The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 24 (Mammoth Books) Read online

  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, Nightbreed, Split Second etc.), he has written and edited more than 120 books, including Coraline: A Visual Companion, The Essential Monster Movie Guide, Horror: 100 Best Books and Horror: Another 100 Best Books (both with Kim Newman) and the Dark Terrors, Dark Voices and The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror series. 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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  THE MAMMOTH BOOK OF

  BEST NEW

  HORROR

  VOLUME 24

  Edited and with an introduction by

  STEPHEN JONES

  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 Ltd., 2013

  Collection and editorial material copyright © Stephen Jones, 2013

  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.

  All rights reserved. This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall 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 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: 978-1-47210-027-6 (paperback)

  UK ISBN: 978-1-47210-028-3 (ebook)

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  First published in the United States in 2013 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: 978-0-7624-4943-9

  US Library of Congress Control Number: 2012944639

  9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

  Running Press Book Publishers

  2300 Chestnut Street

  Philadelphia, PA 19103-4371

  Visit us on the web!

  www.runningpress.com

  Printed and bound in the UK

  Cover artwork: Vincent Chong

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgements

  Introduction: Horror in 2012

  Witch Work

  NEIL GAIMAN

  The Discord of Being

  ALISON LITTLEWOOD

  Necrosis

  DALE BAILEY

  The Hunt: Before, and the Aftermath

  JOE R. LANSDALE

  The Cotswold Olimpicks

  SIMON KURT UNSWORTH

  Where the Summer Dwells

  LYNDA E. RUCKER

  The Callers

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  The Curtain

  THANA NIVEAU

  The Fall of the King of Babylon

  MARK VALENTINE

  Nightside Eye

  TERRY DOWLING

  The Old and the New

  HELEN MARSHALL

  Waiting at the Crossroads Motel

  STEVE RASNIC TEM

  His Only Audience

  GLEN HIRSHBERG

  Marionettes

  CLAIRE MASSEY

  Between Four Yews

  REGGIE OLIVER

  Slick Black Bones and Soft Black Stars

  GEMMA FILES

  The Other One

  EVANGELINE WALTON

  Slow Burn

  JOEL LANE

  Celebrity Frankenstein

  STEPHEN VOLK

  Blue Crayon, Yellow Crayon

  ROBERT SHEARMAN

  October Dreams

  MICHAEL KELLY

  The Eyes of Water

  ALISON LITTLEWOOD

  Necrology:

  STEPHEN JONES & KIM NEWMAN

  Useful Addresses

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I WOULD LIKE to thank David Barraclough, Kim Newman, Vincent Chong, Mandy Slater, Amanda Foubister, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin (sfsite.com), Peter Crowther and Nicky Crowther, Ray Russell and Rosalie Parker, Gordon Van Gelder, Andy Cox, Ellen Datlow, Charles Black, Debra L. Hammond, Douglas A. Anderson, Merrilee Heifetz and Sarah Nagel of Writers House, Nicholas Royle, Johnny Mains, Andrew I. Porter and, especially, Duncan Proudfoot, Max Burnell and Dorothy Lumley for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Ansible, Entertainment Weekly and all the other sources that were used for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.

  INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2012 copyright © Stephen Jones 2013.

  WITCH WORK copyright © Neil Gaiman 2012. Originally published in Under My Hat: Tales from the Cauldron. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent.

