valancourt books apr 2013 (4 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - '[A] tale of psychic terror . . . arresting . . . a poetical explorationof dark mind-scapes.' - Times Literary Supplement'[A] very well done novel. . . . Very highly recommended.' - The Ladder'A delightful surprise for fans of the macabre. Simon Armstrong descends into a world of vampirism, lycanthropy, and more . . . Or, is it a more prosaic though no less terrifying descent into madness ' - John Pelan, editor of The Century's Best Horror FictionSimon and Laura Armstrong's marriage is on the rocks. His drinking and abuse of prescription drugs are getting worse and blackouts and violence are occurring with greater frequency. Laura believes things are going to get better: Simon has just been appointed to an important post in the university's English department, the couple are adopting a daughter, and Simon has almost finished work on an important new book, The Cult of the Vampire. Knowing of Simon's vampire fixation, his friend Dr Charles Abbott introduces him to a patient of his, a beautiful and bewitching young woman named Stella Johnson, who is convinced she has been bitten by a vampire and can no longer see her reflection in a mirror. But Abbott cannot foresee the ultimate consequences of bringing Simon and Stella together, or the violence and tragedy that will ensue. . . .The only novel by noted poet Thomas Blackburn (1916-1977), The Feast of the Wolf (1971) is a strange and unique take on the vampire myth. This edition, the first since the book's original publication, includes a new foreword by the author's daughter, Julia Blackburn, herself an acclaimed writer, who explains how the novel reflects in part her father's own struggles with mental illness and substance abuse.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - 'Our only current writer who can induce such terror as the Grimm Brothers did.' - Times Literary Supplement'A real chiller. . . . The book moves rapidly from beginning to end and Hitchcock ought to be advised. It would make a heck of a movie.' - Evening News'He is certainly the best British novelist in his field and deserves the widest recognition.' - Penguin Encyclopedia of Horror and the SupernaturalWhen a dead prostitute is found floating in the river, the local police assume it's just another routine murder. But when it turns out the woman may have been a notorious East German spy, General Charles Kirk and his assistants, Michael Howard and Penny Wise, are called in from the Foreign Intelligence Office to investigate. Kirk is baffled: the evidence of numerous impeccable witnesses proves the murder could not possibly have happened, and yet there's a dead body in the morgue to show that it did. The only clue is a wooden idol in the form of a hideous, misshapen boy, found in the dead woman's room. Soon Kirk realizes that this is no case of espionage: what he is up against is an evil centuries old and long thought vanished from the earth. And when Kirk and his colleagues get close to the truth, can they unravel the mystery before they become the next victims John Blackburn (1923-1993) was the author of more than thirty popular thrillers in which he blended the genres of mystery, horror, and science fiction in unique and often brilliant ways. Although recognized as the best British horror writer of his time, his works have been sadly neglected since his death. This new edition of Broken Boy (1959), Blackburn's third novel, includes a new introduction by Greg Gbur.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - '[A] very unusual story [.] an interest develops strongly, it increases, and we move on to a climax that is full of excitement. Nothing save the book itself can indicate its peculiar atmosphere and its real merit.' - Daily Telegraph'A very exquisite book, written with rare charm and great art.' - Manchester Guardian'A book of distinction and charm.' - New York Times'There are few contemporary stories of childhood reaching the artistic height of The Spring Song.' - Springfield RepublicanThirteen-year-old Grif Weston and his siblings, Barbara, Ann, Jim, Edward, and Edward's friend Palmer Dorset, travel to their grandfather's home in rural Ireland, where they hope to pass an eventful summer. Unexpected dangers and adventures lurk, as the children must solve the kidnapping of their beloved dog Pouncer and thwart a burglary attempt on Grandpapa's house. Yet there is another danger, far more sinister, involving Billy Tremaine, a local boy who died at age fourteen in a tragedy no one wants to talk about. When Grif hears a mysterious figure singing an old tune called 'The Spring Song,' old Mr. Bradley tells him that it's Billy's ghost, trying to lure Grif into joining him in the world of the dead; shortly afterwards Grif falls ill with an inexplicable sickness. But Palmer Dorset, an avid reader of Sherlock Holmes tales, is determined to solve these mysteries, and he'll risk every danger to find the truth behind Mr. Bradley's ghastly stories and Grif's unexplainable illness. . . .Forrest Reid (1875-1947) is unequaled among English-language writers in his novels of boyhood and adolescence. In The Spring Song (1916), he weaves a classic boys' adventure tale with a chilling ghost story in the vein of Henry James's The Turn of the Screw. This edition, the first since the novel's original publication, is newly typeset from the original edition and features a new introduction by Mark Valentine.

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - 'So remarkable in truth is this novel that I cannot understand why it is not universally known and admired.' - Hugh Walpole'I Am Jonathan Scrivener remains a tantalizing, highly diverting philosophical novel of rare elegance and wit.' - Michael DirdaJames Wrexham is thirty-nine, lonely, and stuck in a dead-end job when he comes upon an advertisement for a position as secretary to Mr. Jonathan Scrivener. Much to his surprise, he is hired at a lavish salary despite never even meeting Scrivener, and he is told to take up residence at once in the flat of his new employer, who has suddenly disappeared. Mystified by Scrivener's strange conduct and desperate to learn something about him, it seems Wrexham will get the answers he seeks when Scrivener's friends begin to visit the flat: Pauline Mandeville, an ethereal beauty, Francesca Bellamy, a widow who may responsible for the death of her husband, Andrew Middleton, a disillusioned alcoholic, and Antony Rivers, a handsome playboy. But as each of them unfolds his story about Scrivener, it seems that none of them are describing the same person, though all are obsessed with finding him. Why has he hired Wrexham, and why does he seem to have thrust this unlikely group of people together Is Scrivener engaged in an inscrutable experiment, or could he be laying some kind of trap And will this enigmatic figure ever appear and say, 'I am Jonathan Scrivener' Popular in his time for his psychological thrillers, Claude Houghton (1889-1961) was admired by writers as diverse as P. G. Wodehouse, Henry Miller, Hugh Walpole, and Graham Greene, but has fallen into neglect in the past half-century. This new edition restores his masterpiece I Am Jonathan Scrivener (1930) to print and includes Walpole's introduction from the 1935 edition and an essay by Pulitzer Prize winning critic and Washington Post columnist Michael Dirda.