire (called “virals”) through a covert
military experiment, was the subject of a bidding war amongst publishers, with Ballantine finally securing the rights. Ridley Scott’s Scott Free Productions snapped up the movie rights and,
inevitably, the author was planning two sequels.
A group of four college friends, whose lives had been ruined one night in 1966 during a secret occult ritual, revisited the past in an attempt finally to face their very
different visions in Peter Straub’s A Dark Matter. An earlier and longer version of the novel, entitled The Skylark, was published by Subterranean Press in a 500-copy signed
edition and as a traycased and lettered edition of twenty-six copies ($250.00).
Frankenstein: Lost Souls was the fourth in the series by Dean Koontz, in which mad scientist Victor created a race of evil replicants who recycled their human counterparts into biological
components. From the same author, What the Night Knows was a supernatural serial-killer novel.
In Joe Hill’s eagerly anticipated second novel, Horns, a man let his inner devil loose when he found that he had grown horns and acquired the power to know the worst secrets and
darkest desires of everyone he met. A 500-copy signed and slipcased edition was also available from PS Publishing, along with a 200-copy traycased edition signed by Hill and artist Vincent Chong
(£200.00).
When a preserved giant squid mysteriously disappeared from London’s Natural History Museum, a clueless tour guide found himself caught up in the city’s criminal and magical
underworld in China Miéville’s sometimes Lovecraftian novel Kraken. Subterranean Press did a 500-copy signed and limited edition, along with twenty-six lettered and traycased
copies ($250.00).
The body of an old Native American shaman held the ghost of General Custer after the Battle of Little Big Horn in Dan Simmons’ sprawling historical fantasy Black Hills. Subterranean
produced a signed, limited edition of 500 copies, plus a twenty-six copy lettered and traycased edition ($500.00).
Simmons’ classic Nazi vampire novel Carrion Comfort was also reissued for the twentieth anniversary of its publication, in a revised edition with a new Introduction by the
author.
An alcoholic father returned to the mysterious island where his six-year-old daughter disappeared two years previously in John Ajvide Lindqvist’s spooky third novel, Harbour.
New father and serial killer Dexter Morgan found himself dealing with a group of cannibal killers in the Everglades in Dexter is Delicious, the fifth volume in Jeff Lindsay’s
increasingly silly series.
The Heavenstone Secrets and Secret Whispers were the first two volumes in a new Gothic series credited to “V.C. Andrews®”, while Daughter of
Darkness was a vampire novel from the same long-dead, yet still prolific, author.
Frankenstein’s Monster by Susan Heyboer O’Keefe was a sequel to Mary Shelley’s classic novel that followed the creature down through the years following the death of its
creator. Meanwhile, Michelle Lovric’s equally literary The Book of Human Skin was a sweeping historical horror novel in which sibling rivalry took a decidedly evil turn during the late
18th century.
In A Matter of Blood, the first in Sarah Pinborough’s crossover “The Dog-Faced Gods” crime/horror trilogy, Detective Inspector Cass Jones discovered
that the three murder cases he was working on were somehow connected, including that of a serial killer who could turn himself into a swarm of flies.
Having moved to Pan Books, British author Adam Nevill’s first title from his new publisher was Apartment 16, about a haunted building in Knightsbridge.
The Chamber of Ten by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon was the third book in the “Hidden Cities” series, this time set beneath the city of Venice, while the end of the world
was only the beginning in Coldbrook, a solo novel by Lebbon.
Fatal Error was the latest novel about Repairman Jack by F. Paul Wilson, and a female arson investigator tried to avert the apocalypse in Fire Spirit by Graham Masterton.
Ghost of a Chance was the first book in the new “Ghostfinders” series by Simon R. Green, about agents from the Carnacki Institute.
Gary McMahon’s Pretty Little Dead Things featured psychic investigator Thomas Usher, who looked into the violent death of the daughter of a local gangster. The novel came with
glowing quotes from Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Volk, Christopher Fowler and Tim Lebbon.
In Yvonne Navarro’s Highborn, a fallen angel seeking redemption teamed up with a Chicago detective tracking a serial killer in the first in a new series.
Those who desecrated an Etruscan tomb were apparently torn apart by a large beast in The Ancient Curse by Valerio Massimo Manfredi, while a recently widowed celebrity found himself at the
mercy of his malicious mansion in The Haunting of James Hastings by Christopher Ramsom.
A future Hollywood director filmed his extras really being killed onscreen while battling mechanical monsters in The Extra by Michael Shea.
Former accountant Owen Pitt was stalked by the “Shadow Man” in Monster Hunter: Vendetta by Larry Correia, and the inhabitants of a small Californian town were infested by a
wormlike parasite in Jeff Jacobson’s Wormfood.
Skinners: Teeth of Beasts and Skinners: Vampire Uprising were the third and fourth books, respectively, in the monster-hunting series by Marcus Pelegrimas.
