Horror & Dark Fantasy 2005

File Updated: 23/10/2005

Tangled Web UK: New Horror & Dark Fantasy Titles 2005

Laurell K. Hamilton Seduced by Moonlight Pbk published February 2005 by Bantam at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0-553 81632 2

Some know me as Meredith Gentry, P.L, others as Princess Merry, heir to the throne of Faerie. There are those who whisper that I am yet more. They fear me. And who can blame them? I seem to have awakened a dazzling magic that’s slumbered for thousands of years. If only I knew why.

My aunt, the Queen of Air and Darkness, has turned her malign gaze full upon me. While no child has come of decadent nights spent with my immortal guards, something else has happened to me.
It all began with the chalice. I dreamed of it and there it was when I awoke. My guards know this ancient relic well, for its disappearance so very long ago stripped them of their vital powers. And now it’s back. My touch resonates with its force, a magic that courses near uncontrollably through my half-mortal half-fey body.
Some cherish me for this unexpected gift yet others loathe me for it. They would rather the Unseelie court suffered further agonies than have it ruled by me, a mongrel queen. But they do not know what I am capable of. Then again, neither do I.
Full of gods, shapeshifters and immortal souls, of decadent pleasures and wild magic, of treachery, deceit and dark powers unleashed, the twilight world of Meredith Gentry is a dangerously alluring place. You have been warned...
Acclaim for Laurell K. Hamilton’s Meredith Gentry novels:
‘Relentless high-paced trashiness ... good fun’ SFX
‘A gloriously erotic, funny and horrific novel ... but it’s probably not one for your granny’ Shivers
‘Erotic, magical, violent, sensual and thrilling ... an extra-ordinary tale of a Faerie in hiding as a private investigator in LA, and is quite simply delicious’ Bookseller
‘An alternative and certainly kinky twist to the traditional whodunnit ... a fun read’ The Times
‘Her sexy, edgy, wickedly ironic style sweeps the reader into her unique world and delivers red-hot entertainment - she blends the genres of romance, horror and adventure with stunning panache’ Jayne Anne Krentz
‘Wonderful... vastly enjoyable, good fun and highly sensual. It’s a fascinating new universe with lots of potential stories waiting to be told’ alienonline
‘Every bit as seductive and terrifying as the Vampires of her earlier books ... the action, violent and sexual, comes fast and furious ... this series is proof not only of Laurell K. Hamilton’s immense storytelling abilities, but also of her continued development of contemporary dark fantasy and horror’ Enigma magazine
‘A sizzling new series that blends supernatural fantasy with detective adventure .., Memorable characters and wicked wit make it all delicious, ribald fun’ Publishers Weekly
‘Oozing with sensuality ... steamy sex scenes that are wonderfully touchy-feely’ Starburst
‘An edgy story of sex, violence and magic that manages to be both disturbing and entertaining. Highly recommended’ Library Journal
‘A wonderful excursion into the magic of desire’ Alice Borchardt
About The Author
Laurell K. Hamilton is the bestselling author of nine acclaimed Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter novels. She lives in Arnold, Missouri, with her husband, her daughter, two attack pugs, three birds, and a partridge in a pear tree.

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by Laurell K. Hamilton at Amazon.co.uk

M John Harrison Anima Pbk published April 2005 by Gollancz at Ł8.99 ISBN: 0 575 07594 5