  THE DISCOR
D OF BEING copyright © Alison Littlewood 2012. Originally published in Where Are We Going? Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NECROSIS copyright © Dale Bailey 2012. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, No. 701, May/June 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE HUNT: BEFORE, AND THE AFTERMATH copyright © Joe R. Lansdale 2012. Originally published in Trapped in the Saturday Matinee. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE COTSWOLD OLIMPICKS copyright © Simon Kurt Unsworth 2012. Originally published in Terror Tales of the Costswolds. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  WHERE THE SUMMER DWELLS copyright © Lynda E. Rucker 2012. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction No. 703, September/October 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE CALLERS copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2012. Originally published in Four for Fear. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE CURTAIN copyright © Thana Niveau 2012. Originally published in From Hell to Eternity. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE FALL OF THE KING OF BABYLON copyright © Mark Valentine 2012. Originally published in Terror Tales of East Anglia. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NIGHTSIDE EYE copyright © Terry Dowling 2012. Originally published in Cemetery Dance Magazine Issue #66, 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE OLD AND THE NEW copyright © Helen Marshall 2012. Originally published in Hair Side, Flesh Side. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  WAITING AT THE CROSSROADS MOTEL copyright © Steve Rasnic Tem 2012. Originally published in Black Wings II: New Tales of Lovecraftian Horror. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  HIS ONLY AUDIENCE copyright © Glen Hirshberg 2012. Originally published in The Raven of October. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MARIONETTES copyright © Claire Massey 2012. Originally published in Marionettes. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  BETWEEN FOUR YEWS copyright © Reggie Oliver 2012. Originally published in The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  SLICK BLACK BONES AND SOFT BLACK STARS copyright © Gemma Files 2012. Originally published in A Season in Carcosa. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE OTHER ONE copyright © Debra L. Hammond 2012 as literary heir to Evangeline Walton. Originally published in Above Ker-Is and Other Stories. Reprinted by permission.

  SLOW BURN copyright © Joel Lane 2012. Originally published in Where Furnaces Burn. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  CELEBRITY FRANKENSTEIN copyright © Stephen Volk 2012. Originally published in Exotic Gothic 4: Postscripts 28/29. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  BLUE CRAYON, YELLOW CRAYON copyright © Robert Shearman 2012. Originally published in Remember Why You Fear Me: The Best Dark Fiction of Robert Shearman. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  OCTOBER DREAMS copyright © Michael Kelly 2012. Originally published in Supernatural Tales 22, Winter 2012. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE EYES OF WATER copyright © Alison Littlewood 2012, 2013. Originally published in slightly different form in The Eyes of Water. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NECROLOGY: 2012 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2013.

  USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2013.

  This one is for “the boys” –

  Kim, Paul, Barry, Baz and Chris

  – for the lunches, beers, DVDs

  and camaraderie over the years.

  INTRODUCTION

  Horror in 2012

  FOLLOWING THE ABRUPT departure at the end of January of its sole remaining editorial staff member, Dorchester Publishing finally closed its doors after seventy-five years. Amazon Publishing acquired the rights to more than 1,000 titles from the bankrupt publisher, as authors who chose to go with the new company received the full back royalties they were owed.

  Those who did not want to sign with Amazon had the rights to their titles reverted back to them, although Dorchester apparently found it difficult to track down some of the (long-dead) authors on its list.

  Amazon also purchased the Avalon Books imprint, founded in 1950, including its backlist of around 3,000 titles.

  At the end of May, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Co., whose authors include Mark Twain and J. R. R. Tolkien, sought bankruptcy protection with estimated debts of more than $3 billion.

  That same month Terry Pratchett told a newspaper that text messaging and Twitter were damaging children’s ability to write sentences correctly. He suggested that parents should consider restricting access to mobile phones and social networking sites to encourage their offspring to go back to talking to each other face-to-face.

  Despite a reported last-minute decision by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation make a bid, in late October it was announced that Pearson’s Penguin imprint would be merged with Bertelsmann’s Random House to create Penguin Random House. The deal was not expected to be finalised until the second half of 2013, and the new company would control a 25% market share of book sales in the English language and generate estimated annual revenues of around £2.5 billion.

  Meanwhile, Poland’s Catholic Archbishop Andrzej Dziega branded Hallowe’en “irresponsible and anti-Christian fun”. Despite the growing popularity in his home country for carving pumpkins and dressing up on October 31st, he complained that the celebration introduced young people to “a world of darkness, including devils, vampires and demons”.

  As that was kind of the point, in 2012 a record $8 billion was spent by Americans – notably an increasing numbers of adults – at Hallowe’en, making it the second biggest consumer spend for decorations after Christmas.

  James Herbert brought back his psychic investigator David Ash from Haunted and The Ghosts of Sleath to investigate a series of hauntings at Scotland’s Comraich Castle in Ash. In the UK, publisher Macmillan issued a free chapbook sampler of the novel.

  About an all-American family hiding a terrible secret involving their twin children, Stephen King praised Breed by Chase Novak (aka best-seller Scott Spencer) as “a total blast”.

