Masters of Horror

 With Halloween just a few days away, I wanted to highlight some of the Masters of Horror Writing that we have here at the library. These are authors that everyone should know.

 

"The name Edgar Allan Poe brings to mind images of murderers and madmen, premature burials, and mysterious women who return from the dead. His works have been in print since 1827 and include such literary classics as The Tell-Tale Heart, The Raven, and The Fall of the House of Usher. This versatile writer’s oeuvre includes short stories, poetry, a novel, a textbook, a book of scientific theory, and hundreds of essays and book reviews. He is widely acknowledged as the inventor of the modern detective story and an innovator in the science fiction genre, but he made his living as America’s first great literary critic and theoretician. Poe’s reputation today rests primarily on his tales of terror as well as on his haunting lyric poetry. Just as the bizarre characters in Poe’s stories have captured the public imagination so too has Poe himself. He is seen as a morbid, mysterious figure lurking in the shadows of moonlit cemeteries or crumbling castles. This is the Poe of legend. But much of what we know about Poe is wrong, the product of a biography written by one of his enemies in an attempt to defame the author’s name. The real Poe was born to traveling actors in Boston on January 19, 1809. Edgar was the second of three children. His other brother William Henry Leonard Poe would also become a poet before his early death, and Poe’s sister Rosalie Poe would grow up to teach penmanship at a Richmond girls’ school. Within three years of Poe’s birth both of his parents had died, and he was taken in by the wealthy tobacco merchant John Allan and his wife Frances Valentine Allan in Richmond, Virginia while Poe’s siblings went to live with other families. Mr. Allan would rear Poe to be a businessman and a Virginia gentleman, but Poe had dreams of being a writer in emulation of his childhood hero the British poet Lord Byron. Early poetic verses found written in a young Poe’s handwriting on the backs of Allan’s ledger sheets reveal how little interest Poe had in the tobacco business." (from Goodreads.com)

"Howard Phillips Lovecraft, of Providence, Rhode Island, was an American author of horror, fantasy and science fiction. Lovecraft's major inspiration and invention was cosmic horror: life is incomprehensible to human minds and the universe is fundamentally alien. Those who genuinely reason, like his protagonists, gamble with sanity. Lovecraft has developed a cult following for his Cthulhu Mythos, a series of loosely interconnected fictions featuring a pantheon of human-nullifying entities, as well as the Necronomicon, a fictional grimoire of magical rites and forbidden lore. His works were deeply pessimistic and cynical, challenging the values of the Enlightenment, Romanticism and Christianity. Lovecraft's protagonists usually achieve the mirror-opposite of traditional gnosis and mysticism by momentarily glimpsing the horror of ultimate reality." (from Goodreads.com)

"Stephen King attended the grammar school in Durham and Lisbon Falls High School, graduating in 1966. From his sophomore year at the University of Maine at Orono, he wrote a weekly column for the school newspaper, THE MAINE CAMPUS. He was also active in student politics, serving as a member of the Student Senate. He came to support the anti-war movement on the Orono campus, arriving at his stance from a conservative view that the war in Vietnam was unconstitutional. He graduated in 1970, with a B.A. in English and qualified to teach on the high school level. A draft board examination immediately post-graduation found him 4-F on grounds of high blood pressure, limited vision, flat feet, and punctured eardrums. He met Tabitha Spruce in the stacks of the Fogler Library at the University, where they both worked as students; they married in January of 1971. As Stephen was unable to find placement as a teacher immediately, the Kings lived on his earnings as a laborer at an industrial laundry, and her student loan and savings, with an occasional boost from a short story sale to men's magazines. Stephen made his first professional short story sale ("The Glass Floor") to Startling Mystery Stories in 1967. Throughout the early years of his marriage, he continued to sell stories to men's magazines. Many were gathered into the Night Shift collection or appeared in other anthologies. In the fall of 1971, Stephen began teaching English at Hampden Academy, the public high school in Hampden, Maine. Writing in the evenings and on the weekends, he continued to produce short stories and to work on novels." (from Goodreads.com)

