A Selection of Horror Books Released, 1 to 7 Dec 2024

14 horror books this week

Themes: Supernatural, psychological, historical, zombie, ghost, Christmas, apocalypse, and western horror

The Christmas You Get, You Deserve – DE McCluskey

YA Christmas ghost horror collection

In Victorian Times, the telling of ghost stories on cold winter nights was a tradition. On Christmas Eve, Christmas night, or even the Winter Solstice itself, the twenty-first of December.

They had to be ghost stories. Tales of the supernatural, at the time of the year when the veil between the living and the dead is at its thinnest.

Join us for a resurgence of this beautiful tradition, as DE McCluskey regales us with six spine chilling tales of ghosts, demons, and retribution.

The Haunting of Anne-Marie – Brianna Raine

Supernatural horror

When Megan and Greg move their family from the big city to the rural countryside of Kent, they hoped for a new start full of love and excitement.

Unfortunately for them, Anne-Marie had other ideas.

The eldest daughter Cassie notices strange things happening around the house and tries to convince her parents of the strange goings on, but they knew Cassie didn’t want to move, and so put her stories down to her not wanting to be there.

By the time they realised exactly what was going on, it was too late.

Hibernator – Braced Books

Winter horror anthology

Winter: the days get shorter and darker. The air gets heavier. Isolation, starvation, anguish, rest; how can the old haunts of the cold be revisited?

Nine authors with nine different sleepy snow stories. Ranging from cosmic to folk, southern gothic to psychological. Featuring: Mike Salt, Nick Botic, Jennifer Osborn, DE McCluskey, CF Page, Richard Beauchamp, Micah Castle, Jason Huls, and Zack Graham.

Leviathan – Robert McCammon

Historical horror – Book 10 of The Matthew Corbett Novels

It is August of 1704, and Matthew Corbett and his companions have narrowly escaped the island of Golgotha and are recuperating in the town of Alghero on the northwestern coast of Sardinia, currently under Spanish rule. Hudson Greathouse is at his limits, both mentally and physically, after their harrowing ordeal.

Their respite is short-lived when the Spanish authorities learn of their abandoned quest for Brazio Valeriani and the mirror created by his father, Ciro. This mirror is rumored to have the power to summon demons from the underworld, and the Spanish authorities are eager to possess it. Consequently, a professional witch-hunter and soldiers are assigned to accompany Matthew, Hudson, Professor Fell, and Cardinal Black as they resume their quest.

Their only lead on Brazio’s whereabouts takes them to Venice. Unbeknownst to them, members of an established crime family also seek the mirror for their own nefarious purposes, and a betrayal from within Matthew’s cohorts puts the family on their trail. The journey presents numerous challenges, including a close encounter with the French-Dutch war, forcing Hudson to confront personal demons from his past and putting the entire group in grave danger.

Liminal Lives – Jenny Toupin

Zombie horror

Evelyn’s life as she knows it is over. All it took is one zombie bite.

Now one of the undead, Evelyn welcomes a raging hunger for human flesh she cannot control. But she’s not like the others.

Evelyn remembers and recognizes her children, Alison and Xander.

And now she hunts them.

But Evelyn has a secret that could unravel everything Alison and Xander remember about their mother and everything Evelyn knows about her current state.

Minotaur: Stories – Josh Hanson

Horror collection

Stories of the worlds that lie just below and behind this one.

A grieving boy finds a doorway within a burnt-out house that opens onto the past.

A woman researching her dissertation on a famous Irish poet discovers secrets she wishes she could forget.

A red, lichenous growth rises out of the seas and destroys everything in its path.

A boy discovers the crawlspace beneath his house and begins a transformation that he cannot begin to understand.

A couple finds a strange pool in the trees behind their house, seeming to offer pure happiness but unleashing terror.

A small Montana town is invaded by Sovereign Citizen militiamen, and find no recourse but to open the door to the old mine, releasing what lives beneath.

Mystic: The Monk Addison Case Files – Jonathan Maberry

Psychological horror

Gerald “Monk” Addison used to be a soldier. Sometimes he’s a bounty hunter. Mostly, he’s a killer of killers.

His body is covered with the faces of victims of serial killers, human traffickers, and other monsters. Their blood is mixed with holy water and then inked onto his skin, allowing him to relive their deaths. To feel what they felt, and to see what they saw. The faces of the killers.

And then Monk goes hunting.

