Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes is among the most famous literary figures of all time. For more than a hundred years, his adventures have stood as imperishable monuments to the ability of human reason to penetrate every mystery, solve every puzzle, and punish every crime.
For nearly as long, the macabre tales of H. P. Lovecraft have haunted readers with their nightmarish glimpses into realms of cosmic chaos and undying evil. But what would happen if Conan Doyle's peerless detective and his allies were to find themselves faced with mysteries whose solutions lay not only beyond the grasp of logic, but of sanity itself.
In this collection of all-new, all-original tales, twenty of today's most cutting edge writers provide their answers to that burning question.
"A Study in Emerald" by Neil Gaiman: A gruesome murder exposes a plot against the Crown, a seditious conspiracy so cunningly wrought that only one man in all London could have planned it-and only one man can hope to stop it.
"A Case of Royal Blood" by Steven-Elliot Altman: Sherlock Holmes and H. G. Wells join forces to protect a princess stalked by a ghost-or perhaps something far worse than a ghost.
"Art in the Blood" by Brian Stableford: One man's horrific affliction leads Sherlock Holmes to an ancient curse that threatens to awaken the crawling chaos slumbering in the blood of all humankind.
"The Curious Case of Miss Violet Stone" by Poppy Z. Brite and David Ferguson: A girl who has not eaten in more than three years teaches Holmes and Watson that sometimes the impossible "cannot" be eliminated.
"The Horror of the Many Faces" by Tim Lebbon: Dr. Watson witnesses a maniacal murder in London-and recognizes the villain as none other than his friend, Mr. Sherlock Holmes.
"With these and fourteen other dark tales of madness, horror, and deduction, a new and terrible game is afoot.
"
The terrifyingly surreal universe of horror master H. P. Lovecraft bleeds into the logical world of Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's champion of rational deduction-in these brand-new stories by twenty of today's top horror, mystery, fantasy, and science fiction writers, including:
- Steven-Elliot Altman
- Elizabeth Bear
- Poppy Z. Brite
- Simon Clark
- David Ferguson
- Paul Finch
- Neil Gaiman
- Barbara Hambly
- Caitlin R. Kiernan
- Tim Lebbon
- James Lowder
- Richard A. Lupoff
- F. Gwynplaine McIntyre
- John Pelan
- Steve Perry
- Michael Reaves
- Brian Stableford
- John P. Vourlis
- David Niall Wilson & Patricia Lee Macomber

"From the Hardcover edition."

Did you know that Bruno Fischer, well-known pulpster who wrote House of Flesh, also wrote under the penname, Russell Gray? This is the second volume from Ramble House presented by John Pelan. It's time to add these stories to your Bruno Fischer library. She-Devil of the Sea, Terror Tales July/August 1938 A Corpse Wields the Lash, Terror Tales Sept/Oct 1937 White Flesh Must Rot, Sinister Stories February 1940 My Touch Brings Death, Horror Stories Dec/Jan 1938/1939 I Said Yes to Satan, Real Mystery July 1940 The Singing Corpses, Terror Tales Sept/Oct 1938 The House that Horror Built, Terror Tales Sept/Oct 1937 Darlings of the Black Master, Terror Tales Nov/Dec 1937 The Devil is our Landlord, Terror Tales Jan/Feb 1938 Valley of the Red Death, Terror Tales Jan/Feb 1938

John Pelan knows what he's talking about when he gets into the shudder pulps. Last year we came out with SATAN'S SIN HOUSE and Other Stories, the first volume in the Weird Tales of Wayne Rogers series and here we have the second volume. John's introduction to this book tells you even more about Rogers the writer and prepares you for yet even more volumes in this series. Here are the stories that await you in volume 2: Daughters of Pain, Dime Mystery Magazine, November 1934 Killer Blood for Sale, Dime Mystery Magazine, November 1936 Doom Flowers, Terror Tales, May 1935 Satan Stole my Face, Horror Stories, February/March 1936 Hell Welcomes Lonely Wives, Terror Tales March/April 1937 Her Lover from the Grave, Terror Tales, November 1935 Dead Man's Kiss, Dime Mystery Magazine, July 1936 Fresh Blood for Golden Cauldrons, Dime Mystery, September 1934 Her Suitor from Hell, Terror Tales, April 1936 Death Rocks the Cradle, Horror Stories, February/March 1937 Satan's Love Bazaar, Terror Tales, July/August 1937

Edmund Snell wrote an almost uncountable number of stories for the pulps, many of them about exotic climes like Borneo. THE BACK OF BEYOND is considered to be the best -- and the hardest to find -- of his Borneo sagas. In it, real people battle the problems of life in the wild and untamed, including the native people. This is a classic of the genre, and a must-have for every serious collector's library. This edition contains an almost-complete bibliography of Edmund Snell's novels and novellas, compiled by John Pelan, who writes the introduction.

