The King in Yellow is a book of short stories by American writer Robert W. Chambers, first published in 1895. The book is named after a play with the same title which recurs as a motif through some of the stories. The first half of the book features highly esteemed weird stories, and the book has been described by critics as a classic in the field of the supernatural. There are ten stories, the first four of which ("The Repairer of Reputations", "The Mask", "In the Court of the Dragon", and "The Yellow Sign") mention The King in Yellow, a forbidden play which induces despair or madness in those who read it. "The Yellow Sign" inspired a film of the same name released in 2001.

William Hope Hodgson's "cosmic horror" classic continues the Haunted Library of Horror Classics series. In a ruined house at the edge of an abyss lies the diary of a madman… Two friends on a fishing trip make an unsettling discovery when the river they've been following abruptly ends and reappears some 100 feet below the edge of an abyss. If that wasn't unnerving enough, the river runs along the remains of an oddly shaped house, half-swallowed by the pit. Within the ruins, they discover the moldering journal of an unidentified man—the Recluse—who had lived in the house years ago. Its pages reveal the man's apparent descent into madness—why else would he chronicle haunted visions, trips to other dimensions, and attacks by swine-like creatures that have followed him home? After a horrific vision in which he witnesses the end of the earth and time itself, the Recluse awakens in his study to find nothing has changed—except that his dog has dissolved into a pile of dust. And then the "swine things" return... Introduced by modern horror master Ramsey Campbell as "an enduring classic of cosmic terror," The House on the Borderland has inspired dozens of other classic horror novels and indelibly changed the genre. Influencing writers from H.P. Lovecraft to Terry Pratchett, this 1908 masterpiece shucks the conventions of Gothic horror and presents an eerie mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and the supernatural.

Nine spine-tingling stories from the creator of Sherlock Holmes Mournful cries in an ice-bound sea, a potion that allows the user to commune with ghosts, an Egyptian priest who cannot die, and a mesmerist of unrivaled power. Brace yourself for these and other chilling encounters in The Parasite and Other Tales of Terror. Even before he created Sherlock Holmes, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle terrified and delighted readers with tales of suspense, haunted by mysterious forces that defy rational explanation. These stories capture the unique draw of the uncanny and the curiosity that compels us all to ask, "Could it be true?" Presented by the Horror Writers Association, and introduced by award-winning author Daniel Stashower, this collection illuminates Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's talent for the macabre and the supernatural. The Parasite and the other stories in this collection showcase Conan Doyle at his most inventive, sure to entertain both new readers and his most dedicated fans.

First published in 1923, Jim Hanvey, Detective is a collection of seven stories that originally appeared in The Saturday Evening Post and features private eye Jim Hanvey in classic whodunit style mysteries. Described as the "backwoods Nero Wolfe," the genial Hanvey befriends "good guys" and criminals alike to get the job done. Bank robberies, jewel heists, and all-purposes cons-none are a match for Octavus Roy Cohen's waddling sleuth.

Devoured by the Lovecraftian community and general readers alike, Leslie S. Klinger's best-selling The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft, Volumes I and II were hailed as classics of the genre. Now Klinger returns with the ideal annotated primer not only for Lovecraft devotees eager for a more portable version but also students, literature-lovers and curious newcomers looking for a scare. In "Dagon", one of Lovecraft's earliest stories, the terrifying idea of an unknown being at the bottom of the ocean is introduced for the first time; in "The Call of Cthulhu", the horror spreads beyond the sea. The iconic "Rats in the Walls" relates a journey into the depths of a haunted house and mind, while "The Outsider" is a twisted tale that will make the reader question everything. A necessity for any library, The Call of Cthulhu and Other Stories is an indispensable companion for anyone looking to experience a master at the height of his craft. A paperback original.

