The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror 19 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 seventeen-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, HP. 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 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, 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, HP. Lovecraft’s Book of the Supernatural, Travellers in Darkness, Summer Chills, 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 HP. Lovecraft, The Complete Chronicles of Conan 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, Clive Barker’s A-Z of Horror, Clive Barker’s Shadows in Eden, Clive Barker’s The Nightbreed Chronicles and the Hellraiser Chronicles. He was a Guest of Honour at the 2002 World Fantasy Convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the 2004 World Horror Convention in Phoenix, Arizona. You can visit his web site at www.stephenjoneseditor.com

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  Constable & Robinson Ltd

  3 The Lanchesters

  162 Fulham Palace Road

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  www.constablerobinson.com

  First published in the UK by Robinson,

  an imprint of Constable & Robinson, 2008

  Collection and editorial material copyright © Stephen Jones 2008

  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, 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 978-1-84529-833-3

  eISBN 978-1-84901-538-7

  1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2

  First published in the United States in 2008 by Running Press Book Publishers

  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.

  9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

  Digit on the right indicates the number of this printing

  US Library of Congress number: 2008931718

  US ISBN 978-0-7624-3397-1

  Running Press Book Publishers

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  Printed and bound in the EU

  CONTENTS

  Acknowledgments

  Introduction: Horror in 2007

  The Things He Said

  MICHAEL MARSHALL SMITH

  The Church on the Island

  SIMON KURT UNSWORTH

  The Twilight Express

  CHRISTOPHER FOWLER

  Peep

  RAMSEY CAMPBELL

  From Around Here

  TIM PRATT

  Pumpkin Night

/>   GARY McMAHON

  The Other Village

  SIMON STRANTZAS

  13 O’Clock

  MIKE O’DRISCOLL

  Still Water

  JOEL LANE

  Thumbprint

  JOE HILL

  Lancashire

  NICHOLAS ROYLE

  The Admiral’s House

  MARC LECARD

  Man, You Gotta See This!

  TONY RICHARDS

  The Fisherman

  DAVID A. SUTTON

  The Children of Monte Rosa

  REGGIE OLIVER

  The Witch’s Headstone

  NEIL GAIMAN

  Calico Black, Calico Blue

  JOEL KNIGHT

  This Rich Evil Sound

  STEVEN ERIKSON

  Miss Ill-Kept Runt

  GLEN HIRSHBERG

  Deadman’s Road

  JOE R. LANSDALE

  A Gentleman from Mexico

  MARK SAMUELS

  Loss

  TOM PICCIRILLI

  Behind the Clouds: In Front of the Sun

  CHRISTOPHER HARMAN

  The Ape’s Wife

  CAITLÍN R. KIERNAN

  Tight Wrappers

  CONRAD WILLIAMS

  Cold Snap

  KIM NEWMAN

  Necrology: 2007

  STEPHEN JONES & KIM NEWMAN

  Useful Addresses

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  I would like to thank David Barraclough, Kim Newman, Hugh Lamb, Rodger Turner and Wayne MacLaurin (www.sfsite.com), Peter Crowther, Gordon Van Gelder, Mandy Slater, Andy Cox, Ray Russell, Brian Mooney, Andrew I. Porter, Amanda Foubister, Sara and Randy Broecker and, especially, Pete Duncan 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 2007 copyright © Stephen Jones 2008.

  THE THINGS HE SAID copyright © Michael Marshall Smith 2007. Originally published in Travellers in Darkness: The Souvenir Book of The World Horror Convention 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE CHURCH ON THE ISLAND copyright © Simon Kurt Unsworth 2007. Originally published in At Ease with the Dead. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE TWILIGHT EXPRESS copyright © Christopher Fowler 2007. Originally published in Old Devil Moon and PostScripts Number 13, Winter 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  PEEP copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2007. Originally published in PostScripts Number 10, Spring 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  FROM AROUND HERE copyright © Tim Pratt 2007. Originally published in Logorrhea. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  PUMPKIN NIGHT copyright © Gary McMahon 2007. Originally published in Estronomicon Halloween Special, October 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE OTHER VILLAGE copyright © Simon Strantzas 2007. Originally published in Strange Tales Volume II. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  B23545_Text

  26/05/2011 16:05:16

  13 O’CLOCK copyright © Mike O’Driscoll 2007. Originally published in Inferno. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  STILL WATER copyright © Joel Lane 2007. Originally published in Supernatural Tales 11, Spring 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THUMBPRINT copyright © Joe Hill 2007. Originally published in PostScripts Number 10, Spring 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author and the author’s agent, The Choate Agency, LLC.

