Download or read book Ritual in the Dark Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Colin Wilson and published by . This book was released on 2020-06-09 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: London is in the grip of a terrifying serial killer who is murdering women in Whitechapel in a manner reminiscent of the Jack the Ripper slayings 70 years earlier. Against this backdrop, Gerard Sorme, a lonely young Londoner, is at work on his first novel, in which he intends to express his belief in the meaninglessness of life. His own life begins to change in unexpected ways when he begins an intimate friendship with Austin Nunne, a wealthy and charming gay man with violent sexual desires. As the murders continue and the investigation unfolds, Gerald suddenly finds himself haunted by a terrible suspicion: could his new friend have anything to do with the crimes? Colin Wilson's classic first novel, Ritual in the Dark (1960), remains a chilling page-turner, a brilliant fusion of thrilling murder mystery and existential philosophy. This edition features a foreword by Wilson scholar and bibliographer Colin Stanley and the author's introduction to the 1993 edition. 'Brilliant . . . Magnificent! Murder mystery raised to major art!' - Chicago Sun-Times 'Exhilarating reading' - The Listener 'What an unforgettable, really great evocation. Terrible and tragic insight ... an important book' - Sunday Times

Download or read book Doctors Wear Scarlet Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Simon Raven and published by . This book was released on 2019-12-03 with total page 234 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Richard Fountain, a promising young Cambridge scholar, went to the island of Crete to study ancient rites and pagan rituals before suddenly and inexplicably breaking off all contact with the outside world. Disturbing rumors have filtered their way back to England, whisperings of blasphemous rituals and obscene orgies, hints of terrible crimes and wanton murder . . . Three of Richard's friends travel to Greece to find him and bring him back. Following a grim progression of ominous clues, they will arrive at last at an abandoned fortress high in the wild and desolate White Mountains, where they will discover Richard's terrible and shocking fate! Chosen by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the best supernatural horror novels of all time, Simon Raven's Doctors Wear Scarlet (1960) is a neglected classic of English horror fiction. This edition features a new introduction by Kim Newman.

Download or read book Ritual in the Dark written by Colin Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1962 with total page 416 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Toplin Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Michael McDowell and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2015-12-11 with total page 156 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: DEATH IN THE FAMILY BUT COME BACK SOON, the sign said. Obviously it was a lie. The people in the grocery store just wanted to make sure he couldn't buy the spice he needed to make the recipe he'd selected for that night (recipes must be followed exactly). Obviously they wanted him to eat out ... to meet the waitress, Marta, ... to see her horrible, unspeakable, unbearable ugliness. It was obvious to him: her maimed, twisted face was the living desire to be dead. He had to help Marta be dead. His teeth are perfectly white. He can't see colors. He keeps a combination lock on his door and has twelve shelves of cookbooks. His walls bleed blood. His suits each have a number, S-1 through S-6. And life goes on. Life goes on, if you can stand it. Life goes on, for the brave and the damned. Life goes on, but come back soon ... "An ambitious novel of psychological horror." - "Publishers Weekly" "Compelling-a tour-de-force of storytelling and style ... considerable artistry, marvelous pacing, and a welcome dose of macabre humor." - "Fantasy Review" "One of the best writers of horror in this country." - "Peter Straub"

Download or read book The Godsend Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Bernard Taylor and published by . This book was released on 2015-04-14 with total page 174 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alan and Kate Marlowe are a typical, loving, middle-class couple, with four young children. But they wish they had just one more, a beautiful baby daughter. So when a strange young woman abandons her infant at their house, they view it as a blessing-a godsend-and adopt little Bonnie as their own. But it is not long after Bonnie's arrival before terrible things begin to happen to the Marlowe family, beginning with the death of their son Matthew. As the tragedies mount, Alan starts to suspect Bonnie and fears he may be losing his grip on his sanity. After all, surely such a small, lovely, innocent child could not possibly be responsible for such horrors ... ? The classic first novel by Bernard Taylor, The Godsend (1976) earned widespread critical acclaim on its initial publication and was the basis for a 1980 film. This edition, the first in over twenty years, features a new introduction by Mary Danby. Taylor's Sweetheart, Sweetheart and The Moorstone Sickness are also available from Valancourt. "If you liked The Exorcist, The Other, and Rosemary's Baby, The Godsend is for you!" - Hartford Courant "The Godsend is a splendidly readable and creepy story." - Sunday Express "A shocker . . . I enjoyed every horrid word of it." - Daily Telegraph