Dive into this collection of exquisite, classic horror stories-just make sure to have the lights on and the doors locked! First published in 1904, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary contains eight tales of supernatural horror by genre master M.R. James. Highly regarded as a masterwork of horror, this collection is a must-have for fans of the frightful. The stories in this collection include: "Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book," "Lost Hearts," "The Mezzotint," "The Ash-Tree." "Number 13," "Count Magnus," "Oh, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad," and "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas."

Manfred, the lord of the castle of Otranto, has long lived in dread of an ancient prophecy: it's foretold that when his family line ends, the true owner of the castle will appear and claim it. In a desperate bid to keep the castle, Manfred plans to coerce a young woman named Isabella into marrying him. Isabella refuses to yield to Manfred's reprehensible plan. But once she escapes into the depths of the castle, it becomes clear that Manfred isn't the only threat. As Isabelle loses herself in the seemingly endless hallways below, voices reverberate from the walls and specters wander through the dungeons. Otranto appears to be alive, and it's seeking revenge for the sins of the past.

"It boiled down to a white cop and black me, and he had the 'difference' in his hand." Toussaint Moore is a college-educated, decorated war veteran. Because he's also a Black man, his employment options are limited, so he ekes out a living as a private eye serving Black clients in and around Harlem where he lives. When he's hired by producers of a television reality show called "You--Detective!" to keep tabs on the whereabouts of an accused child molester until the episode airs, the gig goes quickly south; Touie finds the man murdered, and himself framed for the deed. Needing to flee, he goes to the small Ohio town where the deceased was wanted for his crime, thinking the key to the murder may lie there. As Virgil Tibbs would experience years later in John Ball's IN THE HEAT OF THE NIGHT, Touie encounters a whole new level of resistance and racism as a Black man asking questions in a small-minded, predominantly white town. As Scott Adlerberg states in his Feb. 2019 article for Criminal Element): "What Lacy does in Room to Swing is consider a question Walter Mosely would more fully explore years later in his Easy Rawlins books. Lacy asks whether a black man (in the late fifties) can go everywhere he needs to, with the freedom his job requires, in order to conduct the investigation necessary to crack a case."

In 2014, The New Annotated H.P. Lovecraft was published and devoured by the Lovecraft community and general readers alike. The landmark volume included twenty-two stories but there are many others worthy of attention, including Lovecraft's favourites. In this follow-up, twenty-five more Lovecraft stories are re-presented as well as a number of never-before-seen revisions and collaborations with other authors. Included are "Rats in the Wall", a post-First World War story about the terrors of the past and the newly contextualised "The Horror at Red Hook", which has been adapted recently by Victor LaValle. The stories magnify the creative ideas and writing processes of the literary genius. Best-selling author and editor Klinger reanimates Lovecraft with clarity and historical insight, offering a revelatory volume in which the author's story-writing method is uncovered, his vivid dreams are recorded and first drafts of stories are seen in immaturity. In addition to his ground-breaking writing, we glimpse a personal side of Lovecraft: his favourite stories are highlighted and his vulnerability as a young writer is obvious. With hundreds of annotations and dozens of rare images, Beyond Arkham provides the complete picture of Lovecraft's achievements in fiction. No lover of Gothic literature will want to be without this literary keepsake.

"A collection that might have been called CSI: 1912."-Kirkus Reviews The seventh book in the esteemed Library of Congress Crime Classics, an exciting new classic mystery series created in exclusive partnership with the Library of Congress. This short story collection features twelve tales of intrigue and suspense, starring Craig Kennedy, the "American Sherlock Holmes." New York City, early 1900s. Craig Kennedy, a university professor who uses science to help catch criminals, investigates crimes in and around NYC boroughs featuring deaths by apparent-but-inexplicable means. These highly imaginative crimes include spontaneous combustion and vengeful spirits, along with less fatal crimes involving kidnapping, safe-cracking, and a missing fortune in diamonds. With his impressive knowledge, friend Walter Jameson (his own Watson!), and use of cutting-edge technology of the day, Kennedy cracks each case using unorthodox yet entertaining means. Arthur B. Reeve's Craig Kennedy stories were so popular in his time that he went on to publish twenty-six books featuring the professor, who also appeared in comic strips and a number of films. Readers of classic crime fiction will delight in this collection of twelve short stories. Fans of Sherlock Holmes will especially appreciate Kennedy's insistence on logic and science over brawn.