He is forever haunted by the ghosts who hire him. A madman mystic. A man driven to darkness and acts of shocking violence. Monk is a good man on a dark and dangerous road in search of personal redemption. In search of red justice.

Mystic collects the Monk Addison case files, pitting him against the most dangerous kinds of human monsters. These are stories of a complex and driven hunter of men. They are tales of a mystic hunting the nightmare streets and back alleys.

Red Hill Paradise – Caleb Jones

Supernatural horror

After welcoming their first child into their family and exhausted from all the new responsibilities that come with parenthood, Elliot and Erica decide a trip to the mountains is just what their new family needs.

They find a rental online, a cabin listed as Red Hill Paradise. They arrive at the beautiful, isolated hillside retreat, and everything seems perfect. The cabin is quaint and cozy. The woods are peaceful and the sunset on the hillside is gorgeous. The neighbors, folks who have lived on Red Hill for decades, are strange, but nice.

There are sounds from the trees, though. A quiet slithering through the dead, fallen leaves. Soft whispers of danger to come. Red Hill holds secrets, and this young family is about to find out that this place may not be an idyllic paradise after all.

The Rising: More Selected Scenes from the End of the World – Brian Keene

Apocalypse horror collection

Features a splattering of new stories set within the world of Brian Keene’s The Rising franchise, complimented with original illustrations by Anthrax’s Charlie Benante.

To the Beat of the Drum – Stephanie Ellis

Short horror – Part of Darklings

In December 1646, the city of Chester is under the control of Parliament’s New Model Army. Struggling to recover from the effects of the siege which ended in February of that year, it is decided to permit an old tradition, a procession of giant puppets to be held.

Gilbert Dancer, a chaplain in the army, has returned to this city of his birth and his arrival stirs up old nightmares and lost memories of the time when, as a child, he watched the giants walk.

We All Go Into the Dark – Kevin Lucia

Horror collection

No matter who we are, darkness awaits us all. And no town is more acquainted with darkness than Clifton Heights, NY. We All Go Into the Dark takes you through four chilling tales where fear lurks around every corner, and the shadows stretch long, no matter the time of day.

Zootown: A lost soul searching for purpose stumbles upon the ruins of an old carnival town just outside Clifton Heights. But what he finds in the long-abandoned grounds is far darker than he could ever have imagined; something ancient, something sinister, something that has been waiting.

The Man Who Sits in His Chair: There is a man who sits in his chair in front of his house, just across from The Motor Lodge in Clifton Heights. Why does he sit there? What does he see? A corporate lawyer on vacation will find out, much to his despair.

In the Court of the Spider King: A photographer with a passion for nature travels to Clifton Heights to capture the area’s infamous spiders. What he uncovers in the ruined Freivald Health and Wellness Spa is a nightmare no lens could ever prepare him for: an eldritch secret hidden in plain sight.

To Slip the Surly Bonds of Earth: The disillusioned host of a paranormal YouTube show, Ghost Coasters, heads to the ruins of Raedeker Park Amusements to search for ghosts, hoping for a sign. Instead, he discovers something far worse than he ever expected, something that will change everything he believes about life, death, and the unknown.

Where the Daybreak Ends: Stories from Buzzard’s Edge – Brennan LaFaro

Western horror

Alone in the desert and covered in blood, Josiah Dennis comes across an abandoned town, and two unlikely storytellers burdened with sharing its history-past, present, and future.

Rogue gangs of vampires, young witches, flayed cadavers, giant lizards, and men with dark hearts dwell in these pages, looming over Buzzard’s Edge, a town full of people struggling to survive in an unforgiving Arizona frontier.

Winter Wonderland – Matthew A. Clarke

Christmas horror

Adverts for a mysterious ‘Winter Wonderland’ are appearing across town.

People are disappearing.

The world has gone insane.

Emma Waterson despises Christmas. To her, the festive period is associated with dead children, divorce, and depression. She’s seen the adverts. The TV spots. Heard the radio jingles. She couldn’t think of anything worse.

So why does she suddenly want to visit so badly?

Yuletide Offerings – CS Jones

Christmas cosmic horror short

Deep in the woods, a door has been opened.

Hayley and Clara, two young friends, inseparable since nursery, dream of playing with their favourite Disney ice queen. A childish desire that will set in motion a series of events that will prove that things beyond our world are best left well alone, all while pushing the limits of what a parent would actually do to see their child again.

Published: 7 December 2024