Free/Bargain Horror February 2013

[NightBird]

Free from Necro: Tales of the Fallen Book I: Awakenings by David G. Barnett.

Of Angels Fallen:
They rescued him from the streets and with their help he has become the world's greatest assassin. So much death, so much blood, but it all ends after this one final job. Just one more death and Mal will finally get what was promised him so many, many years ago.

Jonas White is a powerful man, an empire builder. He commands adoration and respect from everyone who meets him. He is a good man, does good things. But now he's also a marked man. He knows destiny is banging on the door. What will happen when he opens it?

Two men fated to meet each other on one cataclysmic evening. An evening when secrets will be revealed, loyalties will be tested, old grudges settled and new ones made. This is just one stop along a long road. A road that leads back to where it all began so very long ago.

Daddy Demon's Day Out:
He wanted revenge for an atrocity committed so many years ago. Back when his world collapsed around him with a single knock on his door.

But that was then and this is now and revenge is at hand. Years of planning, years of blasphemous dealings and terrible actions have led to this moment. He has worked for decades to be able to summon the demon of revenge and now he's ready. Tonight he will demand the demon grant his one wish and all this will finally be over.

But Travis Burnsfield will soon find out that the demon of revenge has other plans for the evening. Plans that involve Starbucks, cheese steaks and a trip to the infamous Painfreak where many creatures go, all with very different hungers. Some with hungers that can be sated by the sorrow of a tired old man who only wants revenge for something taken from him so very long ago.

Sleeper Angels Awaken:
The old man hadn't been here in... Well, he couldn't really remember. But what he did know was that it had changed. Changed so much. His heart was heavy at seeing the destruction and knowing what it all meant. But he didn't have time to mourn. No, he had to move on.

He had placed them here so long ago, but over time he grew careless and forgot to keep track of them. But the time has come for him to track them all down. Things had changed and now he needed their help. It was time to seek out the others and awaken them...awaken his army. He only hoped they wanted to be awakened and wanted to help him. It would take some time. But after all, time was all he had right now.

David G Barnett offers up the beginning of what will hopefully be a long series of novellas and shorts centered around the battle for heaven. These first three tales are fast-paced, funny, raunchy and poignant. Barnett's world comes to life with horribly flawed characters that you will like or hate, but won't forget, abominable creatures and visions of Heaven and Hell that will begin to pave the way for more tales to come.

[NightBird]

Free from Abattoir Press: Bleed by Ed Kurtz.

When Walt Blackmore moves into an old gable front house on the outskirts of a small town, things are really looking up for him; he has an adoring girlfriend to whom he plans to propose, a new job teaching English at the local high school, and an altogether bright future. His outlook and destiny are irreparably changed, however, when an unusual dark red spot appears on the ceiling in the hallway. Bit by bit, the spot grows, first into a dripping blood stain and eventually into a grotesque, muttering creature.

As the creature grows, Walt finds himself more and more interested in fostering its well-being. At first he only feeds it stray animals so that the blood-hungry monster can survive, but this soon fails to satisfy the creature’s ghastly needs. It is gradually becoming human again, and for that to happen it requires human blood and human flesh. And once Walt has crossed the line from curiosity to murder, there is no going back...

[pstjmack]

These are not entirely new titles but I can't see them cited anywhere else on MobileRead - Reggie Oliver's brilliant collections 'The Dreams of Cardinal Vittorini' and 'Mrs Midnight' from Tartarus Press.

At an ebook price of, £3.50, down from a paperback price of £14.95, they're a steal - and in a choice of epub or Kindle formats too. For anyone who wished MR James or Robert Aickman had written more, thoroughly recommended.

[Dr. Drib]

.......And from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Cardinal-Vitto...+Reggie+Oliver

$4.99

http://www.amazon.com/Mrs-Midnight-O...pd_cp_kstore_0

$4.99




Don

[Dr. Drib]

I picked up 'Bleed,' which looks like a very good read.

Thank you!




Don

[NightBird]

Free novella from Wild Wolf: The Monster of Coniston by M.R. Bridgeman.

In the idyllic English Lake District, an enthusiastic, but inexperienced police constable finds himself stationed with an oddball assortment of colleagues under the dubious command of Ellroy ‘Hellboy’ Pearce.

Mid week during the winter season is usually dull, apart from pestering the occasional speeding motorist or scaring each other with ghost stories, but as an unnatural mist settles over the lake, strange events begin to unfold.

The tranquil surface of the water is deceptive...there's something out there, something big, hungry and possibly tentacled. The time has come to man up, find a weapon...and avoid becoming an appetizer.

A fast-paced 20,000 word novella.

[NightBird]

Free from Hydra Publications: Anon by Peter Giglio.

Rory Ellison, victim of his own misdeeds, wallows in misery. Then a door opens. Now he's got a new job, a dream assignment to rewrite the darkest mistake of his past, and a strange new companion in his head. Wielding powers beyond his comprehension and control, Rory returns to …

… Faith. She possesses the perfect husband, kids, and home. But when Rory falls back into her world, old wounds open wide, shattering her ideal life.

At the center of the mayhem stands Anon, a seemingly benevolent organization with a sinister past of its own. "Helping you realize your dreams sooner," the company promises. But what do they stand to gain? How far will they go to get what they want? And if they make dreams a reality, what about nightmares?

Only Michelle, a young girl with a strange gift, can defeat the evil threatening her family. But she must face fear, work with the ghosts of her enemy's past, navigate a maze of terror, and make the tough choice to grow up too soon in a world filled with evil and indifference.

Hold on tight! Anon—a tale of corporate and familial terror—is unlike anything you've ever read.