With an increasing distance from the twentieth century . . . the New England poet, author, essayist, and stunningly profuse epistolary Howard Phillips Lovecraft is beginning to emerge as one of that tumultuous period s most critically fascinating and yet enigmatic figures, writes Alan Moore. But at the time of his death, Lovecraft was maligned by critics and ignored by the public. Now, Leslie S. Klinger reanimates Lovecraft as never before, charting the rise of the pulp writer, whose rediscovery is almost unprecedented in American literary history. Following a trajectory not unlike Melville or Poe, Lovecraft s vast body of work a mythos in which humanity is a blissfully unaware speck in a cosmos shared by ancient alien beings is increasingly being recognized as the foundation for American horror and science fiction.

With nearly 300 illustrations and more than 1,000 annotations, Klinger illuminates every hidden dimension of 22 of Lovecraft s most canonical works."

From two acclaimed experts in the genre, a brand-new volume of supernatural stories showcasing the forgotten female horror writers from 1852-1923. While the nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley may be hailed as the first modern writer of horror, the success of her immortal Frankenstein undoubtedly inspired dozens of female authors who wrote their own evocative, chilling tales. Weird Women, edited by award-winning anthologists Lisa Morton and Leslie S. Klinger, collects some of the finest tales of terror by authors as legendary as Louisa May Alcott, Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Charlotte Gilman-Perkins, alongside works of writers who were the bestsellers and critical favorites of their time-Marie Corelli, Ellen Glasgow, Charlotte Riddell-and lesser known authors who are deserving of contemporary recognition. As railroads, industry, cities, and technology flourished in the mid-nineteenth century, so did stories exploring the horrors they unleashed. This anthology includes ghost stories and tales of haunted houses, as well as mad scientists, werewolves, ancient curses, mummies, psychological terrors, demonic dimensions, and even weird westerns. Curated by Morton and Klinger with an aim to presenting work that has languished in the shadows, all of these exceptional supernatural stories are sure to surprise, delight, and frighten today's readers.

"Grafton's novel is not simply a historical curio, but a genuinely offbeat and entertaining suspense story."-The Washington Post The second book in the Library of Congress Crime Classics, an exciting new classic mystery series created in exclusive partnership with the Library of Congress. In this exquisite piece of hard-boiled crime fiction, is this lawyer digging his way to the truth, or digging his own grave? A timeless and propulsive story, The Rat Began to Gnaw the Rope is:For fans of historical crime mysteries and crime classicsFor readers who love the works of Sue GraftonShort, chubby, and awkward with members of the opposite sex, Gil Henry is the youngest partner in a small law firm, not a hard-boiled sleuth. So when an attractive young woman named Ruth McClure walks into his office and asks him to investigate the value of the stock she inherited from her father, he thinks nothing of it-until someone makes an attempt on his life. Soon Gil is inadvertently embroiled in a classic American scandal, subterfuge, and murder. He's beaten, shot, and stabbed, as his colleagues and enemies try to stop him from seeing the case through to the end. Surrounded by adversaries, he teams up with Ruth and her secretive brother to find answers to the questions someone desperately wants to keep him from asking. In this portrait of America on the eve of America's entry into World War II, C.W. Grafton-himself a lawyer and the father of prolific mystery writer Sue Grafton-pens an award-winning historical crime fiction that combines humor and the hard-boiled style and will keep readers guessing until its thrilling conclusion.