ANIMA When a writer like M. John Harrison looks at love, you know the results will be unusual and compelling, evocative and imaginative, dark, depressing and transcendent. Here in one volume are his two classic love stories, Signs Of Life and The Course Of The Heart, fantastical romances, quests, thrillers - and wholely M. John Harrison. ..
ANIMA Love will never be the same again.
‘His books are fictions of elegant delirium, dark and transcendent by turns ... exquisitely wrought and brilliantly imagined, erotic, chilling, visionary: the work of a great imaginer and an extraordinary writer’ Clive Barker
‘The complex but unhesitant shuttle of Harrison’s overlapping narrative draws us remorselessy towards the revelation of a great secret’ lain Sinclair
‘Harrison’s imagination is merciless. His fiction is a scalpel slicing through the skin of the world to make dissections both strange and familiar ... putting him in the company of Ian McEwan and Peter Carey, but he is grittier than Carey and wittier than McEwan’ Times Literary Supplement
About The Author
M. John Harrison was born in 1945. His first story appeared in 1966, and he subsequently became closely involved in the magazine New Worlds during the late sixties, when it was under the editorship of Michael Moorcock. As well as writing stories he also wrote criticism for the magazine, and spent some time as its literary editor. His first published novel was The Committed Men (1971). The Pastel City was the first of his books about Viriconium, and he revisited the city several times during the eighties. His fifth book, In Viriconium, was shortlisted for the Guardian Fiction Prize and his sixth, Climbers, won the Boardman Tasker Award in 1989. In 1999 he received the Richard Evans Award. He has written for several periodicals including the Spectator, and currently reviews new fiction for the TLS. M. John Harrison lives in South London.

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by M John Harrison at Amazon.co.uk

Tanya Huff Blood Debt Pbk published December 2004 by Orbit at Ł6.99 ISBN: 1-84149-360 0

Sooner or later everyone pays
A very different underworld
It began with a ghost in his bedroom. A tormented soul hungry for vengeance. The sort of nocturnal visitation that even a five-hundred-year-old vampire like Henry Fitzroy found tiresome. It would lead Vicki Nelson. PI. into her most deadly investigation yet.
The wraith is determined that Henry and Vicki track down its killer - and is prepared to use a little persuasion by way of the innocent iInhabitants of Toronto to ensure their support. Forced to investigate, Vicki discovers a host of souls in desperate torment and evidence to suggest that trailing the killer will only lead to further deaths - starting with her own.

About The Author
Although she left Nova Scotia at three, and has lived most of her life since in Ontario, Tanya Huff still considers herself a Maritimer. On the way to the idyllic rural existence she shares with her partner Fiona Parton, six cats, and a Chihuahua, she acquired a degree in Radio and Television Arts and has written nonerous novels and collections of short stories.

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by Tanya Huff at Amazon.co.uk

Tanya Huff Blood Pact Pbk published December 2004 by Orbit at Ł6.99 ISBN: 1-84149-359 7

Always read the fine print
A very different underworld
It began as it so often did, with a body. Only this time death struck close to home for Vicki Nelson. The victim was her mother. And what at first seemed no mere than a tragic natural death was about to become the most terrifying case of her career.
For Vicki and her sometime lover, the vampire Henry Fitzroy, have discovered something suspicious in her mother’s demise. Vicki fees unable to deal with her grief until she’s investigated what happened. But she soon discovers that it’s not just memories that can be difficult to lay to rest.

About The Author
Although she left Nova Scotia at three, and has lived most of her life since in Ontario, Tanya Huff still considers herself a Maritimer. On the way to the idyllic rural existence she shares with her partner Fiona Parton, six cats, and a Chihuahua, she acquired a degree in Radio and Television Arts and has written nonerous novels and collections of short stories.

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by Tanya Huff at Amazon.co.uk

Peter Straub In the Night Room Pbk published July 2005 by Harpercollins at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0007184425

