Just in Time for Halloween

The arrival of October means many of you will be looking for ways to scare yourselves silly.  In addition to visiting haunted houses, watching horror movies, and spending time with your in-laws (just kidding), you will probably want to sink your teeth into some good horror fiction.  Authors like Stephen King and Clive Barker are icons of the genre, but there are a number of authors writing good horror fiction.  Consider tackling one of these tantalizing tales of terror.  The annotations are publisher descriptions.

A Book of Horrors

A collection of original horror and dark fantasy from the world's best writers, including Stephen King and John Ajvide Lindqvist.  Many of us grew up on The Pan Book of Horror Stories and its later incarnations, Dark Voices and Dark Terrors (The Gollancz Book of Horror), which won the World Fantasy Award, the Horror Critics' Guild Award and the British Fantasy Award, but for a decade or more there has been no non-themed anthology of original horror fiction published in the mainstream. Now that horror has returned to the bookshelves, it is time for a regular anthology of brand-new fiction by the best and brightest in the field, both the big names and the most talented newcomers.

Nocturnal  by Scott Sigler

Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind.  How else to explain the dreams he keeps having--dreams that mirror, with impossible accuracy, the gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? Doubting his own sanity and stripped of his badge, Bryan begins to suspect that he's stumbled into the crosshairs of a shadow war that has gripped his city for more than a century--a war waged by a race of killers living in San Francisco's unknown, underground ruins, emerging at night to feed on those who will not be missed.  And as Bryan learns the truth about his own intimate connections to the killings, he discovers that those who matter most to him are in mortal danger...and that he may be the only man gifted--or cursed--with the power to do battle with the "nocturnals."

The Ritual  by Adam Nevill

When four old university friends set off into the Scandinavian wilderness of the Arctic Circle, they aim to briefly escape the problems of their lives and reconnect with one another. But when Luke, the only man still single and living a precarious existence, finds he has little left in common with his well-heeled friends, tensions rise. With limited experience between them, a shortcut meant to ease their hike turns into a nightmare scenario that could cost them their lives. Lost, hungry, and surrounded by forest untouched for millennia, Luke figures things couldn't possibly get any worse. But then they stumble across an old habitation. Ancient artifacts decorate the walls and there are bones scattered upon the dry floors. The residue of old rites and pagan sacrifice for something that still exists in the forest. Something responsible for the bestial presence that follows their every step. As the four friends stagger in the direction of salvation, they learn that death doesn't come easy among these ancient trees . . .

The Watchers  by Jon Steele

Beneath Lausanne Cathedral, in Switzerland, there is a secret buried before time began, something unknown to angels and men, until now...  Marc Rochat watches over the city at night from the belfry of the cathedral. He lives in a world of shadows and "beforetimes" and imaginary beings.  Katherine Taylor, call girl and daydreamer, is about to discover that her real-life fairy tale is too good to be true.  Jay Harper, private detective, wakes up in a crummy hotel room with no memory. When the telephone rings and he's offered a job, he knows he has no choice but to accept. Three lives, one purpose: save what's left of paradise before all hell breaks loose.