A dazzling collection of rare art and documents illuminate the life of Sherlock Holmes beyond the page. As one of the most beloved characters in the English language, Sherlock Holmes sometimes seems to have a life of his own, one that leaps beyond the pages of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mystery stories. Sherlock Holmes in 221 Objects aims its magnifying glass toward a host of overlooked extra-literary objects that tell the story of the famed detective's publication history outside of Doyle's original canon. Drawing on their extensive collection of Holmes-related bibliographic material, Cathy and Glen S. Miranker brings to light exhibits ranging from original manuscripts, handwritten letters, business correspondence, vintage book art, pirated editions, and more, all presented in thematic clusters that highlight their significance to the case at hand. Throughout, the Mirankers invite readers to share in the collector's enthusiasm for the kinds of rarities and oddities that help decipher the appeal of Sherlock Holmes in ways that transcend what can be found on the page.

Following their acclaimed Ghost Stories and Weird Women, award-winning anthologists Leslie S. Klinger and Lisa Morton present a new eclectic anthology of ghosty tales certain to haunt the reader long past the closing page. In Haunted Tales, the reader will enjoy discovering masterpieces like Algernon Blackwood's terrifying "The Kit-Bag," Oscar Wilde's delightful "The Canterville Ghost," and F. Marion Crawford's horrific "The Screaming Skull," as well as lesser-known gems by some of literature's greatest voices, including Virginia Woolf's "A Haunted House," H. G. Wells's "The Story of the Inexperienced Ghost," and Rudyard Kipling's "They." Haunted Tales also resurrects some wonders that have been woefully neglected, including Dinah Mulock's "M. Anastasius" (which Charles Dickens called "the best ghost story ever written"); E. F. Benson's "The Bus-Conductor" (the source of one of the most iconic lines in horror); and E. and H. Heron's "The Story of the Spaniards, Hammersmith" (the debut adventure of Flaxman Lowe, fiction's first psychic detective). Whether the stories are familiar or overlooked, all are sure to surprise and astonish the reader long past the closing of this book's cover.

BESTSELLING AUTHORS GO HOLMES--IN AN IRRESISTIBLE NEW COLLECTION edited by award-winning Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger
Neil Gaiman. Laura Lippman. Lee Child. These are just three of eighteen superstar authors who provide fascinating, thrilling, and utterly original perspectives on Sherlock Holmes in this one-of-a-kind book. These modern masters place the sleuth in suspenseful new situations, create characters who solve Holmesian mysteries, contemplate Holmes in his later years, fill gaps in the Sherlock Holmes Canon, and reveal their own personal obsessions with the Great Detective.
Thomas Perry, for example, has Dr. Watson tell his tale, in a virtuoso work of alternate history that finds President McKinley approaching the sleuth with a disturbing request; Lee Child sends an FBI agent to investigate a crime near today's Baker Street--only to get a twenty-first-century shock; Jacqueline Winspear spins a story of a plucky boy inspired by the detective to make his own deductions; and graphic artist Colin Cotterill portrays his struggle to complete this assignment in his hilarious "The Mysterious Case of the Unwritten Short Story."*
In perfect tribute comes this delicious collection of twisty, clever, and enthralling studies of a timeless icon.
Featuring stories from
Alan Bradley
Tony Broadbent
Jan Burke
Lionel Chetwynd
Lee Child
Colin Cotterill*
Neil Gaiman
Laura Lippman
Gayle Lynds & John Sheldon
Phillip & Jerry Margolin
Margaret Maron
Thomas Perry
S. J. Rozan
Dana Stabenow
Charles Todd
Jacqueline Winspear
*print-version only

"A fun new way to encounter the spine-tinglers of yesteryear." -Booklist A horror classic for the modern reader, presented by the Horror Writers Association. Rediscover the classic and come face-to-face with a creature "born of neither god nor man" First published in 1897, Richard Marsh's classic work of gothic horror, The Beetle, opens with Robert Holt, an out-of-work clerk seeking shelter in an abandoned house. He comes face to face with a fantastical creature with supernatural and hypnotic powers; a creature who can transform at will between its human and beetle forms and who wrecks havoc when he preys on young middle-class Britons. Featuring an introduction by bestselling author Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, the Haunted Library Horror Classics edition of The Beetle is a tale of revenge that takes the reader on a dark journey, one that explores the crisis of late imperial England through a fantastical and horrific lens.

