Born in Milwaukee, Peter Straub was the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels. In the Night Room and Lost Boy, Lost Girl were winners of the Bram Stoker Award, as was his collection 5 Stories. Straub was the editor of numerous anthologies, including the two-volume The American Fantastic Tale from the Library of America.
The Merry Dredgers (2023) Jeremy C Shipp "Shipp's boldness, daring, originability, and sheer smarts make them one of the most vital younger writers who have colocized horror literature in the past decade."
Dead Sky (2019) (Sky, book 2) Weston Ochse "A wised-up, clued-in, completely trustworthy writer of high-action fiction."
Curious Toys (2019) Elizabeth Hand "This book contains a rare kind of perfection: Elizabeth Hand's rough, observant magic draws into its circle great historical accuracy, a cross-dressing central protagonist, a wonderfully tender portrait of the great Outsider Artist Henry Darger, a vibrant thriller plot, reflections on gender and its place in civic order, a helpful Ben Hecht, and one of the greatest climactic drop-the-mic moments I've ever read -- and does all this while patiently setting into place the warm emotional armatures that make Curious Toys so moving."
Empress of Forever (2019) Max Gladstone "Empress of Forever [demonstrates] the strength, power, and originality at his command. A deep, cellular-level enchantment filled at every turn with curiosity and delight."
Looker (2019) Laura Sims "This intense, gripping first novel shoehorns us into a gathering disquiet and sense of dread, heightened at every turn by our sympathetic understanding of her relentlessly unraveling protagonist. The precise, observant writing slips through the skin without ever calling attention to itself."
Waiting (2017) Rick Hautala "Rick Hautala's writing shines with dedication hard-earned craft, and devotion."
The Prague Sonata (2017) Bradford Morrow "Bradford Morrow has written his masterpiece. The Prague Sonata is a rich, joyous, complex journey into the city of Prague, the claims made upon us by music, and several dark, dark corners of human experience. In the right hands, as here, the novel can throw open its windows, rear up on its back legs, and tear off down the street, singing at the top of its lungs."
The Forgotten Girl (2017) Rio Youers "Rio Youers is one of the most vital, most exciting young talents to come along in this decade . . . [He] writes beautiful phrases and sentences, and he has an instinctive feel for horror's flash points, those moments in a novel when its author must demonstrate that he can keep his head while his readers are cheerfully losing theirs."
Wicked Wonders (2017) Ellen Klages "This is a woman who knows that Clarity and simplicity can piece the heart."
Mormama (2017) Kit Reed "Mormama deep Florida Noir often reads like a blissful combo of Joyce Carol Oates at her most sizzling and James M. Cain at his most doom-haunted. After this novel effortlessly drags you in, it keeps jabbing forks into you to make sure it has your full attention. Unflaggingly smart, inventive, and weirdly, brusquely funny."
The Night Ocean (2017) Paul La Farge "A whole damned hustling heart-broken double-talking meaning-haunted world it is a privilege to enter."
In a Dark, Dark Wood (2015) Ruth Ware "I started IN A DARK, DARK WOOD on an airplane, kept dipping into it whenever I was left alone, devoured another big chunk on the flight home, and after that surrendered myself to it until the last revelation had bloomed, the final surprise had exploded, and the bittersweet conclusive turn had folded the final page. Ruth Ware has written an exciting, and in fact amazing book that never stops circling around behind the reader and clapping its cold hands over her eyes."
Bird Box (2014) (Bird Box , book 1) Josh Malerman "This completely compelling novel contains a thousand subtle touches but no mere flourishes – it is so well, so efficiently, so directly written I read it with real admiration."
Annihilation (2014) (Southern Reach, book 1) Jeff VanderMeer "In much of Jeff VanderMeer's work, a kind of radiance lies beating beneath the surface of the words. Here in Annihilation, it shines through with warm blazing incandescence. This is one of a grand writer's finest and most dazzling books."