"Dean Koontz is acknowledged as "America's most popular suspense novelist" (Rolling Stone) and as one of today's most celebrated and successful writers, Dean Ray Koontz has earned the devotion of millions of readers around the world and the praise of critics everywhere for tales of character, mystery, and adventure that strike to the core of what it means to be human. Dean, the author of many #1 New York Times bestsellers, lives in Southern California with his wife, Gerda, their golden retriever, Elsa, and the enduring spirit of their goldens, Trixie and Anna." (from Goodreads.com)

Creepy Nonfiction

 

"Author, investigator, and creature expert Linda S. Godfrey brings fearless reporting to American Monsters: A History of Monster Lore, Legends, and Sightings in America, using historical records, present-day news reports, and eyewitness interviews to examine this hidden menagerie of America's homegrown beasts. Bigfoot, the chupacabra, and thunderbirds aren't just figments of our overactive imaginations - according to thousands of eyewitnesses, they exist, in every corner of the United States. Throughout America's history, shocked onlookers have seen unbelievable creatures of every stripe - from sea serpents to apelike beings, giant bats to monkeymen - in every region." (from Amazon.com)

"In this remarkable true story, the haunting of a Long Island household forces a respected writer and editor to reevaluate the mysteries of life and death as he struggles with the frightening truths of his childhood home and his town's past. Growing up in Rockville Center, Long Island, Gary Jansen never believed in ghosts. His mother-a devoutly Catholic woman with a keen sense for the uncanny-claimed that their family house was haunted. But Jansen never found anything inexplicable in how their doorbell would sometimes ring of its own accord; or in the mysterious sounds of footsteps or breaking glass that occasionally would fill their home; or even in his mother's sometimes unsettlingly accurate visions of future events and tragedies. Though he once experienced a supernatural encounter in a Prague church as a young man, Jansen grew up into a rationalist, as well as a noted writer and editor. Decades later, in 2001, Jansen moved back into the very same house where he had once grown up to raise a family with his wife. This became the first step in uncovering a frightening, full-blown haunting in his home-a phenomenon that lasted an entire year and eventually included unveiling the identities of the spirits who occupied his house; discovering the chilling story of a century-old murder in his hometown; encountering mind-boggling coincidences between local history and events in his own family; and finally engaging in a climactic exorcism with the help of Mary Ann Winkowski, the real-life inspiration for TV's The Ghost Whisperer. The events of that year-in which Jansen's family was terrified of and terrorized by ghosts in their own home-forever changed how he viewed the mysteries of life and death. Holy Ghosts is not only a gripping true-life ghost story but a funny and touching memoir, as well as a meditation on the relationship between religion and the paranormal, which are often considered at odds with each other but which the author shows are intimately linked." (from Amazon.com)

Monster Hunters: On the Trail with Ghost Hunters, Bigfooters, Ufologists, and Other Paranormal Investigators is by Tea Krulos. "Do ghosts exist? What about the Bigfoot, or Skinwalkers? And how will we ever know? Journalist Tea Krulos spent over a year traveling nationwide to meet individuals who have made it their life’s passion to hunt down evidence of entities that they believe exist, but that others might shrug off as nothing more than myths, fairytales, or overactive imaginations. Follow along with Krulos as he joins these believers in the field, exploring haunted houses, trekking through creepy forests, and scanning skies and lakes as they collect data on the unknown—poltergeists, Chupacabras, Skunk Apes (Bigfoot’s stinky cousins), and West Virginia’s Mothman. Along the way, he meets a diverse cast of characters—true believers, skeptics, and hoaxers—from the credible to the quirky. And in the end, Krulos leaves it to the reader to decide: are these people tilting at supernatural windmills, or are they onto something?" (from Amazon.com)