Nightclub singer Margaret Odell, the famous Broadway beauty and ex-Follies girl known as "The Canary", is found murdered in her ransacked apartment, her jewelry stolen. It appears at first to be a robbery gone wrong, but the police can find no physical evidence to pinpoint a culprit. No one witnessed anyone entering or leaving, and the only unwatched entrance to the apartment building was bolted from the inside. Who could have killed the Canary in her locked cage? The victim was seeing a number of men, ranging from a high society gentleman to ruthless gangsters, and more than one man visited her apartment on the night she died. When the D.A. is stumped, he turns to his friend Philo Vance, an erudite and snobbish aristocrat, who applies his brilliant observations of human nature during a poker game with the suspects to determine who in fact knocked the Canary from her perch-permanently.

"This inaugural volume in the Library of Congress Crime Classics series, featuring the first woman sleuth in a series, is a must for genre buffs."-Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) From the "mother of detective novel" and the first book unearthed in exclusive partnership with the Library of Congress, That Affair Next Door follows Miss Amelia Butterworth, an inquisitive single woman in the Victorian Era who becomes involved in a murder investigation after the woman next door turns up dead. Heralded as a perfect vintage murder mystery, That Affair Next Door is:For fans of historical crime mysteries and crime classicsFor readers of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple seriesFor fans of trailblazing women on and off the pageMiss Amelia Butterworth prides herself on being an observer of human nature, especially of the people she sees every day from her usual spot at her front window-that is, until she witnesses the prelude to a ghastly murder. Late at night, two people enter her neighbor's home, but only one leaves. The next morning a young woman is found dead, crushed beyond recognition beneath a cabinet. But her death was no accident-it soon comes to light that she was stabbed by a seemingly innocuous item: a hat pin. Rife with social tension and mistaken identity, the messy case is assigned to veteran Detective Ebenezer Gryce. He expects Miss Butterworth to demurely return home, but she was there at the beginning of this case and she intends to see it through to the end. Miss Butterworth is determined to solve the mystery before the detective, but what begins as a battle of the sexes soon turns into a fight for the ever-elusive truth. Anna Katharine Green is credited as the "mother of the detective novel," and the classic That Affair Next Door proves that the intrigue of a well-crafted mystery is timeless.

Long thought to be statistical anomalies in an otherwise sound justice system, wrongful convictions-we are just beginning to learn-happen with frightening regularity. But very few people understand just how they happen and, more importantly, the consequences. Now, Anatomy of Innocence tells the stories of more than a dozen innocent men and women who were convicted of serious crimes and cast into the maw of a vast and deeply flawed American criminal justice system before eventually being exonerated. Here, each "exoneree" is paired with a high-profile mystery and thriller writer to produce a unique collaboration. By joining such master storytellers with exonerees, Anatomy of Innocence presents the tragedy of wrongful conviction with a stark and fiery clarity.

The follow-up to A Study in Sherlock - a stunning new volume of original stories from award-winning Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger. The Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were recently voted as the greatest mystery series of all time, and they have enthralled generations of readers - and writers! Now, Holmes - everyone's favourite detective, hero and eccentric - is reincarnated in this series of brand new stories inspired by the Holmes canon, by an all-star collection of contemporary writers. The resulting volume is an absolute delight for Holmes fans both new and old, with contributions from Michael Connelly, Jeffery Deaver, Michael Dirda, Harlan Ellison, Denise Hamilton, Nancy Holder, John Lescroart, Sara Paretsky, Michael Sims and more. The game is afoot - again!