Horror Supernatural Suspense

This issue of Weird Tales presents a batch of entirely new short stories, flash fiction, poems, and an essay dealing with monsters who defy death, including zombies, vampires, mummies, and various and assorted revenants. There are some real heavy hitters here—bestsellers and names listeners might not yet know … but should. And will.

Lily and Ian's families come to Frederickport to celebrate Connor's first birthday. Bringing the in-laws together is not always easy, especially when uninvited guests from the spirit realm show up....

When Ishmael Jones and his partner Penny are asked to escort a VIP on the late-night train to Bath, it would appear to be a routine case. The Organisation has acquired intelligence that an attempt is to be made on Sir Dennis Gregson’s life as he travels to Bath to take up his new position as Head of the British Psychic Weapons Division. Ishmael’s mission is to ensure that Sir Dennis arrives safely. How could anyone orchestrate a murder in a crowded railway carriage without being noticed and with no obvious means of escape?

On September 11, 2001, a man drifts in a boat off lower Manhattan as the twin towers burn. He removes a small box from his pocket and presses a button. As he waits for the south tower to collapse, he thinks: The vast majority will blame the collapse on the crazy Arabs who hijacked the planes and the Islamic extremists who funded them - the obvious choice. A few will notice inconsistencies and point fingers elsewhere, blaming the government or Big Oil or some other powerful but faceless entity. No one - absolutely no one - will guess the truth behind the who and why of this day.

Ken Fujima, a downtrodden substitute teacher from suburban Pennsylvania, is trying to rebuild his life when his home is broken into by a pair of West Coast assassins. As part of a revenge scheme, they attack his wheelchair-bound father, forcing Ken to intervene. During the scuffle Ken picks up a mysterious revolver to defend himself. What he soon learns is that the revolver is a cursed yakuza weapon that will remain fused to his hand until he either dies or kills six other people.

Hollywood descends on Marlow House in preproduction for the movie adaptation of Walt's best-selling novel, Moon Runners. Hoping for inspiration, they found death instead. There's a murderer loose, and as the body count increases, secrets are revealed - and it starts to get a little crowded with all these new ghosts hanging around.

The nightmare home. We thought we'd found our haven, a cottage deep in the heart of the forest. Quaint, charming, maybe a little run-down, but so peaceful. The woodland animals and birds couldn't have been more neighbourly. That was the first part of the Magic. Midge's painting and my music soared to new heights of creativity. That was another part of the Magic. Our sensing, our feelings, our love for each other - well, that became the supreme Magic. But the cottage had an alternative side. The Bad Magic.

Walt's distant cousin, Clint Marlow, could be his twin. When the unscrupulous cousin arrives at Marlow House with his fiancee, he conceals his real reason for being there. But, unknown to Walt - and his cousin - the universe has its own plans, and none of them will ever again be the same.

H.P. Lovecraft considered The Willows to be "the finest supernatural tale in English literature", and its appeal is obvious. In his tale of an adventurous duo who embark on a seemingly innocuous river trip down the Danube, Blackwood personifies the desolate willows to be ominous, alive, and menacing. The river itself brims with human passions, and the elemental winds and heavenly forces all combine to create a sense of a supernatural intelligence orchestrating it all.

Harmony Black is much more than your average FBI special agent. In addition to being a practicing witch, she's also an operative for Vigilant Lock, an off-the-books program created to battle occult threats - by any means necessary. Despite her dedication to fighting the monsters threatening society, Harmony has become deeply conflicted about her job. Her last investigation resulted in a pile of dead bodies, and she suspects the wrong people are being punished for it.

In the aftermath of a devastating fire, a prisoner is offered one chance at redemption in this haunting supernatural suspense from the author of USA Today bestseller, The Girl With All the Gifts. Fellside is a maximum security prison on the edge of the Yorkshire Moors. It's not the kind of place...

Verity Long would really like a day off. Between uncovering the culprit who capped her gangster ghost housemate and dodging the bomb her boyfriend just dropped on their relationship, her spiritual calling has gotten complicated. But when she steps out for a little fun at a church fundraiser, she has another mystery on her hands when a family friend plunges from the bell tower.

Sometimes, Verity Long would like to forget she lives with the ghost of a 1920s gangster. But the reluctant housemates must once again work together when a dead detective blackmails Frankie into helping him solve a Great Gatsby-era cold case. Before she can say “bathtub gin”, Verity is dragged straight into a raging, otherworldly house party. Worse, every guest is hiding something. Meanwhile, Ellis Wydell, Verity’s living, breathing boyfriend needs Verity’s help with a police case of his own.

Officer Brian Henderson knows there is something just not right about Walt Marlow, and he's determined to find out what it is. Meanwhile, Beverly's dead husband visits Danielle in a dream hop, telling her about his wife's part in his death. Can Danielle convince Brian to stop worrying about Walt and be a little more concerned about his new girlfriend, Beverly?

Texas? Toast. Battered by five cataclysmic hurricanes in three weeks, the Texas Gulf Coast and half of the Lone Star State is reeling from the worst devastation in history. Thousands are dead or dying - but the worst is only beginning. Amid the wreckage, something unimaginable is happening: a deadly virus has broken out, returning the dead to life - with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The nightmare begins...

It is World War II, and Britain faces increasing pressure and burden as the Nazis swarm across Europe. When the Duke de Richleau is asked to look into how Nazi U-boats know exactly where and when supply convoys in the Atlantic will be, he discovers that evil occult forces are at work. The duke discovers that a voodoo adept from Haiti is travelling on the astral plane to gain information regarding the convoys.

In the spring of 1903, locomotive 311, known as the Majestic, carried more than one hundred passengers toward a tunnel through the underbelly of the Canadian Rockies. But then the mouth of the tunnel swallowed the 311 whole, and the train—and everyone on it—was never seen again. Seven years later, a gang of cattle thieves and cutthroats wait on horseback for a train car full of railway cash—a payroll they intend to steal. What they will discover, however, is that the approaching train isn’t the 5409. It’s the missing 311, a train only whispered about around dying campfires.

The blizzard begins pummeling the Midwest on Christmas Eve, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded at Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Todd Curry doesn't need another reason to disappoint his son, so he joins three other people in renting the last four-wheel drive available and they set out into the blinding snow. Only two hours into the treacherous trip west, Todd swerves to avoid a man in the middle of the highway. The stranger claims his daughter is lost somewhere out in the snow.

After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her seventeen-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise.

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Pen handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's Film Noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.