The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts

DARK DELIGHTS FROM FIFTEEN CONJURERS OF THE CREEPY AND CREPUSCULAR!

Anthologies of ghost stories haunt bookshelves the world over, so why should you read The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts?

The answers are spooky in their simplicity. Firstly, you have to admit there’s no such thing as—oh, you thought I was going to say ghosts? How silly of you! No, not at all. I was going to say—too many ghost stories. We always have been and always will be mesmerised by tales from the other side—the great unknown. We tell ourselves that superstition is dead and that even if we do go on in some spiritual form—some metaphysical manifestation—after death, there’s no way the veil between planes of existence can be breached. We tell ourselves this whenever that sense of the uncanny creeps into our minds—every time that little detail doesn’t sit quite right. See great-granddad in the old photograph on the mantelpiece...wasn’t he facing left last time you looked? That cup of tea you made, just the way mum used to like it...doesn’t the steam rising from it remind you of her tender hand? Or is it your mind playing tricks on you? We can’t get enough of the chilling tales that tap into these feelings.

Now, if you’ve already read a Black Beacon Books anthology, you’ll know we love a nasty twist or a clever take on an old trope. That’s what we have in these haunted pages. You’ve read and loved all the classic voices, from M.R. James to May Sinclair, and you know all the big contemporary names in the genre, but how many of these fifteen conjurers of the creepy and the crepuscular have you already visited? These are their own dark delights, and you’ve never tasted strange fruit of the like ever before.

Turn the page, if you dare. By the time you reach the other end of the book, ready to step back out again, you’ll have changed ever so much, as will the world around you. Will you know which side of the veil you’re on?

• Sally’s in the Well by Sam Dawson
• Effigy in Flagrante by Matthew R. Davis
• The Spreading Rot by Leanbh Pearson
• The Widow of Wood Forge by C.M. Saunders
• The Ice Tigs by Rose Biggin
• The Gospel of Abbot Wulfbald by Lawrence Harding
• Red Dirt by Em Starr
• The Yūrei of Old Stonybrook Lane by Michael Picco
• Through a Looking Glass Darkly by Karen Keeley
• Where the Heart Is by Mike Adamson
• Fiachra Conneally’s Bargain by L.P. Ring
• Open Book by Cameron Trost
• The Creeper by David Turnbull
• Dead Angel Trail by Robert Allen Lupton
• A Passage in Time by E. Michael Lewis

Cover design by Meg Wright (Red Wallflower)