The Best Horror of the Year. Volume 4

“The Little Green God of Agony” by Stephen King. © 2011 by Stephen King. Permission granted by the Author’s representative, Darhansoff & Verrill Literary Agents. All rights reserved. First published in A Book of Horrors (2011), an anthology edited by Stephen Jones and published by Quercus.

“Stay” by Leah Bobet. © 2011 by Leah Bobet. First published in Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live edited by Michael Kelly, Edge. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Moraine” by Simon Bestwick. © 2011 by Simon Bestwick. First published in Terror Tales of the Lake District edited by Paul Finch, Gray Friar Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Blackwood’s Baby by Laird Barron. © 2011 by Laird Barron. First published in Ghosts by Gaslight, edited by Jack Dann and Nick Gevers, Harper Voyager. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Looker” by David Nickle. © 2011 by David Nickle. First published in Chilling Tales: Evil Did I Dwell; Lewd I Did Live edited by Michael Kelly, Edge. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Show” by Priya Sharma. © 2011 by Priya Sharma. First published in Box of Delights, edited by John Kenny, Aeon Press Books. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Mulberry Boys” by Margo Lanagan. © 2011 by Margo Lanagan. First published in Blood and Other Cravings, edited by Ellen Datlow, Tor Books. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Roots and All” by Brian Hodge. © 2011 by Brian Hodge. First published in A Book of Horrors (2011), an anthology edited by Stephen Jones, Jo Fletcher Books. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Final Girl Theory” by A. C. Wise. © 2011 by A. C. Wise. First published in Chizine issue #48. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Omphalos” by Livia Llewellyn. © 2011 by Livia Llewellyn. First published in Engines of Desire: Tales of Love & Other Horrors, Lethe Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Black Feathers” by Alison Littlewood. © 2011 by Alison Littlewood. First published in Black Static 22, April/May. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Final Verse” by Chet Williamson. © 2011 by. First published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, May/June issue. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“In the Absence of Murdock” by Terry Lamsley. © 2011 by Terry Lamsley. First published in House of Fear, edited by Jonathan Oliver, Solaris. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“You Become the Neighborhood” by Glen Hirshberg. © 2011 by Glen Hirshberg. First published in The Janus Tree and Other Stories, Subterranean Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“In Paris, In the Mouth of Kronos” by John Langan. © 2011 by John Langan. First published in Supernatural Noir, edited by Ellen Datlow, Dark Horse Books. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Little Pig” by Anna Taborska. © 2011 by Anna Taborska. First published in The Eighth Black Book of Horror edited by Charles Black, Mortbury Press. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“Dermot,” by Simon Bestwick. © 2011 by Simon Bestwick. First published in Black Static 24, August/September. Reprinted by permission of the author.

“The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine” by Peter Straub. © 2011 by Peter Straub. First published in Conjunctions 56: Terra Incognita: The Voyage Issue. Reprinted by permission of the author.

Night Shade Books is an Independent Publisher of Quality Science-Fiction, Fantasy and Horror

Strange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us…

Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly eighty years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret…

…of The Croning.

From Laird Barron, Shirley Jackson Award-winning author of The Imago Sequence and Occultation, comes The Croning, a debut novel of cosmic horror.

NAPLES, THE 19TH CENTURY.