Agents of Dreamland by Caitlín R. Kiernan (Tor.com Books) is a wonderful, darkly disturbing cosmic horror story about a cult that believes aliens have come to liberate their bodies, a secret agent tasked with tracking down their missing leader, and a terrifying mystery woman who travels back and forth in time. Mapping the Interior by Stephen Graham Jones (Tor.com Books) is a vivid, dread-inducing supernatural ghost story about a teenage boy who believes he sees his dead father haunting the house where he lives with his mother and younger brother. Over time, the supernatural begins to subsume the everyday world of Junior and his family. Paymon’s Trio by Colette de Curzon (Nightjar Press) was written in 1949 and this is its first publication. Even back then, its plot—about the discovery of a demonic piece of music and its effect on those who play it—would have been old hat. Despite this, it’s well-told. Other Nightjar Press titles (the press is run by writer Nicholas Royle) published in 2017 were The Automaton by David Wheldon, a weird story about a young boy in pre-WWI England whose family theater hires an impresario with a chess-playing, elegant automaton; two stories by Claire Dean: Bremen, an uncanny tale of identity, loss, and marzipan people and The Unwish about fairy tales, two sisters, and their uneasy relationship. Gwendy’s Button Box by Stephen King and Richard Chizmar (Cemetery Dance) is a Castle Rock tale about a twelve-year-old girl who is given a box full of buttons and levers to care for by a mysterious man. I’ll Bring You the Birds From Out of the Sky is a terrific novella by Brian Hodge (Cemetery Dance), whose short fiction keeps getting better and better (and longer). This one is about a young woman with roots in rural West Virginia who brings a piece of art by her great grandfather to the city to be appraised by a dealer of folk art. Hodge is great at building a sense of dread in his stories.
The Twilight Pariah by Jeffrey Ford (Tor.com Books) is about a group of friends who meet up during a break from college and what they discover when they excavate an abandoned outhouse on the edge of town. The Murders of Molly Southbourne by Tade Thompson (Tor.com Books) is about a woman whose blood creates new versions of herself that are bent on the original’s destruction. How I Learned the Truth About Krampus by Tom Johnstone (Eibonvale Press) is a chiller about a man’s belief that his missing baby son has been taken by his real father, the ancient evil precursor to the contemporary jolly Santa Claus. The Book Club by Alan Baxter (PS Publishing) is about a man whose wife disappears after attending one of her book club meetings. Under suspicion by the police and devastated by the idea that she’s been abducted and murdered, he discovers even worse possibilities. In the Country of Dreaming Caravans by Gerard Houarner (Bedlam Press) is a beautifully told story of a little girl, sold by her parents to a desert caravan, who tells stories in order to save her own life. The Teardrop Method by Simon Avery (TTA Press) is about a woman who, after someone close to her dies, discovers she can hear music in those who are dying. Sacculina by Philip Fracassi (JournalStone) is about a fishing boat crew facing sea monsters. Liars, Fakers, and the Dead Who Eat Them by Scott Edelman (Written Backwards) is a good-looking chapbook consisting of two new zombie stories. With an introduction by Brian Keene. The Borderland Little book chapbook series continued with Joe Hill’s A Little Silver Book of Sharp Shiny Scissors featuring a miscellany of nineteen snippets of fiction and nonfiction within a beautiful silver hardcover. David Morrell’s A Little Gold Book of Protector Tales includes three stories about people willing to sacrifice their lives for strangers. Jonathan Maberry’s A Little Bronze Book of Cautionary Tales presents four of his own favorite stories. The Doll House by Edward Lee (Necro Publications) was originally published 2015 as A Little Magenta Book about a Dollhouse by Borderlands Press. Quite unlike Lee’s usual blood and guts work, this was written in homage to one of Lee’s favorite writers: M. R. James. Pretty Marys All in a Row by Gwendolyn Kiste (Broken Eye Books) is a tale told by a ghost named Resurrection Mary about various other “Marys” from urban legends, all existing in one house. Festival by Aaron J. French (Unnerving) is about a young couple who stumble across a cult while on their romantic getaway at an isolated camp with hot springs. The Process (is a Process All Its Own) by Peter Straub (Subterranean Press) is an expanded version of the story originally published last year in Conjunctions (and reprinted in The Best Horror of the Year Volume Nine). The signed limited hardcover is a beauty, with its jacket illustration by Susan Straub and designed by Michael Fusco-Straub. Small Ghosts by Paul Lewis (Telos) is about a recent widower who returns to where he grew up to help his mother deal with her dying father. The dying man was a policeman who years earlier was the investigator in an undisclosed series of child murders that haunted both him and his wife throughout their lives.CHAPBOOKS/NOVELLAS