Three Graves Full (2013) Jamie Mason "Mason's aura of wit infuses her lovely plot with an absolutely Hitchcockian menace."
The Twenty-Year Death (2012) Ariel S Winter "The Twenty-Year Death is an absolute astonishment. Ariel S. Winter manages to channel three iconic crime writers and pull off a riveting story of a two-decade ruination in which it is the things not said that somehow have the loudest echoes."
The Soul Collector (2011) Tracy L Carbone "The Soul Collector is an involving and suspenseful story filled with charm, warmth, and derring-do and its heroine, Abby McNabb, is going to win over lots and lots of new readers. Tracey Carbone is off to a wonderful start."
Hide Me Among the Graves (2011) Tim Powers "Tim Powers has long been one of my absolutely favorite writers, those whose new books I snatch up as soon as they appear."
Internecine (2010) David J Schow "Smart, scathing, and verbally inventive to an astonishing degree, David J. Schow is one of the most interesting writers of his generation."
The Keeper (2006) (Bedford Horror, book 1) Sarah Langan "[A] distinct and juicy flavor all its own. THE KEEPER begins what should be a very fruitful career."
Six Bad Things (2005) (Hank Thompson, book 2) Charlie Huston "Six Bad Things rocks and rolls from the first page. This is one mean, cols, slit-eyed mother of a book."
The Boys Are Back in Town (2004) Christopher Golden "Christopher Golden is one of the most hard-working, smartest, and most talented writers of his generation, and his books are so good and so involving that they really ought to sell in huge numbers. Everything he writes glows with imagination."
Scream Queen (2003) Edo van Belkom "This novel knows where it is going and intends to get there with no wasted motion."
Nightmare House (2002) (Harrow Academy, book 3) Douglas Clegg "Douglas Clegg has become the new star in horror fiction."
The Shooting Gallery (2002) (Detective Yablonsky, book 2) Joseph Trigoboff "Joseph Trigoboff knows what he's talking about. In THE SHOOTING GALLERY, he guides us, like a clear-eyed combination of Jimmy Breslin and William Burroughs, though the ripely urban landscape where crooked judges, wised-up journalists, hypocritical politicians and weary cops define the reality the rest of us, whether we know it or not, have to live with. Trigoboff's ear is pitch perfect, and his heart is where it should be."
Judas Eyes (2001) (Eyes , book 3) Barry Hoffman "Leagues ahead of almost anything these days passing as horror or suspense fiction."
Ghosts Who Cannot Sleep (2000) Alan Rodgers "Mama Ghost really must be one of the best, and certainly one of the most disturbing, horror stories written during the last decade and a half."
The Hook (2000) Donald E Westlake "THE HOOK begins with an agreement signed in blood and smoothly, unobtrusively, gracefully, relentlessly moves toward absolute devastation. This is Donald E. Westlake at the top of his form, writing with the power and confidence of a master and keeping the reader dazzled and agape all the way to the last sentence."
Weaveworld (1987) Clive Barker "Weaveworld will be a guide for everyone who travels there in the future. I think it'll probably be imitated for the next decade or so, as lesser talents try to crack its code and tame its insights."
Sympathy for the Devil (1987) (Hanson, book 1) Kent Anderson "Kent Anderson has outwritten just about everybody who preceded him in trying to make fictional sense out of the war... a very brave book."
Unearthly (1982) John Farris "One of the giants of contemporary psychological horror. The evil in The Uninvited is utterly convincing."
The Nestling (1982) Charles L Grant "It's entertaining, suspenseful, but it's a lot of other things too...and while it's nasty enough to give us a kick in the shins, it is oddly tender towards the world."
Small World (1981) Tabitha King "So clever it could cut your skin. Tabitha King knows how to create suspense. She has a unique and self-possessed view of things and a talent for the grotesque."
Opening Shots Volume 2 (2001) More Great Mystery and Crime Writers Share their First Published Stories (Opening Shots, book 2) edited by Lawrence Block
(1943 - 2022)
