Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre by the World's Greatest Horror Writers » (Reprint)

Del Howison, founder of the world’s most famous horror emporium and bookstore, Dark Delicacies, has used his extensive friendships in the horror field to compile this anthology. He is an esteemed expert in the genre and has made cameo appearances in a number of horror films. Howison lives in Los Angeles.

Jeff Gelb is the leading anthologist in contemporary horror. He is the co-editor of the Hot Blood erotic horror series, which features multiple Bram Stoker award-winners. His anthologies have debuted new fiction by Stephen King, Lawrence Block, Joyce Carol Oates, Ramsey Campbell, and Brian Lumley. He lives in California.

In a truly distinguished collection of twenty superb, sublimely dark tales written especially for this volume, such acknowledged contemporary masters of horror fiction as Clive Barker, Ray Bradbury, Ramsey Campbell, Nancy Holder, Richard Laymon, Brian Lumley, Joe Lansdale, Whitley Streiber, F. Paul Wilson, and Chelsea Quinn Yarboro serve up a veritable feast of fear. For the first time ever, Dark Delicacies, the world’s foremost horror bookstore, lends its famous name and imprimatur to an anthology designed to please the palate of the genre’s most discriminating fans. Throughout, the editors—Del Howison (co-owner of Dark Delicacies) and leading horror anthologist Jeff Gelb—present perfectly crafted, freshly original horror-fiction fare that is as terrifying as it is chillingly delicious.

Publishers Weekly

If, as Howison writes in his afterword, "Horror has always been the blues of literature," then this anthology of 20 new tales of the macabre is an all-star concert whose performers work haunting riffs on gutbucket themes. In "The Reincarnate," Ray Bradbury makes a reanimated corpse the focus of a poetic reverie on death and loss. Clive Barker serves up a pastiche of the antique penny dreadful in "Haeckel's Tale," but with the traditional subtexts of sex and death unapologetically exposed to view. Supernatural and psychological horror interweave seamlessly in John Farris's "Bloody Mary Morning," a tale of modern horror with a classic Ambrose Bierce-style twist. In Ramsey Campbell's fiercely funny "The Announcement," a writer's psychological meltdown plunges him into a paranoid conspiracy distilled impurely from The Da Vinci Code. Howison, the proprietor of Burbank, Calif.'s Dark Delicacies horror bookstore, and Gelb, co-editor of the Hot Blood anthology series, have plundered their Rolodexes to recruit a formidable lineup of horror's top creative talents. Agent, Jabberwocky Literary Agency. (Oct.) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information.