Allen Ashley (ed.) – Creeping Crawlers

Allen Ashley (ed.) – Creeping Crawlers  (Shadow Publishing, Aug. 2015)

Cover: Steve Upham

David Birch – Spinnentier
Gary Budgen – Scarab
Adrian Cole – Running with the Tide
Storm Constantine – In the Earth
Andrew Darlington – Chemical Glide
Pauline E. Dungate – Mariposas Del Noche
Dennis Etchison – Wet Season
Edmund Glasby – Foreign Bodies
John Grant – Little Helpers
Terry Grimwood – Survivors
Andrew Hook – Us!
Mark Howard Jones – For the Love of Insects
Alan Knott – Dissolute Evolution
Robin Lupton – Guano Dong Baby
Ralph Robert Moore – You Dry Your Tears If They Don’t Work
Richard Mosses – The Tarantata
Marion Pitman – Woodworm
David Rix – A Taste for Canal Burgers
David Turnbull – The Sweet Meat and the Beet

Blurb:
What is this lingering fear of insects, arachnids, arthropods, crustaceans and those that slither… is it a hangover from the survival battles in the savannah or does it go deeper and further back than that in our evolutionary heritage? Unchallenged, the locusts, the maggots, the worms, the flies, the aphids and the termites may consume and destroy all that we have and hold dear. Creeping, slithering, crawling horror, science fiction & fantasy stories by nineteen of today’s top authors.

Paull Finch – Terror Tales Of The Seaside

Paull Finch (ed.) – Terror Tales Of The Seaside   (Gray Friar, Oct. 2013)

Steve Upham

Reggie Oliver – Holiday From Hell
The Eerie Events At Castel Mare
Stephen Laws –  The Causeway
The Kraken Wakes
Stephen Volk –  The Magician Kelso Dennett
Forces Of Evil
Joseph Freeman –  A Prayer For The Morning
Hotel Of Horror
Sam Stone – The Jealous Sea
The Ghosts Of Goodwin Sands
Ramsey Campbell – The Entertainment
The Horse And The Hag
Simon Kurt Unsworth – The Poor Weather Crossings Company
The Devil Dog Of Peel
R.B. Russell – Brighthelmstone
The Ghouls Of Bannane Head
 Robert Spalding – Men With False Faces
This Beautiful, Terrible Place
Gary Fry –  GG LUVS PA
In The Deep Dark Winter
Paul Finch –  The Incident At North Shore
The Walking Dead
Paul Kane –  Shells
Hellmouth
Kate Farrell –  The Sands Are Magic
Wild Men Of The Sea
Christopher Harman –  Broken Summer

Blurb:
The British Seaside – golden sands, toffee rock, amusement arcades. But also the ghosts of better days: phantom performers who if they can’t get laughs will get screams; derelict fun-parks where maniacs lurk; hideous things washed in on bitter tides …

The death ships of Goodwin …
The killer clowns of Bognor …
The devil fish of Guernsey …
The Night Caller of St. Derfyn …
The Black Mass at North Berwick …
The grisly revenge at Brighton …
The tortured souls of Westingsea …

And many more chilling tales by Stephen Laws, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen Volk, Sam Stone, Simon Kurt Unsworth and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

Paul Finch – Terror Tales Of East Anglia

Paul Finch (ed.) – Terror Tales Of East Anglia   (Gray Friars, Sept. 2012)

Cover artwork: Steve Upham

Paul Meloy & Gary Greenwood – Loose
The Most Haunted House in England
Christopher Harman – Deep Water
Murder in the Red Barn
Roger Johnson – The Watchman
The Woman in Brown
Simon Bestwick – Shuck
The Witchfinder-General
Steve Duffy – The Marsh Warden
Beware the Lantern Man!
Mark Valentine – The Fall of the King of Babylon
The Weird in the Wood
Gary Fry – Double Space
The Dagworth Mystery
Paul Finch – Wicken Fen
Boiled Alive
James Doig – Wolferton Hall
The Wandering Torso
Johnny Mains – Aldeburgh
The Killer Hounds of Southery
Alison Littlewood – Like Suffolk, Like Holidays
The Demon of Wallasea Island
Edward Pearce – The Little Wooden Box
The Dark Guardian of Wandlebury
Reggie Oliver – The Spooks of Shellborough
Blurb:
East Anglia – a drear, flat land of fens and broads, lone gibbets and isolated cottages, where demon dogs howl in the night, witches and warlocks lurk at every crossroads, and corpse-candles burn in the marshland mist …

The giggling horror of Dagworth
The wandering torso of Happisburgh
The vile apparitions at Wicken
The slavering beast of Rendlesham
The faceless evil on Wallasea
The killer hounds of Southery
The dark guardian of Wandlebury

And many more chilling tales by Alison Littlewood, Reggie Oliver, Roger Johnson, Steve Duffy and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

See Terror Tales of East Anglia thread on Vault Forum

Paul Finch – Terror Tales Of The Cotswolds

Paul Finch (ed.) – Terror Tales Of The Cotswolds   (Gray Friar Press, March, 2012)

Cover illustration: Steve Upham

Alison Littlewood – In The Quiet And In The Dark
Fury From Beyond
Gary McMahon – Straw Babies
A Bizarre and Terrible Event
Reggie Oliver – Charm
The Grimmest Castle in All England
Christopher Harman – Hoxlip And After  
The Undead Who Wander The Wye
Simon Clark – The Shakespeare Curse
Oxford’s Black Assize
Thana Niveau – The Scouring
The Cannibal Feast
Steve Lockley – Wassailing
Bloodbath Under A Spectral Sun
Joel Lane – The Silent Dance
What Walks In Ettington Park?
Antonia James – Waiting For Nicky
The Satanic Slayings at Meon Hill
Ramsey Campbell – The Horror Under Warrendown
Worcester’s Most Odious Relic
Gary Fry – The Lurker
The Beast of St. John’s
Simon Kurt Unsworth – The Cotswold Olimpicks
God’s Dire Warning
John Llewellyn Probert – A Taste of Honey, A Horror of Stone
Lovell’s Long Wait
Paul Finch – Bog Man