Shift by Tim Kring and Dale Peck was the first book in the “Gate of Orpheus” trilogy, about an LSD mind-control experiment in the 1960s, while supernatural creatures attached
themselves to people in Drift by the pseudonymous “Sharon Carter Rogers”.
Ghost Shadow, Ghost Night and Ghost Moon made up Heather Graham’s “Bone Island” trilogy set in the Florida Keys.
A newly renovated spa hotel harboured ghosts in So Cold the River by Michael Koryta, and in Trish J. MacGregor’s Esperanza, a female FBI agent ended up in the eponymous
Ecuadorian city haunted by hungry ghosts.
When a woman opened a new guesthouse, she discovered that the property came with a pair of resident ghosts who wanted her to solve their murder, in Night of the Living Deed by E.J.
Copperman (Jeffrey Cohen), the first book in the “Haunted Guesthouse” series.
The Fuller Memorandum was the third Lovecraftian spy novel in Charles Stross’ “Laundry Files” series featuring computational demonologist Bob Howard.
Dog Blood was the sequel to David Moody’s Hater, about a plague that sparked sudden rage and killing. Moody’s horror novel Autumn, originally published free
online, also finally received a mass-market edition.
After all of humanity blacked out, one girl partially remembered what happened in Dalia Roddy’s A Catch in Time.
Cat’s Claw was the second novel about Death’s daughter, Calliope Reaper-Jones, by Buffy actress Amber Benson.
In The Devil, Ken Bruen’s sixth novel about an Irish alcoholic “finder”, Jack Taylor found himself up against the Prince of Lies himself, while The Devil’s
Playground was the fourth book in the series by Jenna Black featuring exorcist Morgan Kingsley.
Stephen Leather’s Nightfall was the first in a series featuring former cop Jack Nightingale, and a drug-addicted investigator for the only surviving Church in a world filled with
ghosts was the main protagonist of Stacia Kane’s Unholy Ghosts.
Police detective Kara Gillian could also summon demons in Diana Rowland’s mystery Blood of the Demon, and a sceptical homicide detective teamed up with a psychic to solve a
ritualistic murder in Book of Shadows by Alexandra Sokoloff.
Johannes Cabal the Detective was the second volume in the series by Jonathan L. Howard, in which the titular necromancer found himself fleeing execution by escaping on a state-of-the-art
flying ship beset with mysterious murders.
Sir Richard Burton investigated a series of sexual attacks in an alternate 1861 London in Mark Hodder’s steampunk horror novel The Strange Affair of Spring-Heeled Jack, the first
book in the “Burton & Swinburne” series.
Over at the struggling Leisure imprint, a group of travellers found themselves trapped in a snow-bound deserted town in Snow by Ronald Malfi, while a boy befriended a monster in the woods
in Dweller by Jeff Strand.
The government agents of Department 18 had to deal with vampire-like “Breathers” in Night Souls, the latest in the series by L.H. Maynard and M.P.N. Sims.
Magus Levi Stoltzfus tried to protect a small town from five demonic creatures in Brian Keene’s A Gathering of Crows, a grieving father was entranced by a legendary sea creature in
John Everson’s Siren, and a group of rich teens on spring break were stalked by serial killers in Bryan Smith’s The Killing Kind.
The teenagers in Nate Kenyon’s Sparrow Rock were stalked by mutant monsters in a post-apocalyptic future. The novel was also available as a 100-copy signed edition and twenty-six
lettered copies from Bad Moon Books.
Reprints from Leisure included John Skipp and Craig Spector’s The Bridge, Gord Rollo’s Strange Magic, Ray Garton’s Scissors, Ramsey Campbell’s
Creatures of the Pool, Brian Keene’s Darkness on the Edge of Town (in an expanded edition) and Jack Ketchum’s Joyride (with an added novella). The late Richard
Laymon’s Friday Night in Beast House was an omnibus edition of two reprint novellas.
Edited by Chris Keeslar, My Zombie Valentine contained four paranormal romance stories (one reprint) about the walking dead by Katie MacAlister, Angie Fox, Marianne Mancusi and Lisa
Cach.
In August, Dorchester Publishing, whose imprints include Leisure, Love Spell and Cosmos, announced that it was dropping its mass-market paperback lines for a revised business model that would
move titles to e-books and print-on-demand formats immediately. Declining mass-market paperback sales were blamed.
Just two weeks later, Dorchester CEO John Prebich confirmed that the company had let go of two of its top editors: editorial director Leah Hultenschmidt and senior editor Don D’Auria (who
was responsible for Leisure and other genre lines), along with all the sales reps. Prebich claimed that the departures were part of the company’s new operating plan, and that Dorchester would
still be publishing scheduled product through 2011. However, the changes came amid mounting complaints from Dorchester authors of late royalty payments and defaulted contracts, with several writers
reclaiming the rights to their works.