On the surface Willy Patrick’s future is rosy. She’s just won a prestigious prize for her latest children’s book, and she’s about to marry a handsome and successful man, following the shocking murder of her husband and daughter two years ago. But Willy fears she may be going mad. She keeps hearing her daughter’s voice calling for help, and is becoming convinced that her child is in fact still alive and in need of rescue. Than she begins to suspect that her mysterious fiancé may be have been involved in the murder of her family...
Meanwhile, another author, Tim Underhill, is also haunted by the deaths of loved ones, His sister, who died in childhood many years ago, recently appeared to him outside his favourite diner, and he’s been getting bizarre emails from people in his home town - none of whom are still alive. But when he meets Willy Patrick at a reading he starts to get really spooked. For Willy bears a striking resemblance to the heroine of the book he is currently working on, and appears to be in precisely the mortal peril he has invented for her...
A dark, elegantly written thriller with a chilling supernatural twist from the bestselling author of Koko and lost boy lost girl.
Praise for lost boy lost girl
`Lost Boy Lost Girl is intense and yet measured; serious and melancholy at times, but also humorous. Straub’s prose has a tart clarity that allows him to delineate the muddiness of life with great economy and richness. He has a superb ear for dialogue, both spoken and silent.’ Michael Marshall, Guardian
‘Mr Straub’s latest is an unusually taut, dynamic, spooky display of horror expertise, and its story is deftly told.’ New York rimes
`Stephen King’s mate and co-author puts the monster master into the shade. This’ll have you anxiously contemplating the shadows’ Mirror Praise for Peter Straub
‘Straub is a master at creating fear out of everyday life.’ Sunday Telegraph
`No one is better than Straub at having whole communities rocked by the forces of wickedness.’ Observer
About The Author
Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was educated at the University of Wisconsin, Columbia University and University College, Dublin. He is the author of fourteen novels, including Ghost Story, Shadowland, The Talisman (with Stephen King), Koko, Mystery and The Throat. He has won the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award and two World Fantasy Awards, and his books have been translated into twenty one languages. For a decade he lived in Ireland and England, and he now resides in New York City, where he is working on a new collaboration with Stephen King: Black House, a sequel to their acclaimed co-written bestseller, The Talisman.

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by Peter Straub at Amazon.co.uk

Kim Wilkins The Autumn Castle Pbk published March 2005 by Gollancz at Ł6.99 ISBN: 0 575 07

Winner of the Aurealis Award
Berlin it autumn: Christine Starlight is living in an artists’ colony in the crumbling urban shadows of the old east. Her lover Jude is a painter; his beauty and patience help her bear the chronic pain that is a legacy of the car crash that crippled her and killed her beloved parents.
Out of the blue comes a crimson-haired enchantress who presides over a land where a witch dwells in a well, a wolf is the queen’s counsellor and fate turns on the fall of an autumn leaf. For a brief span, the lands of faery and mortal man march hand in hand and Queen Mayfridh has taken the chance to seek out Christine, her childhood friend.
But dealings with faeryland are never simple: as Christine yearns for Mayfridh’s world, where mortals feel no pain, so Mayfridh in turn is becoming addicted to Christine’s, where there are tastes and textures and the danger of forbidden love.
And as secrets and jealousies and betrayals begin to unpick the threads that bind their lives, so yet another danger stalks them: the cruel and brilliant billionaire sculptor Immanuel Z. He too has faery blood, but he has a different use for Mayfridh and her kind: he is hunting faery bones for the grandest sculpture of them all …
`Without doubt the most exciting writer of supernatural fiction working today’ Horror World UK
`Australia’s queen of the supernatural’ Daily Telegraph
`A narrative like the left jab of a professional boxer’ Sunday Mail
`An outstanding writer’ NW
‘Atmospheric and horribly compelling’ Starburst
’A well-crafted and intelligent fantasy’ SFX
‘A curious blend of the sweet and the gruesome, The Autumn Castle is a guilty pleasure’ Dreamwatch
About The Author
Kim Wilkins was born in London and grew up in Queensland. She worked in a variety of jobs, in hospitality, as a typist, and as an alternative-rock goddess, before turning to higher education and earning degrees in English and Creative Writing. She is now a full-time writer and the winner of four Aurealis Awards; her novels include The Infernal, Grimoire, The Resurrectionists and Fallen Angel. Kim now lives in Brisbane with her partner Mirko and their son Luka.

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by Kim Wilkins at Amazon.co.uk