Written in 1924, this may be the first exotic thriller written by Edmund Snell, who again takes us into the exotic jungles of Borneo in THE CRIMSON BUTTERFLY. This novel tells a weird tale of hypnotism and sorcery, and features a mysterious insect whose sting is death to man, and whose wings look like pieces of raw beef. It takes all the wiles and courage of the English officials, the natives, and a visiting professor and his daughter, to get beyond the superstition surrounding the Butterfly and to track it to its lair

SOMEWHERE IN SPACE is Volume One of John pelan's new series of novellas and stories by C.C. MacApp. It contains ten stories from the 60s by this traditional SF author who blazed so brilliantly then died too soon. The stories are: The Mercurymen, Galaxy Magazine, December 1965 Tulan, Galaxy Magazine, For Every Action, Amazing Stories3, May 1964 Trees Like Torches, Worlds of Tomorrow, May 1966 A Pride of Islands, If, May, 1960 The Fortunes of Peace, If, September 1967 A Flask of Fine Arcturan, Galaxy Magazine, February 1965 The Drug, Galaxy Magazine, February 1961 All That Earthly Remains, If, July 1962 Somewhere in Space, Worlds of Tomorrow, November1964

Francis James was known for writing novella-length potboilers as headliners for various pulp magazines back in the 30s and John Pelan has collected a few of his best. No one could write preposterous weird menace tales like Francis James and these will prove it: Mark of the Laughing Death, Dime Mystery Magazine, November 1936 Monster's Death Song, Terror Tales, December 1935 Slaves of the Midnight Caverns, Dime Mystery Magazine, July 1937 Arms of the Flame Goddess, Dime Mystery Magazine, April 1938 The Women Who Killed for Satan, Horror Stories June/July 1939 The Unwelcome Dead, Terror Tales, July 1935 Brides for the Half-Men, Sinister Stories, February 1940 Merry Christmas from the Dead, Dime Mystery, January 1937

Arthur Leo Zagat wrote some of the goriest stories ever written back in the 30s when times were bad for just about everybody. They became known as "weird menace" tales which, as a genre, reached its peak with Zagat. John Pelan tells you all about the man and his time in his introduction. The stories in this collection are: The Corpse Factory, Dime Mystery Magazine, Mary 1934 A Lodging in Hell, Horror Stories, February/March 1936 Death Lands a Cargo, Dime Mystery Magazine, October 1935 Death's Mistress, Dime Mystery Magazine, September 1934 Madman's Bride, Dime Mystery Magazine, January 1935 Satan's Bedchamber, Dime Mystery Magazine, August 1936 Soft Blows the Breeze from Hell, Dime Mystery Magazine, December 1937 The Little Walking Corpses, Dime Mystery Magazine, November 1934

ECHO OF A CURSE is the third novel by the mysterious R.R. Ryan that Ramble House has published. The first two, Freak Museum and The Subjugated Beast, are classics of horror and Echo of a Curse follows closely behind. Ramble House has another R.R. Ryan thriller slated: Death of a Sadist.

As the Great Depression lingered on, and the situation in Europe got worse, the readers of America longed for adventure, especially in far-off, exotic places. And no one could write about such places more credibly than Edmund Snell. In this series of vignettes, disguised as short stories, you will find yourself in mortal danger at every turn from the forces of the unknown. Who knows? Maybe the Finger of Destiny is pointing at you?

One Dreadful Night presents a mystery that is deftly woven into the underlying web of supernatural horror. From the moment that a strange face is glimpsed peering from the window of the laboratory at "Restormal," the novel builds gradually to a climatic resolution of sheer terror as the identity of the mysterious woman lurking in the dim-lit corridors is revealed in a shocking denouement. One Dreadful Night is part of that small group of novels such as Mark Hansom's The Beasts of Brahm wherein the elements of the mystery novel and the supernatural tale are blended seamlessly to create a genuine thriller that will keep the reader turning pages while leaving all the lights on

The Library of Death begins at a leisurely pace, and a tone that seems to set the stage for a light romance. But then Ronald S.L. Harding deftly builds the mystery and from the moment we learn of the legend of a headless spectre that purportedly stalks the grounds and rumors of hereditary vampirism the novel undergoes another transformation with the light tone of the early chapters forgotten as horror is piled upon horror . . . So says John Pelan's introduction to this 1938 horror classic.

A Millennium of Terror This is the complete history of the grim saga of the house of Harcourt and the fearful doom which for nine centuries overshadowed it... Running for six parts in the pages of Dime Mystery Magazine in 1935, this epic has never been reprinted before. Includes an all-new introduction by John Pelan.

Six-foot-nine and four hundred pounds, GOON is a one-man gore-machine of the Wrestling Conference. Police captain Philip Straker isn't a wrestling fan. The bodies pile up like dirty laundry: sex-obsessed tramps used as playthings by some unspeakable creature. Straker is determined to solve the rash of rape and mutilation murders with trimmings that beggar description. Reporter Melinda Pierce will do anything to find out, by offering herself up in order to infiltrate the arcane and lust-drenched warrens of backstage wrestling. This human juggernaut, this masked rack of guts, muscle, and mayhem... Is Goon just a wrestler gone insane? Or is he something hideously worse? "A raunchy riot of wraslin', ringrats, and no-holds-barred-sex. A must for hardcore fans of over-the-top action, and outrageous thrills." -Lucy Taylor. Seven Pages of Artwork by noted artist Micah Hayes. Original Cover Art by Erik Wilson. Our edition completely re-typeset and the author's preferred edition.