  LANCASHIRE copyright © Nicholas Royle 2007. Originally published in Phobic: Modern Horror Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE ADMIRAL’S HOUSE copyright © Marc Lecard 2007. Originally published in At Ease with the Dead. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MAN, YOU GOTTA SEE THIS! copyright © Tony Richards 2007. Originally published in Going Back. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE FISHERMAN copyright © David A. Sutton 2007. Originally published in The Fisherman. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE CHILDREN OF MONTE ROSA copyright © Reggie Oliver 2007. Originally published in Dark Horizons #51, Autumn-Winter 2007 and Masques of Satan. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE WITCH’S HEADSTONE copyright © Neil Gaiman 2007. Originally published in Wizards: Magical Tales from the Masters of Modern Fantasy. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  CALICO BLACK, CALICO BLUE copyright © Joel Knight 2007. Originally published in Strange Tales Volume II. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THIS RICH EVIL SOUND copyright © Steven Erikson 2007. Originally published in PostScripts Number 10, Spring 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  MISS ILL-KEPT RUNT copyright © Glen Hirshberg 2007. Originally published in The Twilight Limited: The Rolling Darkness Revue 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  DEADMAN’S ROAD copyright © Joe R. Lansdale 2007. Originally published in Weird Tales Issue 343, February-March 2007 and on Subterranean.com, Spring 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  A GENTLEMAN FROM MEXICO copyright © Mark Samuels 2007. Originally published in Summer Chills: Strangers in Strange Lands. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  LOSS copyright © Tom Piccirilli 2007. Originally published in Five Strokes to Midnight. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  BEHIND THE CLOUDS: IN FRONT OF THE SUN copyright © Christopher Harman 2007. Originally published in PostScripts Number 11, Summer 2007. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  THE APE’S WIFE copyright © Caitlín R. Kiernan 2007. Originally published on Clarkesworld Magazine. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  TIGHT WRAPPERS copyright © Conrad Williams 2007. Originally published in Phobic: Modern Horror Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  COLD SNAP copyright © Kim Newman 2007. Originally published in The Secret Files of the Diogenes Club. Reprinted by permission of the author.

  NECROLOGY: 2007 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2008.

  USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2008.

  In memory of the

  Popular Book Centre

  Rochester Row, London SW1

  where I discovered horror fiction

  more than forty years ago.

  INTRODUCTION

  Horror in 2007

  FOLLOWING German media conglomerate Bertelsmann’s $150 million purchase of the remaining fifty per cent share in Time Warner’s Bookspan, which included the Book-of-the-Month Club, the Science Fiction Book Club, and around forty other book clubs, SFBC editor-in-chief Ellen Asher was persuaded to take early retirement and senior editor Andrew Wheeler was let go. They were replaced by Rome Quezada.

  Bertelsmann also announced that it would lay off 280 employees – around fifteen per cent of Bookspan’s entire staff – and integrate the company with its direct marketing group, BMG Columbia House.

  In February a US court decided that Perseus Book Group would take over most of the clients affected by the Publishers Group West (PGW) bankruptcy at the end of 2006. Despite a counter offer by the rival National Book Network, the judge made his decision in Perseus’ favour, with the result that the company would represent more than 300 independent publishers.

  Perseus announced that it was eliminating the Carroll & Graf and Thunder’s Mouth imprints following its acquisition of Avalon Publishing Group. Twenty-four people were let go, while others were offered different positions within the company. Both imprints published their fall 2007 lists (including the previous volume of this series from C&G).

  Meanwhile, in a separate judgment, book distributor Baker & Taylor was allowed to purchase American Marketing Services, which had owned PGW until the sale to Perseus.

  After its purchase by French company Hachette Livre from the Time Warner Book Group, the Warner Books imprint announced that it would be changing its name to Grand Central Publishing. In a related decision, Hodder Headline cha
nged its name to Hachette Livre UK in August.

  Hachette’s UK imprint Little, Brown Book Group purchased independent imprint Piatkus books from owner Judy Piatkus, who retired at the end of the year.

  Small press imprint Meisha Merlin Publishing, Inc. announced in April that it was going out of business after eleven years. Co-founder Stephen Pagel blamed “major distribution problems”.

  In July, Ballantine paid literary novelist Justin Cronin a reported $3.7 million for a new trilogy about a viral pandemic carried by a rare species of bat that turns humans into vampires. The first book, The Passage, is due for publication in the summer of 2009.

  According to a survey published in March, forty-two per cent of British readers found books too boring to finish. Despite the average person spending more than £4,000 on books during a lifetime, over half remain unread. Among the top fiction books left on the shelf, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came second, just ahead of James Joyce’s Ulysses.

  Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the seventh and final book in the series by J. K. Rowling, was released to worldwide hysteria at midnight on 21 July. The eagerly anticipated novel, which featured the final showdown between the seventeen-year-old boy wizard and his evil nemesis Voldemort, included the deaths of no less than seven significant characters and an epilogue set in 2020.

  Child helplines brought in extra volunteer counsellors to cope with an expected surge of phone calls from young fans suffering from feelings of loss and bereavement after reading the book. Unfortunately, spoiler reviews in the New York Times and other newspapers gave away crucial plot points before the novel was published, and various Internet sites posted what they claimed to be pages scanned from the book.

  In London, Potter fans from all over Europe (many in costume) queued for up to three days outside Waterstone’s in Piccadilly to be at the front of the line. Deathly Hallows became the fastest-selling book ever, with sales of 8.3 million copies in the US and almost 2.7 million copies in the UK during the first twenty-four hours. It was published simultaneously in more than ninety countries.

  Among concerns that copies of the book being sold at half-price or less would harm smaller independent bookshops, British supermarket chain Asda almost lost 500,000 copies when publisher Bloomsbury cancelled its entire order in a dispute over unpaid bills. The retailer settled its invoice at the eleventh hour and sold ninety-seven per cent of its stock at just £5.00 a copy, down from the recommended retail price of £17.99.