  R. L. Stine’s first adult novel, Red Rain, was about a woman who took a pair of orphaned twins into her home with gruesome results, and a young captive fought back against his sadistic abductor in Joyce Carol Oates’s harrowing Daddy Love.

  Strange happenings surrounded an archaeological dig at an Egyptian pharaoh’s tomb in Lincoln Child’s thriller The Third Gate, while Vlad the Impaler ended up in modern-day Mexico City in Carlos Fuentes’s literary novel Vlad, originally published in Spanish in 2010.

  A former journalist may have murdered his wife in Gillian Flynn’s best-seller Gone Girl, which relied on the trick of an unreliable narrator.

  Odd Apocalypse was the fifth in the series by Dean Koontz, while the author’s Odd Interlude was originally serialised in three parts in e-book format.

  The Wrath of Angels was the eleventh in John Connolly’s Charlie Parker series.

  Tim Powers’s historical chiller Hide Me Among the Graves was a sequel-of-sorts to his 1989 novel The Stress of Her Regard, as Pre-Raphaelite siblings Christina Rossetti and Dante Gabriel were haunted by the vampiric ghost of their uncle, John Polidori, and the undead incarnation of Dante’s late wife.

  Photographer Cass Neary found herself involved in ancient Icelandic myths and the hunt for a serial killer in Elizabeth Hand’s Available Dark, a sequel to the author’s Generation Loss, while the schizophrenic narrator of Caitlín R. Kiernan’s The Drowning Girl: A Memoir was haunted by a ghostly woman she found wandering naked near a river.

  A sixteen-year-old boy searched for his missing father amongst a vaudeville show that hid a terrible secret in Robert Jackson Bennett’s The Troupe.

  A film-maker was commissioned to make a documentary about a notorious cult in Adam Nevill’s Last Days, and police detective Cass Jones finally discovered the true origins behind the shadowy cabal of The Network in The Chos
en Seed, the third volume in Sarah Pinborough’s ambitious The Dog-Faced Gods trilogy of crime/supernatural thrillers.

  A paranoid schizophrenic started to believe his monsters were real in The Hollow City by Dan Wells, while a hungry devil stalked the halls of a medical institution in Victor LaValle’s The Devil in Silver.

  A new manager and his daughter found themselves dealing with the ghostly inhabitants of the Deadfall Hotel in Steve Rasnic Tem’s often touching novel.

  Chaz Brenchley’s House of Bella was the third in the Keys to D’Esperance series and, under his pseudonym Ben Macallan, Pandaemonium was the urban fantasy follow-up to Desdaemona.

  Simon R. Green’s Live and Let Drood was the sixth volume in the Secret Histories series about the Drood family and their ongoing battle against the forces of darkness.

  Dave Zeltserman’s Monster: A Novel of Frankenstein was a revisionist version of Mary Shelley’s novel, as narrated by the scientist’s creation, while a group of teens teamed up to track down a monster killing high school girls in Brian McGreevey’s Hemlock Grove.

  An old Hollywood movie monster came to life and started killing in Heather Graham’s The Unholy, featuring FBI paranormal forensics investigator Sean Cameron. Meanwhile, paranormal investigator Katya Sokolov investigated a series of undersea deaths around a legendary shipwreck in the same author’s The Unspoken.

  Guy Adams’s Sherlock Holmes: The Army of Dr. Moreau pitted the great detective against the beast-men from H. G. Wells’s novel.

  The formula that created Jack the Ripper was rediscovered in Ripper, the latest thriller in David L. Roper’s Event Group series, and a super-secret military force protected the USA against supernatural threats in Seal Team 666 by Weston Ochse.

  Survivors of the sinking of the Titanic found greater horrors awaiting them on the rescue ship in Matt Forbeck’s Carpathia, and Harper Blaine investigated the reappearance of a mysterious lost ship in Kat Richardson’s Seawitch, the seventh title in the Greywalker series.

  People were vanishing from a mist-shrouded northern town in Simon Bestwick’s The Faceless, while Gary McMa-hon concluded his Concrete Grove Trilogy, about the eponymous haunted housing estate, with Silent Voices and Beyond Here Lies Nothing.