Dark Discoveries - Issue #27 Dark Mystery All new Fiction by: Douglas Clegg, Brian Evenson, Maurice Broaddus, John R. Little, Bentley Little, Tom Piccirilli Interviews with: Brian Evenson, Jeffrey Sackett, and Tom Piccirilli Articles on: The Italian Connection: Crime Films of the 1970s by James R. Beach, Nightmare on Main Street: The Mad Slasher Pulps by Frank M. Robinson & Lawrence Davidson, Hannibal Lecter's Reign of Terror by Aaron J. French Jade Sky Comic by: Joe McKinney and Patrick Freivald with artwork from Chris Bell

14 stories by a master of dark suspense who does for the American Midwest what Stephen King has done for Maine. In the title story, a young man working in a video store is captivated when the actress he has lusted after in so many horror films arrives in town hiding her identity. Says crime novelist Tom Piccirilli in his introduction: " T]his new collection, like all the collections before it, is full of atmospheric, dark tales of folks pushed too far, haunted characters trying to clear their heads or their guilt-laden souls." With an afterword in which Gorman discusses the origins of some of his work.

" A] superior example of horror fiction ... a vision out of hell ... an original and awesome adventure that should be read in broad daylight, when one is not alone." - "Publishers Weekly"
"It takes no special critical powers to recognize in Cady an exceptional writer, who is not just promising but has already achieved some remarkable feats." - Joyce Carol Oates
" A] haunted house story ... intelligently written both in terms of concept and style ... Cady develops his horrors with subtlety." - "Encyclopedia of Fantasy and Horror Fiction"
Years earlier, John Tracker fled the insanity of his family and their house, a centuries-old monstrosity that his grandfather Theophilus rigged full of hallucinatory tricks and vicious death traps designed to capture the Devil. Now middle-aged, John receives word that the place is to be demolished to make way for a freeway, and he decides to revisit it with his girlfriend Amy Griffith before its destruction. But when a blizzard traps them inside the house, they will be forced to contend with the dangers hidden within: strange time-shifts, murderous traps, and something evil that stalks the halls in the form of John's grandmother Vera. As the terror mounts, John and Amy will make the horrifying discovery that Theophilus's mad ambition to trap the Devil may have succeeded only too well ...
Jack Cady (1932-2004) has been recognized as a master American storyteller and was the recipient of the World Fantasy, Nebula, and Bram Stoker Awards for his novels and short fiction. This edition of "The Well" (1980), a classic of modern horror fiction, includes an introduction by Tom Piccirilli.

Something illusory, without substance or reality. The sticky threads that communicate the meaningless in a thousand different ways. Collected here are 17 tales of darkness and dread, teetering on the edge of reality and unreality, nightmares and dreams, brought to you by some of the best voices in dark fiction. Tom Piccirilli, Jeffrey Thomas, Barb Lien-Cooper & Park Cooper Lee Allen Howard, Tina Swain, Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Gerald Hausman, Billie Sue Mosiman, Scott Bradley & Peter Giglio, Kealan Patrick Burke, Lori R. Lopez, Jason S. Ridler, Leigh M. Lane, Joe R. Lansdale, Curt Jarrell, E. A. Black, Edward Morris

On the day of his release from a mental institution Pace is taken "hostage" by Faust, Pia, and Hayden, three escapees from the hospital who disappeared after the presumed rape and beating of Cassandra Kaltzas, daughter of the Greek munitions tycoon Alexandra Kaltzas. Each suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder, experiencing complex delusions and sometimes fantastical identities. Pace tries to piece together what happened when apparently one of their alternate personalities tried to kill Cassandra. Pace himself is an alternate of William Pacella, a man whose wife died in a restaurant fire set by a local mobster for insurance money. William Pacella "dies" so that Nightjack can be born-a new personality who may or may not be Jack the Ripper. For unknown reasons, Pace is able to see others' delusions-when alternates take over members of the group, Pace alone is able to interact with each persona. Included among them is Princess Eirrin, a ten thousand year old sorceress and heir to the Atlantean throne; Smoker, a half-breed gunman from 1880s Arizona; Thaddeus, friend and companion to St. Paul; and the ancient Greek architect Daedalus, who soared among the clouds with his home-made wax wings and watched his son perish in the sea. Now the four find themselves under attack from assassins sent by Kaltzas to punish the person who attacked his daughter. Conflicting stories abound about Cassandra-whether she was raped, if she was perhaps murdered, or if she and Pace somehow crossed paths even before the hospital. In fact, she may not even exist. As the attacks persist, the group is forced to face their own personal traumas and terrors, and go in search of Kaltzas in Greece. There, on an island where fantasy, myth, and truth are all entangled, Pace and his many alternates must sift through madness and deceit to unlock the mystery. And everyone may wind up dead unless Pace willingly unleashes the most brutal killer of all: Nightjack.

This lyrical tale of evil, loss, and redemption is a stunning addition to the Southern gothic tradition of Flannery O'Connor and Harry Crews.
A Choir of Ill Children is the startling story of Kingdom Come, a decaying, swamp backwater that draws the lost, ill-fated, and damned.
Since his mother's disappearance and his father's suicide, Thomas has cared for his three brothers--conjoined triplets with separate bodies but one shared brain--and the town's only industry, the Mill.
Because of his family's prominence, Thomas is feared and respected by the superstitious swamp folk. Granny witches cast hexes while Thomas's childhood sweetheart drifts through his life like a vengeful ghost and his best friend, a reverend suffering from the power of tongues, is overcome with this curse as he tries to warn of impending menace. All Thomas learns is that "the carnival is coming."
Torn by responsibility and rage, Thomas must face his tormented past as well as the mysterious forces surging toward the town he loves and despises.