New Horror Novel Releases (January 29-31, 2013)

Here’s a look at the horror novels hitting the market next week. There are an assortment of gems that will be arriving on shelves, including works from Anne Rice, Margot Berwin and Yoko Ogawa.

Whether contemporary beastly creations or classic dark lore happens to suit your taste, next week offers a hint of everything. Get ready for some new gems and some classic vintage works to slither back into your minds!

Quick note to readers: Click on the novel cover to purchase each book!

Anne Rice: The Wolf Gift (January 29,2013)

Synopsis: “When Reuben Golding, a young reporter on assignment, arrives at a secluded mansion on a bluff high above the Pacific, it’s at the behest of the home’s enigmatic female owner. She quickly seduces him, but their idyllic night is shattered by violence when the man is inexplicably attacked—bitten—by a beast he cannot see in the rural darkness. It will set in motion a terrifying yet seductive transformation that will propel Reuben into a mysterious new world and raise profound questions. Why has he been given the wolf gift? What is its true nature–good or evil? And are there others out there like him?”

Megan Shepherd: The Madman’s Daughter (January 29, 2013)

Synopsis: “Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London—working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father’s gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true.

Accompanied by her father’s handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward—both of whom she is deeply drawn to—Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father’s madness: He has experimented on animals so that they resemble, speak, and behave as humans. And worse, one of the creatures has turned violent and is killing the island’s inhabitants. Torn between horror and scientific curiosity, Juliet knows she must end her father’s dangerous experiments and escape her jungle prison before it’s too late. Yet as the island falls into chaos, she discovers the extent of her father’s genius—and madness—in her own blood.

Inspired by H. G. Wells’s classic The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Madman’s Daughter is a dark and breathless Gothic thriller about the secrets we’ll do anything to know and the truths we’ll go to any lengths to protect.”

Margot Berwin: Scent of Darkness (January 29, 2013)

Synopsis: “In her best-selling debut, Hothouse Flower and the Nine Plants of Desire, Margot Berwin brought us to the rain forests of Mexico—to a land of shamans, spirit animals, and snake charmers—in the search for nine rare and valuable plants. Now, with her hotly anticipated second novel, Berwin takes us somewhere darker: deep into the bayous of Louisiana, to a world of fortune-tellers, soothsayers, and potent elixirs. Scent of Darkness is a magical, seductive story about the power of scent, and about what happens when a perfume renders a young woman irresistible.

Evangeline grows up understanding the extraordinary effects of fragrance. Her grandmother Louise is a gifted aromata, a master of scent-making and perfume. When Eva was a girl, Louise carefully explained that lavender under her pillow would make her dream of the man she would marry; eucalyptus would make her taller; almandine, fatter; and jasmine, Louise promised, would wrap her life in a mystery. When Eva is eighteen, Louise leaves her the ultimate gift—a scent created just for her. The small perfume vial is accompanied by a note in Louise’s slanted script: “Do not remove the stopper, Evangeline, unless you want everything in your life to change.”

From the moment Eva places a drop—the essence of fire, leather, rose, and jasmine—on her neck, men dance closer to her, women bury their noses deep into her hair, even the cats outside her bedroom cry to be near her. After a lifetime spent blending into the background, Eva is suddenly the object of intense desire to everyone around her. Strangers follow her down the street; a young boy appears at her door asking for a favor; and two men, one kind and good, the other dark and seductive, fall deeply, madly in love with her. As her greatest gift becomes an unbearable curse, Eva must uncover the secret of her scent and the message her grandmother, the woman who loved her most, wanted to tell her.

A bewitching tale of love, blood, power, and magic, Scent of Darkness is a wildly inventive novel that will seduce the reader’s every sense.”

Yoko Ogawa: Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales (January 29, 2013)

Synopsis: “Sinister forces collide—and unite a host of desperate characters—in this eerie cycle of interwoven tales from Yoko Ogawa, the critically acclaimed author of The Housekeeper and the Professor.

An aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon’s jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman. Desire meets with impulse and erupts, attracting the attention of the surgeon’s neighbor—who is drawn to a decaying residence that is now home to instruments of human torture. Murderers and mourners, mothers and children, lovers and innocent bystanders—their fates converge in an ominous and darkly beautiful web.

Yoko Ogawa’s Revenge is a master class in the macabre that will haunt you to the last page.”

Matt Richtel: The Cloud (January 29, 2013)

Synopsis: “A late-night accident on a San Francisco subway platform has altered Nat Idle’s reality. But then, there are no accidents.

Disoriented and bloodied after a near-deadly fall onto the subway tracks, freelance journalist Nat Idle discovers that a beautiful stranger has come to his aid . . . and that the burly man who barreled into him had intended to do Nat harm. What he doesn’t know is why—and his quest for answers leads him to uncover a handful of mysterious deaths, and a bizarre neurological disorder plaguing Bay Area children . . . as he ventures ultimately into the Cloud.