Christopher D. Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph O. Baker present: Paranormal America: Ghost Encounters, UFO Sightings, Bigfoot Hunts, and Other Curiosities in Religion and Culture. "A significant number of Americans spend their weekends at UFO conventions hearing whispers of government cover-ups, at New Age gatherings learning the keys to enlightenment, or ambling around historical downtowns learning about resident ghosts in tourist-targeted 'ghost walks' They have been fed a steady diet of fictional shows with paranormal themes such as The X-Files, Supernatural, and Medium, shows that may seek to simply entertain, but also serve to disseminate paranormal beliefs. The public hunger for the paranormal seems insatiable. Paranormal America provides the definitive portrait of Americans who believe in or have experienced such phenomena as ghosts, Bigfoot, UFOs, psychic phenomena, astrology, and the power of mediums. However, unlike many books on the paranormal, this volume does not focus on proving or disproving the paranormal, but rather on understanding the people who believe and how those beliefs shape their lives. Drawing on the Baylor Religion Survey a multi-year national random sample of American religious values, practices, and behaviors as well as extensive fieldwork including joining hunts for Bigfoot and spending the night in a haunted house, authors Christopher Bader, F. Carson Mencken, and Joseph Baker shed light on what the various types of paranormal experiences, beliefs, and activities claimed by Americans are; whether holding an unconventional belief, such as believing in Bigfoot, means that one is unconventional in other attitudes and behaviors; who has such experiences and beliefs and how they differ from other Americans; and if we can expect major religions to emerge from the paranormal. Brimming with engaging personal stories and provocative findings, Paranormal America is an entertaining yet authoritative look at a growing segment of American religious culture." (from Amazon.com)

New Thrillers

 The newest book from author Kiki Swinson is titled The Deadline. Kloe Mercer is an off-air journalist who covers the tough Norfolk, Virginia neighborhood where she grew up. She desperately wants the coveted anchor desk slot, but her hostile boss and the cut-throat competition means she will need to break a major exclusive. Kloe finds herself with easy access to the dirty truth to a murder on her home turf, but she’ll have to weigh her career against the safety of those she holds dear. When the ruthless cabal behind the murder put Kloe in their sights, they take that choice from her and begin to tie up loose ends. Nowhere is safe and her ambition has become her liability.

The newest Pendergast novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child is called Crooked River. The residents of the quiet resort town of Sanibel Island, Florida are horrified when dozens of identical, ordinary-looking shoes wash up on the beach—each one with a crudely severed human foot inside. Agent Pendergast reluctantly agrees to cut his vacation short to visit the crime scene, but quickly becomes pulled in by this incomprehensible puzzle. The early pathology report only adds to the mystery. No one knows what happened, why, or from where the feet originated. And everyone desperately wants to know: are the victims still alive? Pendergast finds himself facing a tangled web of evidence that spans and ocean and crosses continents. The powerful adversary he uncovers has decided that Pendergast is the ideal subject for the sadistic research they are conducting.

Ted Bell delivers his latest Alex Hawke novel with Dragon Fire. The dashing rake and heir to the British throne has gone missing in the Bahamas. The Queen knows that there is only one man for the job—Lord Alexander Hawke the dashing British gentleman and MI6 legend. Hawke is recovering from horrific injuries he suffered on his last mission when he receives the Queen’s desperate call. All she knows is that the young prince was last seen on an ultra-exclusive resort the Dragonfire Club which is run by the notorious Tang brothers. These twin brothers are known to head-up the Tang Dynasty’s worldwide criminal enterprises. As time ticks by, Hawke must push through his own physical pain to unravel a shadowy conspiracy that may be centuries old.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lawrence Wright delivers his latest with The End of October. Forty-seven people in an Indonesian internment camp die of acute hemorrhagic fever and WHO epidemiologist Henry Parson’s investigation reveals staggering repercussions. At the same time, the deputy director of U.S. Homeland Security is scrambling to mount a response to the rapidly spreading pandemic jumping from country to country. She believes the disease is an act of biowarfare. Already tense global relations crumble as the virus cuts through the United States, dismantling institutions—scientific, religious, governmental—and decimating the population. Henry travels from Indonesia to Saudi Arabia and back to the CDC in Atlanta in search of a cure and for the origins for the mysterious disease. Meanwhile, a rogue experimenter in man-made diseases is preparing his own terrifying solution.

The Wife Who Knew Too Much is the new novel by Michele Campbell. Set among the glittering mansions of the Hamptons, this summer thriller tells the story of the two Mrs. Fords. The first is a beautiful, accomplished, and wealthy beyond imagination. She marries a much younger man and now she is dead. The second Mrs. Ford is a waitress and small-town girl who marries a man she never forgot from a summer romance ten years previous. Now, she is wealthy beyond belief. But who is Mr. Ford? Connor Ford has married two women who have known him as only wives can. Both loved him very much, but who is the victim? Who is the villain? What would you do for love and money?