Prebich himself left the company in November, as agents and authors revealed that Dorchester was continuing to sell e-book editions even after the rights had been reverted. Robert Anthony
stepped into the top role and immediately reversed the earlier decision to stop publishing print editions.
Dead in the Family was the tenth book in Charlaine Harris’ phenomenally successful Southern vampire series featuring Sookie Stackhouse. The complicated plot
involved the aftermath of the brief but deadly Faery War and a number of more personal problems that the telepathic waitress had to deal with.
Flirt, the eighteenth volume in Laurell K. Hamilton’s “Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter” series, featured an Afterword by the author, in which she discussed where she got her
ideas, and a graphic story illustrated by Jennie Breeden. It was followed by Bullet, in which the Mother of All Darkness attempted to possess Anita’s body.
The Fall was the second volume in the “Strain” trilogy about a vampire plague, written by film director Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan.
Syrie James’ Dracula, My Love: The Secret Journals of Mina Harker retold Bram Stoker’s novel from the viewpoint of Mina Harker, while a soap opera writer named “Meena
Harker” fell for a talk, dark and fanged stranger in Insatiable, Meg Cabot’s paranormal riff on Dracula.
Credited solely to actress Adrienne Barbeau, Love Bites was a sequel to Vampires Over Hollywood (co-written with Michael Scott).
Humans and vampires teamed up in an unlikely alliance to fight back against alien invaders in Out of the Dark by David Weber, and a vampire saved a waitress from a serial killer in
Murder in Vein by Sue Ann Jaffarian.
An ordinary-seeming suburban family denied their unusual appetites in Matt Haig’s English vampire novel The Radleys, which strangely attempted to hide its genre roots.
Set during Napoleonic times, a 150-year-old vampire tried to cure his affliction in Blood Prophecy by Stefan Petrucha, and a young 19th-century widow discovered she was a vampire hunter
in Jacqueline Lepore’s Gothic novel Descent Into Dust.
Alaya Johnson’s Moonshine was about a vampire in 1920s New York, while an opera singer carried the composer’s musical talent down through the centuries in Mozart’s
Blood by Louise Marley.
Nathaniel Cade was an undead secret agent who had protected successive American presidents down through the decades in Blood Oath, the first in the “President’s Vampire”
series by Christopher Farnsworth.
A vampire agent and a human police detective teamed up to find a killer bloodsucker in Uprising, the first volume in Scott G. Mariani’s “Vampire Federation” series.
Prisoners were transformed into the undead by a covert government experiment in The Passage, the first volume in a new vampire trilogy by Justin Cronin, and Vampire Empire: The
Gateway was the first volume in Clay Griffith and Susan Griffith’s steampunk trilogy.
Blood & Sex: Michael and Blood & Sex: Jonas were the first two volumes in Angela Cameron’s erotic vampire series, originally published as e-books.
Thirteen Years Later was the second volume in Jasper Kent’s historical vampire series that began with Twelve, while The Girls with Games of Blood was Alex
Bledsoe’s follow-up to Blood Groove and involved a century-old feud between a nest of vampires and two beautiful undead sisters in 1975 Memphis.
Terence Taylor’s Blood Pressure was the second book in the “Vampire Testament” series, and Blood Maidens was the third volume in Barbara Hambly’s
“James Asher” series.
Bite Me was the third in the humorous vampire series by Christopher Moore that began with Bloodsucking Fiends and You Suck. This time San Francisco vampires Jody and Tommy
found themselves pitted against an enormous vampire cat named “Chet”.
Memories of Envy by Barb Hendee was the third in the “Vampire Memories” series, about a deadly bloodsucker who was turned into one of the undead during the Roaring
Twenties.
Demon Dance, the third volume in Sam Stone’s “Vampire Gene” series, was about a time-travelling female vampire, and The Season of Risks was the third in the
“Ethical Vampire” series by Susan Hubbard.
Latino vampire PI Felix Gomez became involved in a turf war amongst rival werewolf gangs in Werewolf Smackdown, the fifth volume in the mystery series by Mario Acevedo, and Chosen
was the sixth volume in Jeanne C. Stein’s series about vampire Anna Strong.
Vampire Mistress was an erotic paranormal romance by Joey W. Hill, while The Vampire Maker was the fourth book in Michael Schiefelbein’s gay vampire series about Victor
Decimus, who moved to New Orleans.
Blood Sacraments was an anthology of twenty gay erotica vampire stories edited by Todd Gregory, published by the aptly named Bold Strokes Books.
A descendant of the Homo Lupens who once ruled the world was forced to protect the woman he loved from those of his own blood in A Taint in the Blood, the first volume
in S.M. Sterling’s “Shadowspawn” series.
A TV bounty hunter set his sights on shape-shifter Mercy Thompson’s werewolf boyfriend Adam in Patricia Briggs’ Silver Borne, while Wolfsbane was the author’s
second book about female shape-shifting mercenary, Aralorn.
Wolfsa
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