Download or read book The Six Queer Things Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Christopher St John Sprigg and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2018-02-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Desperate to escape living with her miserly uncle, Marjorie Easton eagerly accepts a job offer from the strange Michael Crispin despite knowing nothing of the employment except that it is well-paid and includes some kind of research. Much to her surprise, the "research" involves sEances and requires Marjorie to develop her own psychic gifts to assist in communing with the dead. Soon she begins to suffer from terrible nightmares and seems on the verge of a nervous breakdown, but the real terror begins when Crispin dies under mysterious circumstances during one of the sEances. Who is responsible? And what is the significance of the "six queer things" the police discover among his belongings after his death? A Golden Age mystery with echoes of the occult, The Six Queer Things (1937) was Christopher St. John Sprigg's seventh and final novel, published after his death in the Spanish Civil War. This first-ever reprint of his scarcest novel features a reproduction of the original jacket art. "A rip-roaring tale of mediums, psychic research and the powers of darkness." - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette "[A] hair-raising excursion into the occult, with trimmings of insanity, racketeering in souls, palpitating action, and efficient British-type sleuthing." - Saturday Review "Mystery and horror, laid on with a trowel." - New York Times

Download or read book Gilded Needles Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Michael McDowell and published by . This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Originally published by Avon Books in 1980.

Download or read book Man in a Black Hat Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by E. Temple Thurston and published by . This book was released on 2015-10-20 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "An eerie tale." - "The Mercury" This strange novel opens at a country estate sale, where after a round of intense bidding, Mr Crawshay-Martin wins the auction for a 16th-century manuscript containing the occult secrets of the order of the Rosicrucians. But he does not get to enjoy his purchase long: the following morning, he is found dead inside his locked room, his throat slashed and the book missing. The police write the case off as a suicide, but Crawshay-Martin's friend Dr Hawke isn't so sure. He suspects the mysterious Gollancz, whose face, partly concealed beneath a black sombrero hat, does not seem to have aged a day in thirty years. Who is Gollancz, and what terrible powers of life and death does he possess? Temple Thurston's weird story will keep readers guessing until the final confrontation between the doctor and the Man in a Black Hat. This edition of "Man in a Black Hat" (1930) is the first in over eighty years and features a new introduction by Mark Valentine, who argues Thurston's novel deserves a place alongside other classic occult-themed works of the period by writers such as Charles Williams and David Lindsay.

Download or read book The Auctioneer Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Joan Samson and published by . This book was released on 2018-07-24 with total page 238 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Also includes new afterword by Warren Carberg (pages 224-226).

Download or read book The Twisted Tree Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Frank Baker and published by . This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The "twisted tree" is a blackthorn branch, picked by Tansy Penderil, a naive young Cornish girl, on the same day she meets the handsome but diabolical Roger Chailey in the woods for the first time. But it is not the only souvenir of their encounter: eighteen years later, Tansy's son, David, is the living image of Chailey, sharing not only his father's good looks but also his immoral ways. David's resemblance to her first lover triggers powerful feelings in Tansy and leads to a strange relationship between mother and son, as well as a terrible and shocking conclusion . . . The Twisted Tree (1935) is the extremely rare first novel by Frank Baker (1908-1983), best known for his avian apocalypse novel The Birds (1936) and his classic fantasy Miss Hargreaves (1940). A story that one critic said might have been "written by the ghost of D. H. Lawrence seated on the grave of Mary Webb," Baker's brooding Gothic drama is an important rediscovery that remains a gripping and powerful read. "A dark and terrible tale." - Howard Spring "An imaginative novel told with a haunting sense of subconscious evil . . . The climax comes with startling effect. A vivid and stirring book." - Manchester Evening News "A thoroughly interesting and often moving tale." - Compton Mackenzie

Download or read book The God of the Labyrinth written by Colin Wilson and published by 20th Century. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'He writes a clear, light prose, and he makes his interests, however bizarre, seem important.' - Punch 'One of the more earnest and interesting writers of his generation.' - The Guardian 'He has the kind of story-telling power which could charm the birds off the trees.' - The Journal (Newcastle upon Tyne) Gerard Sorme has been hired by a New York publisher to edit a book on Esmond Donelly, notorious 18th-century Irish rake, friend of Rousseau, Boswell and Horace Walpole, and author of a bawdy work on the deflowering of virgins. Sorme's quest for information on Donelly takes him to the home of a pyromaniac and flagellant in Baton Rouge, the labyrinthine corridors of the British Museum, and a remote castle in Ireland. As he digs deeper into the mystery of Donelly, Sorme uncovers a tale of intrigue, conspiracy, and murder involving a secret society, the Sect of the Phoenix, that dates back to medieval times. But the Sect still exists, and Sorme's researches have not gone unnoticed by powerful men who have their own reasons for wanting the truth about Esmond Donelly to remain hidden. . . . The God of the Labyrinth (1970), the third book of Wilson's 'Gerard Sorme trilogy', is a novel in the mode of Jorge Luis Borges that explores two of Wilson's major interests - philosophy and sex - in the form of a thrilling literary mystery. This edition, the first in more than 30 years, includes a new introduction by Gary Lachman and the original afterword by the author, in which he discusses the role of sex in literature and defends his work against charges of pornography.

