Showing results by author "Charles Grant" in All Categories

Syd and Theresa Guiness got out of their crowded city apartment and moved to a quaint house on a quiet cul de sac in the suburbs. Their dreamhouse. Then little things began to happen. Theresa was certain it was just her imagination and didn't pay much attention...until it was too late - their dreamhouse had become a nightmare.

So, you think you like to be scared.... Nominated for the World Fantasy Award, the Hugo Award, and the coveted Nebula, the unforgettable tales in this magnificent collection are the work of one of today's most respected masters of horror. Here are stories designed to carry the listener across fear's threshold, to terror...and beyond.

Welcome to Starburst, a quiet seaside resort where the people of the future escape into the past, and only four things are certain.

Pat Shavers was an artist and a teacher. She'd had a rough life: a divorce and the loss of her child. But now things seemed to be in order. Except for the strange force riding in the daily movements of her life: a threat rising in the envy of her colleagues, the jealousies of her new lover, the hidden enmity of those who seemed to be her friends. It was a dangerous fury gathering itself against her. The wind rose and swirled, threatening to destroy her.

Upon returning home to Oxrun Station from travelling Europe, Cynthia Yarrow notices that her family has changed. Her mother cuts herself but does not bleed. Her father lay dead before her eyes but is alright just hours later. Cynthia's suspicions lie with her family's new doctor, Dr. Kraylin. With her friend from years back, Ed, Cynthia must solve this mystery or die trying.

Black Oak Security is a crack team of private investigators led by brilliant, enigmatic Ethan Proctor, who has just received a cryptic message from an old friend of his father. Proctor is being asked to look into a series of disappearances and brutal mutilations in the swampy woodlands northwest of Atlanta, Georgia. Some think the culprit is a real-life wolf man. What Proctor doesn't know is that the terror in the swampy backwoods is linked to something much more personal.

When Gideon Sunday is handed a ball, he takes it and runs. Unfortunately, the game this unemployed football player has found himself in will probably get him killed. The minute he stepped through his pantry door into the magical land of Chey, Gideon Sunday knew that the last thing he ever wanted to be was a hero. He has been trying to go home ever since. But the events that landed him in this most bewildering land now conspire to strand him forever, and Gideon is desperate.

Charles L. Grant sets forth to take us across time and into a fantasy world to his remarkable little Connecticut town of Oxrun Station. There are new horrors on the loose to excite each listener.

We've all seen them - the stubborn tail-gater who follows too close, for too long...the wild driver who weaves through lanes on a crowded highway...the driver who causes accidents but is never a victim of one. These are the jackals, hunters who follow the nation's highways and byways, preying on the weak and unsuspecting. Jim Scott's been hunting jackals for some time now. They took someone he loved, once, and he's never forgiven them. And Jim doesn't fight alone.

Black Oak Security is a crack team of private investigators led by brilliant, enigmatic Ethan Proctor. He is a careful man. Careful in what he says, careful in what he does, and very careful about which cases he takes. But when a letter arrives from a woman he once knew, begging him to investigate strange happenings in her town, Proctor is careless. He takes the case without knowing exactly what he's getting into.

The Patch of the Odin Soldier marks the return to action of the intrepid and irrepressible Lincoln Blackthorne. Rambo, Woody Allen, and Indiana Jones all rolled into one, he’s a reluctant adventurer and soldier of fortune who masquerades as a mild-mannered New Jersey tailor. Although he’d rather be home taking the measure of a new suit, there’s always some new high-tech, high-powered criminal ready to take measure of him.

To his neighbors in the sleepy hamlet of Inverness, New Jersey, Lincoln Blackthorne is a tailor. Far from major population centers, highways, airports, or trains, Inverness is just about the last place you’d expect to find an international soldier of fortune and treasure hunter. But that’s exactly what Blackthorne is - one of the best - and he’s about to embark on his most dangerous journey: the quest for a priceless work of art, a deadly magical talisman, an object of dire arcane power.

Josh Miller has a talent for finding things. So far, the things people have asked him to find - antique tables, old movie posters - have been innocuous enough. And Andrea Montague, the daughter of a local writer, may be his most interesting find so far. But no one's asked Josh to find the missing fifth victim of an unexplained auto accident - the one who vanished from the scene of the crash without leaving a trail of blood, though he must have been badly hurt.

When people need something, Inverness, New Jersey tailor Lincoln Blackthorne is the man they turn to and in turn Linc generally gets them what they want. Sometimes — like every time he turns around — there's somebody else there trying to do Blackthorne out of what he's after...usually threatening bodily harm and more often than not attempting to make good on the threat.

The housing market is depressed. But not as depressed as anyone who spends a night at 668 Langford Place. The decaying mansion next door - number 666 - will soon see the return of Bog-Muggoth, an ancient, evil demon that makes the Amityville Horror seem like Casper the Friendly Ghost. But Bog-Muggoth isn’t making his haunted house call alone. Other vile gods from beyond time and space will be joining in the festivities to make the world their oyster - and leave it an empty shell.

Don't look now, but a mad scientist has discovered the secret of (temporary) invisibility. He's not planning to sneak into the movies, either. He's mad, remember? He wants...revenge! It doesn't take a genius to see right through the faded fiend's transparent scheme: a festival of murder, destruction, and cheap practical jokes. But only one man can clean those unsightly stains on the fabric of society.... Kent Montana. He's the descendant of Scottish nobility, or so he claims.

IT is big. IT is ugly. IT has a heat ray and a bad disposition. IT is, in short, the worst thing to happen to New Jersey since the last election. Nothing can stop IT. Not the army. Not the scientist. Not the preacher. Not even a cute little girl and her dog. Only one man can save us all.... Kent Montana.

Down on the bayou, folks called the creature Zergopha. It had been around for quite a spell, slithering through the swamp, chowing down on the odd tourist here and there. Lately, though, it seemed to be after something more than a one-night snack. Affection, maybe. Possibly even...commitment. Now it's spring, and an immortal monster's bizarre fancy has turned to thoughts of weird love. Only one man is the unlucky object of Zergopha's affections.... Kent Montana.

Book Three of the Quest for the White Duck. Gideon Sunday, an ex-football player who found himself mysteriously transported to the magical world of Chey, must find a way to stop Agnes, the evil wife of the sorcerer Wamchu.