Showing results by publisher "Crossroad Press" in All Categories

For an officer of the law, Blacklin County, Texas, used to be pretty peaceful, but now, what with the emu-rustling, cockfights, and protests at the new Wal-Mart store — not to mention murder — Sheriff Dan Rhodes has his hands full. Hit hard by the collapse of his little hardware store, Elijah ("Lige") Ward has taken to chaining himself to the Wal-Mart doors and generally making a nuisance of himself. And when Lige's dead body turns up, floating down a river in a portable toilet, Rhodes finds he has quite a case to investigate.

In the later part of the 19th century, Rhoda Derry spent over 40 years in the Adams County Poor Farm, curled in a fetal position in a box bed. She had clawed her own eyes out. She had beaten her front teeth in. Her legs had atrophied to the point where she could no longer stand on her own, or even sit in a wheelchair. She had been committed there by her own family when they could no longer care for her at home. She spent decades locked away from the world.

From the man who has brought you 20 books of dark fiction and fantasy, unforgettable horror movies such Hellraiser and Candyman, and countless paintings and illustrations, this is the first-ever collection of Clive Barker's nonfiction.

The Titus Crow novels are full of acts of nobility and heroism. Titus Crow and his faithful companion fight the forces of darkness - the infamous and deadly Elder Gods of H.P. Lovecraft - wherever they arise. The powerful Cthulhu and his dark minions are bent on ruling the earth - or destroying it - yet time after time, Titus Crow drives the monsters back into the dark from whence they came.

Since the night he made an ill-advised decision to commit a pair of revenge killings, Nick has made his living as a professional murderer. Early on, he dispensed with guilt or emotion. But after a routine hit gets messy, Nick gets sick, and the conscience he thought he’d killed comes creeping back into his brain. Now, Nick’s profession and life are on the line, and he has begun stalking a perfectly innocent couple to see if he can snuff them out without the slightest hint of remorse...or if the humanity he worked so hard to suppress is making up for lost time.

In Five-Twelfths of Heaven, Silence Leigh discovered that she was not only unusual as a female pilot. She was also an impossible thing: a female magus. Her unique abilities make her the only person capable of reaching Earth, humanity's original home, now sealed behind a mysterious barrier. But first she must learn to use her newfound talents.

Grant, an ambitious photographer, is possessed by a young mental patient's strange drawings and becomes the disturbed young artist's confidant and guardian in a relationship that pushes Grant's own sanity to the edge.

Earth is home to us, but to others it is a prison planet, where alien convicts are imprisoned in human bodies. Four tales by veteran Cthulhu Mythos authors explore the collisions between humans and unwilling visitors among us.

When the Magic Wagon comes to town, folks get a genuine medicine show that includes a wrestling ape, fancy shooting, and a peek at the petrified body of Wild Bill Hickok himself. They also get bottles of a whiskey-laced elixir to drown their aches and pains. Old Albert drives the wagon, a raw-boned youngster named Buster Fogg does the odd jobs, and "champion" trick shooter and fast talker Billy Bob Daniels owns the show. Billy Bob claims to be the illegitimate son of Wild Bill himself.

Andrew Doran—celebrated archaeologist and wisecracking warrior against enemies beyond human imagination—faces his greatest challenge, this time the fate of the world is at stake. Doran’s colleague Nancy Dyer has located the Book of Eibon. Its vast power is a magnet for foes from all over the world. Miskatonic University soon finds itself besieged by dark forces whose victory would mean the end of Earth as we know it.

Hell has come to earth as sadistic zombies rampage and massacre the human population. Reverend Thomas Martin has lost his congregation to the chaos but has found two wayward survivors to protect—Becky and John. The three of them have holed up in Martin's church in a desperate attempt for survival. But as supplies run low and civilization crumbles around them, Martin must come to a realization—God has abandoned them. But why?

"Help! I...can’t...breathe! He’s...trying to...kill me! Please! Oh, God! He’s...killing me!” Margery Harris’ last words…gasped in a hoarse, rasping voice on the county’s 9-1-1 line. For Marge’s doctor, they weren’t merely the last words of a patient, they were a desperate cry for help from an old friend. But they’re puzzling because Marge died from a fatal allergic reaction to peanuts. Was it possible…murder by peanut?

College student Meg Talley survives a violent attack, but when she insists her assailant was a hideous, monster-like creature, she is called hysterical. Journalist Douglas Morgan, private eye Nick Grundel, and horror novelist Blake Corbett, however, have each theorized the mangling, incredible though it seems, might be the work of a werewolf. Now they team up with Meg to peruse an intensive investigation. Neither skeptics nor believers are prepared for the bone-chilling terror and cataclysmic violence that will be unleashed in the night of the January full moon....

When Alex Wilson’s estranged uncle unexpectedly dies, Alex realizes he would do just about anything to make peace with the man who had raised him as his own. He’d even reach out to the dead. But things more dangerous than ghosts haunt his uncle’s broken down trailer and the nearly abandoned one-gas-station town of Fair Hill just beyond. Things that can devour the living and the dead alike, and are all too ready to answer his call.

According to legend, the sineater is a dark and mysterious figure of the night, condemned to live alone in the woods. He may come out only when a death in the community occurs. As the mourners turn their backs in fear, the sineater devours food from the chests of the dead, thereby absorbing the sins of the departed and freeing the soul to enter heaven. Yet in a small mountain town, the order has been broken. The sineater has a family of his own, even though they must avert their gaze on the rare occasions he visits them.

William Sidis, 1897-1944, was the world's greatest child prodigy. His IQ was an estiamted 50 to 100 points higher than Einstein's, the highest ever recorded or estimated. His father, a pioneer in the field of abnormal psychology, believed that he and his wife could create a genius in the cradle. They hung alphabet blocks over the baby's crib-and within six months little Billy was speaking. At 18 months he was reading The New York Times; at three, Homer in the original Greek. At six he spoke at least seven languages.

> Scary Rednecks collects 23 stories of horror, madness, and humor set in the rural south of America's heartland. The stories run the gamut from terror to outrageousness. Packed with everything from abusive parents, cannibals, deer hunters, demonic catfish, UFO abductions, voodoo priestesses, vampire moonshiners, and other Appalachian monstrosities, it will amuse you, disturb you, and leave you hungering for more.

Jane Doe is a weredeer, the least-threatening shapechanger species in the world. Blessed with the ability to turn furry at will and psychically read objects, Jane has done her best to live a normal life working as a waitress at the Deerlightful Diner. She has big dreams of escaping life in the supernatural-filled town of Bright Falls, Michigan. Unfortunately, her 18th birthday is ruined by the sudden murder of her best friend's sister in an apparent occult killing. Oh, and her brother is the primary suspect.

This is a collection of fifty short stories by veteran mystery and crime writer Bill Pronzini, best known as the creator of The Nameless Detective series. This collection crosses over a broad range of styles and characters, settings and plots, showing the breadth and depth of Pronzini's prodigious talent. Included are murders, swindles, double-crosses, crazed children, and much, much more.

When Annette, the editor of a survivalist magazine, embarks on a weekend getaway up Minnesota's north shore with her boyfriend Sebastion, events spiral out of control when a gang of rowdy bikers starts to show up at their every stop and pay her more attention than she feels comfortable with.