Download or read book Wisteria Cottage Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Robert M Coates and published by . This book was released on 2020-02-11 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To Florence Hackett and her daughters Elinor and Louisa, Richard Baurie, a handsome young bookstore clerk and aspiring poet, seems a little odd but harmless enough. With his amusing conversation and his eager-to-please attitude, Richard works his way into the Hacketts' confidence until he is almost one of the family. When he suggests they rent Wisteria Cottage, a charming seaside residence, it seems to promise a summer of pleasant companionship and fun. What the Hacketts don't know is that Richard is a deeply troubled individual, recently released from a mental institution, and that their relaxing summer holiday will soon turn into a terrifying nightmare.... A brilliant psychological examination of criminal insanity, Robert M. Coates's Wisteria Cottage (1948) earned rave reviews on its initial publication and was adapted for the 1958 film noir Edge of Fury. As Mathilde Roza writes in the introduction to this new edition, "the novel has lost nothing of its remarkable power of taking the reader into a disturbed man's world." "A brilliant tour de force."--The New York Times Book Review "Top peaks of terror . . . a grade-A psycho-thriller!"⁠--Saturday Review "As direct and frightening as the uncoiling of a serpent."⁠--Commonweal

Download or read book The Great Wash original U S Title The Secret Masters Valancourt 20th Century Classics written by Gerald Kersh and published by . This book was released on 2015-03-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Journalist George Oaks and his friend Albert Kemp, a mystery novelist, are on their way to meet their friend, the celebrated philosopher Dr. Monacelli. But when a clerical mix-up leads to their meeting the American gangster Monty Cello instead, Oaks and Kemp quickly find themselves caught up in a bizarre and dangerous plot involving a murdered reporter, a missing scientist, and a group of powerful madmen with a plan to destroy the world as we know it. It's a race against time as Oaks and Kemp must infiltrate the villains' stronghold and save humanity before it's too late!

Download or read book The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck written by Alexander Laing and published by Valancourt Books. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strange mysteries abound in a small Maine town. Why did the brilliant, but cruel, Dr. Gideon Wyck perform an unnecessary amputation on one of his patients? Why does that patient now insist that black devils are trying to steal his soul? What is behind the series of monster babies being born to apparently normal, healthy women? And when Wyck is found dead under peculiar and inexplicable circumstances, who is responsible--and why? ​ The Cadaver of Gideon Wyck, Alexander Laing's odd hybrid of horror, crime and science fiction, was an unlikely bestseller and critical success when first published in 1934, and it was later selected by Karl Edward Wagner as one of the top horror novels of all time. This new edition reprints the unabridged text of the first edition along with a reproduction of its dust jacket art and frontispiece by Lynd Ward.

Download or read book Necessary Doubt written by Colin Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A brilliant German-Jewish philosopher, in London, is suspected of being a master criminal.

Download or read book The Sex Diary of Gerard Sorme written by Colin Wilson and published by . This book was released on 1980 with total page 251 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Weird written by Jeff VanderMeer and published by Tor Books. This book was released on 2012-01-24 with total page 2482 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Lovecraft to Borges to Gaiman, a century of intrepid literary experimentation has created a corpus of dark and strange stories that transcend all known genre boundaries. Together these stories form The Weird, and its practitioners include some of the greatest names in twentieth and twenty-first century literature. Exotic and esoteric, The Weird plunges you into dark domains and brings you face to face with surreal monstrosities. You won't find any elves or wizards here...but you will find the biggest, boldest, and downright most peculiar stories from the last hundred years bound together in the biggest Weird collection ever assembled. The Weird features 110 stories by an all-star cast, from literary legends to international bestsellers to Booker Prize winners: including William Gibson, George R. R. Martin, Stephen King, Angela Carter, Kelly Link, Franz Kafka, China Miéville, Clive Barker, Haruki Murakami, M. R. James, Neil Gaiman, Mervyn Peake, and Michael Chabon. The Weird is the winner of the 2012 World Fantasy Award for Best Anthology At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.