In a brave new world, the Cloud is where we store data, secrets, dreams. But it is something more—something insidious with the power to change not just how we interact with the world, but our behavior, and brains. Nat, in search of the truth, finds himself lost in a psychedelic maze, discovering things that cannot possibly be, realizing there is no one and nothing he can trust . . . not even his own mind.”

Wendy Corsi Staub: Shadowkiller (January 29, 2013)

Synopsis: “From the New York Times bestselling author comes a novel of suspense so terrifying it may make you afraid of the dark …

Allison Taylor MacKenna feels as though she’s awakened at last from a ten-year-long nightmare. But her darkest hour has yet to come…

Nestled in the warm, domestic cocoon of loving husband and family, Allison finally feels safe—unaware that a stranger’s brutal murder on a Caribbean island is the first step in an intricate plan to destroy everything in her life.

For seasoned NYPD Detective Rocky Manzillo, the signs are clear that something terrible has emerged from the shadows: a murder victim left without a face and a faded photograph that yields a startling connection.

Now, as Allison’s murky memories of a troubled childhood creep back to light, a cunning predator who shares her history prepares to enact a horrifying retribution— and won’t stop killing until Allison faces a shocking truth . . . and pays the ultimate price.”

Edgar Allan Poe: Dead Brides: Vampiric Tales By Edgar Allan Poe (Crypt Of Poe) (January 31, 2013)

Synopsis: “DEAD BRIDES contains the cycle of five vampiric stories, written between 1835 and 1842, which in many ways forms the sepulchral nucleus of Poe’s prose work: Berenice, Morella, Ligeia, The Fall Of The House Of Usher, and The Oval Portrait. In these classic tales, Poe investigates the essentially vampiric nature of human relationships, including love and lust both normal and incestuous, and develops his theme to observe the lesion of vitality inherent in the creative or artistic process. Vampirism, with its terrible energy exchanges and exactions, is ultimately Poe’s analogy for a love that persists beyond the grave – an all-consuming, necrophiliac passion that cannot be sated until an undead reconciliation is effected. DEAD BRIDES is illustrated by Harry Clarke, and includes a foreword on Poe by the author H P Lovecraft as well as an afterword on Poe, opium, and the pathology of the house of Usher.”

H.P. Lovecraft: Crawling Chaos Volume 2: Selected Weird Fiction 1928-1935 (Tomb of Lovecraft) (January 31, 2013)

Synopsis: “H. P. Lovecraft, one of the great obsessive writers of the 20th century, naturally chose the pulp genre of “weird horror” in which to exorcise his acute anatomical alienation and existential torment. Within the matrix of his grotesque yet complex mythology, Lovecraft was able to conjure a hideous universe lying just beyond our own; his relentless style and language forging a convoluted, midnight-purple literary form which ultimately achieves a veritable “pornography” of horror: the accumulation and repetition of his demonic visions climaxing in orgasms of cosmic revulsion. Crawling Chaos comprises a chronological collection of this unique writer’s best work; from his distinctive collaborative pieces, prosepoems and early tales of the gruesome and bizarre, through to the maturation and efflorescence of his personal cosmology, the Cthulhu Mythos. This new expanded edition, published in two volumes, has been enhanced by stories not previously included. With an introduction by acclaimed author Colin Wilson. Volume two includes the following stories: THE DUNWICH HORROR (1928); MEDUSA’S COIL (1930); THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH (1931); THE DREAMS IN THE WITCHHOUSE (1932); THE THING ON THE DOORSTEP (1933); THE HORROR IN THE MUSEUM (1933); and THE HAUNTER OF THE DARK (1935).”

Rhiannon Frater: Fighting to Survive: As the World Dies, Book Two (January 29, 2013)

Synopsis: “It’s time to clear the hotel.

The fort has grown crowded as survivors of the zombie apocalypse have found safety between its walls.  Winter is coming; soon it will be too cold to live in tents and other makeshift shelters.  The leaders of the survivors—Katie, Jenni, Juan, Travis, and Nerit—decide it’s time for an assault on the zombie-occupied hotel that looms over the town square.

A pitched battle in the banquet room is the start of a harrowing, room-by-room struggle from Reception to roof.  As the sun sets, the people of Ashley Oaks gather in the hotel’s rooftop ballroom and gazebo to celebrate their survival.  Gazing out over the beauty of the surrounding Texas countryside, it’s hard to believe that death and danger lurk around every corner.

The fort’s search and rescue teams have attracted unwanted attention from bandits who see the fort as competition for food . . . and as a ready source of women.  The first attacks are minor, but everyone knows there is worse to come.

And beyond the fort’s walls, the zombies shamble, moaning, eyes fastened hungrily upon the living.”