[NightBird]

Quarantined by Joe McKinney is $.99 from Permuted Press.

The citizens of San Antonio, Texas are threatened with extermination by a terrifying outbreak of the flu. Quarantined by the military to contain the virus, the city is in a desperate struggle to survive. Inside the quarantine walls, Detective Lily Harris is working burial statistics duty at the Scar, San Antonio's mass graveyard, when she finds a murder victim hidden amongst the plague dead. But Lily's investigation into the young woman's death soon takes a frightening turn as yet another strain of the deadly flu virus surfaces, and now Lily finds herself caught up in a conspiracy orchestrated by a corrupt local government intent on hiding the news from the world and fighting a population threatening to boil over into revolt. As the city erupts in violence, Lily is forced to do the unthinkable. With the clock ticking toward annihilation, Lily must lead her family through the quarantine walls and escape with news that just might save us all.

[NightBird]

One of today's Kindle Daily Deals is Brand New Cherry Flavor by Todd Grimson for $1.99. Originally published by Harper in 1996.

In the world of Hollywood’s panderers, philanderers, has-beens, and sycophants, aspiring screenwriter and director Lisa Nova considers herself a rising star who can transcend the lies, cheating, and hypocrisy for the sake of her art. When she is coldly betrayed by one leering producer too many, she turns to Boro, the enigmatic leader of a local biker gang, to exact vengeance—and she gets more than she bargained for. It begins with the strange tattoos that appear overnight on her skin like stigmata, followed by the hallucinations of ancient cults of the undead. Lisa soon finds herself contending with white jaguars and cannibalistic demons rising from the grave, and the lines between dreams and reality quickly dissolve in this surreal and exhilarating blend of satire and the macabre.

[NightBird]

Kindle Daily Deal Swan Song by Robert McCammon for $1.99 from Open Road.

McCammon’s epic bestselling novel about a girl psychic struggling to survive in the aftermath of a nuclear holocaust

Something flashes in nine-year-old Swan’s brain, telling her that trouble is coming. Maybe it’s her mother, fed up with her current boyfriend and ready to abandon their dismal trailer park and seek a new home. But something far worse is on the horizon. Death falls from the sky—nuclear bombs which annihilate American civilization. Though Swan survives the blast, this young psychic’s war is just beginning.

As the survivors try to make new lives in the wasteland, an evil army forms, intent on murdering all those tainted with the diseases brought by fallout. When Swan finds a mysterious amulet that could hold the key to humankind’s salvation, she draws the attention of a man more dangerous than any nuclear bomb. To rescue mankind, this little girl will have to grow up fast.

Audio version from Audible also available for $3.95 when buying the ebook.

[NightBird]

Free Bad Thoughts by Dave Zeltserman. Originally published by Five Star in 2007.

From Shamus Award-winning author Dave Zeltserman comes a dark, captivating thriller unlike any you've ever seen, a killer unlike any you've ever imagined, and an ending unlike any you've ever dreamed of.

One afternoon 13 year-old Billy Shannon comes home to a living nightmare. His mother being brutally murdered is only the beginning...

20 years later, Bill Shannon is now a cop in Cambridge, Massachusetts. As the twenty-year anniversary of his mother's death is approaching, women are being murdered in the same horrific grisly fashion. And while this is going on, he's having blackouts which only seem to be getting worse...

Everything seems to be pointing to one of two possibilities: Shannon has gone insane or his mom's killer is back to his old tricks. Except if it's mom's killer, he's come back a long way to do these new killings... all the way from the grave.

[NightBird]

Free Snowbound by Blake Crouch. Originally published by Macmillan in 2010. UK

For Will Innis and his daughter, Devlin, the loss was catastrophic. Every day for the past five years, they wonder where she is, if she is—Will’s wife, Devlin’s mother—because Rachael Innis vanished one night during an electrical storm on a lonely desert highway, and suspected of her death, Will took his daughter and fled.

Now, Will and Devlin live under different names in another town, having carved out a new life for themselves as they struggle to maintain some semblance of a family.

When one night, a beautiful, hard-edged FBI agent appears on their doorstep, they fear the worst, but she hasn’t come to arrest Will. “I know you’re innocent,” she tells him, “because Rachael wasn’t the first…or the last.”
Desperate for answers, Will and Devlin embark on a terrifying journey that spans four thousand miles from the desert southwest to the wilds of Alaska, heading unaware into the heart of a nightmare, because the truth is infinitely worse than they ever imagined.

[Dr. Drib]

Aren't these last two more in the mystery, thriller camp?

(As always, thanks for your listings.)


Don

[haydnfan]

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

Aren't these last two more in the mystery, thriller camp?

(As always, thanks for your listings.)


Don

No, horror is more about the atmosphere, the style of story telling than it is about specific tropes. If you're used to supernatural horror or urban fantasy that is only one type of horror (and the least interesting).

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

No, horror is more about the atmosphere, the style of story telling than it is about specific tropes. If you're used to supernatural horror or urban fantasy that is only one type of horror (and the least interesting).

I know what horror is about, thank you, having written some of it.

Yes, horror can be about atmosphere.

It may also have additional ingredients, as well.

I have not read these two books. A cursory glance at the summaries prompted my question. Interestingly, further research shows "Snowbound" is tagged under 'Mystery, Suspense, and Thriller' on Amazon, rather than as 'Horror.' ADDED: I now see it also listed under 'Horror.'

It may, indeed, though be that they are more at home here.

I think you need a qualifying statement on your last sentence. It may appear that urban fantasy (revolving around horror) is the least interesting to you. Other members may disagree with your assessment in this regard. That does not disqualify your opinion, of course; but it is your opinion and should not be viewed as a blanket statement.








Don