Blurb:
The Cotswolds – land of green fields, manor houses and thatched-roof villages, where the screams of ancient massacres linger in the leafy woods, faeries weave sadistic spells, and pagan gods stir beneath the moonlit hills …

The flesh-eating fiend of St. John’s
The vengeful spirit of Little Lawford
The satanic murders at Meon Hill
The ghastly mutilation at Wychavon
The demon dancers of Warwick
The cannibal feast at Alvington
The twisted revenant of Stratford-upon-Avon

And many more chilling tales by Ramsey Campbell, Simon Clark, Alison Littlewood, Gary McMahon, Reggie Oliver, Joel Lane and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

Paul Finch – Terror Tales Of The Lake District

Paul Finch (ed.) – Terror Tales Of The Lake District  (Grey Friar, Sept. 2011)

Cover illustration: Steve Upham

Adam L.G. Nevill – Little Mag’s Barrow
The Mad Clown of Muncaster
Simon Clark – The Coniston Star Mystery
The Croglin Vampire
Paul Finch – Devils of Lakeland
The Mumps Hall Murders
Simon Bestwick – The Moraine
The Tawny Boy
Carole Johnstone – The Claife Crier
The Monster of Renwick
Peter Crowther – Jewels in the Dust
The Devil’s Hole
Ramsey Campbell – Above the World
Nightmares of Burnmoor
Gary Fry – The Jilted Bride of Windermere
The Horror at Carlisle Castle
Steven Savile – Walk the Last Mile
The Poltergeist of Walla Crag
Peter Bell – Framed
Fiend’s Fell
Anna Taborska – Night of the Crone
The Tortured Souls of Lord’s Rake
Gary McMahon – Along Life’s Trail
The Black Hound of Shap
Reggie Oliver – Striding Edge

Blurb
The Lake District – land of mountains and megaliths, night-black lakes and fathomless woods filled with spectral mist …

The eerie entity on Striding Edge
The living corpse of Croglin
The demented clown of Muncaster
The winged horror of Langdale
The drowned bride of Windermere
The hairy brute of Beetham
The nightmares on Burnmoor

And many more chilling tales by Ramsey Campbell, Adam Nevill, Simon Clark, Peter Crowther, Reggie Oliver, Gary McMahon and other award-winning masters and mistresses of the macabre.

Neil Davies – The Midnight Hour

Neil Davies – The Midnight Hour: 14 Tales Of Dark Imagination (Screaming Dreams, 2007)

Cover Art & Design: Steve Upham

Introduction

The Midnight Hour
Argument
Ribbons Of Blood
The Shadow
When The Fires Die
Photographs
The Perfect Marriage
Road Rage
Virgin Flesh
Death By Popcorn
Frozen Food
Away With The Fairies
Bonding
The Extreme Makeover Of Helen Watson

If, like me, you’ve a fondness for the (then) contemporary shockers Mary Danby ran in her Fontana Book Of Great Horror Stories series, you’re likely have a good time with the laudably unpretentious terror tales of Neil Davies. The introduction is plenty fun, too!

Includes:

Bonding: “I hate your voice because it’s softer and quieter than mine. I hate your hair because it’s a different colour from mine. I hate your clothes because they’re cheaper than mine. I hate your tits because they’re bigger than mine … I just hate you.” What was the boss thinking of when he gave uber-pregnant dog Linda and nice Jill £150 each to blow on a meal as part of a bonding exercise? Linda talks her easy going colleague into splashing out on a happy meal and blowing the rest on clothes as she has a “friend” who’s just about to set up shop in the arcade and will sell designer gear to them at cost price. Jill complies – anything that will make Linda readier to accept her – little realising the older girl has a fiendish plan to do away with her, but slowly ….

Virgin Flesh“It’s hard to find mature virgin flesh these days … too much permissiveness”. A tribute to R. Chetwynd-Hayes and his beloved vampires and ghouls. Janet Stevens is pursued through the woods by the ghastly residents of Oak Church cemetery, overjoyed that they’ve chanced upon an eighteen year old who’s never been shagged! Despite the author’s note that it was heavily influenced by The Monster Club, the story it put me in mind of was E. C. Tubb’s Fresh Guy).

Death By Popcorn California. Another young woman in peril. This time it’s cleaner Crystal Roberts, 17, trapped in an otherwise empty cinema by an unseen sadist. Four girls have been raped and mutilated in the Ravensville area these past few weeks but is this sicko the culprit? And how comes her fellow captive, that nice Richard she’s fancied from afar, is so eager to obey the mysterious voice as it instructs him: “You, Richard, will play the part of the brutal interrogator. Think Spanish Inquisition. Think Nazi. think Witchfinder General”? A convenient, supremely unlikely twist ending adds a tasty Amicus feel to this, probably my favourite of those I’ve read so far.

The Perfect Marriage: The narrator records his every failed attempt to kill his despised wife. She finds his diary …

Road Rage: Jennifer, 22, lands what should be the scoop of her fledgling career in journalism when professional contract killer Harry agrees to be interviewed about his 107 kills (108 if you include the death of Ricky the Rodent, which Harry doesn’t). As he drives her through the Lake District to the road beneath which he buried his victims, the hit-man explains that he’s been forced into early retirement due to the wishes of their restless ghosts …