Cherie Priest

Ronnie doesn't know it yet, but her fate rests in the hands of the dead. Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. And she's not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan—her eternal nemesis—watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita's unrelenting wrath.Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it's Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house's blood-soaked history. But her arrival has stirred up more than just dust and decay. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence.Venita's fury awakens, and a deadly game unfolds.Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie's skepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn't as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita's house, survival might be just an illusion.

"This smartly paced, genre bending novel is a good choice for the horror-curious thriller reader who enjoyed The Good House by Tananarive Due and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.” —Booklist, Starred Review“Cherie Priest is our new queen of darkness, folks. Time to kneel before her, lest she take our heads.” —Chuck Wendig, author of The Book of Accidents Houses fall into the Pacific Ocean all the time.Not one has ever come back. Until today.A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers—but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all. Now they’ll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place—and on the way they’ll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he’s bringing back to Marrowstone Island. From award-winning author Cherie Priest comes a deeply haunting and atmospheric horror-thriller that explores the lengths we'll go to protect those we love.

“Who put Ellen in the blackgum tree?” Decades after trespassing children spotted the desiccated corpse wedged in the treetop, no one knows the answer. Kate Thrush and her former college professor, Dr. Judith Kane, travel to Cinderwich, Tennessee in hopes that maybe it was their Ellen: Katie’s lost aunt, Judith’s long-gone lover. But they’re not the only ones to have come here looking for closure. The people of Cinderwich, a town hardly more than a skeleton itself, are staunchly resistant to the outsiders’ questions about Ellen and her killer. And the deeper the two women dig, the more rot they unearth … the closer they come to exhuming the evil that lies, hungering, at the roots of Cinderwich.

CINDERWICH is a mystery/thriller southern gothic novel set in dying Tennessee town that is known for one thing: the mysterious death of a young woman decades prior. A journalist, along with her college mentor, travel to rural Tennessee finding answers that by turns are familial and unexpected. CINDERWICH is a return, in some ways, to the thematic concerns of Cherie's early work set in the American South such as FOUR AND TWENTY BLACKBIRDS and NOT FLESH NOR FEATHERS.

Inconsistent psychic Leda Foley and Seattle detective Grady Merritt return to solve the case of a missing couple in this sequel to the "delightful" (The New York Times Book Review) mystery Grave Reservations. When psychic travel agent Leda Foley is approached by a man searching for his sister, she quickly agrees to help. The missing woman disappeared with a vintage orange car, a fat sack of her employer's cash, and a grudge against her philandering husband--a man who never even reported her missing. Meanwhile, Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt has temporarily misplaced his dog. While he's passing out bright pink "Lost" flyers at the Mount Rainier visitor's center, the wayward pooch appears--with a human leg in his mouth. Thanks to DNA matching, Grady learns that the leg has something to do with Leda's new client, and soon the two cases are tangled. Theories abound, but law enforcement is low on leads. Lucky for Grady, Leda has a few ideas that might just be crazy enough to work. They'll need one yellow dog, a fair share of teamwork, and perhaps a bit of Klairvoyant Karaoke to piece the clues together in this "undeniable treat" (Gwenda Bond, New York Times bestselling author) of a mystery.

Tales of tentacles, terror, and madness from the publisher who brought you Wastelands, The Living Dead, and Brave New Worlds First described by visionary author H. P. Lovecraft, the Cthulhu mythos encompass a pantheon of truly existential cosmic horror: Eldritch, uncaring, alien god-things, beyond mankind’s deepest imaginings, drawing ever nearer, insatiably hungry, until one day, when the stars are right.… As that dread day, hinted at within the moldering pages of the fabled Necronomicon, draws nigh, tales of the Great Old Ones—Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and the weird cults that worship them—have cross-pollinated, drawing authors and other dreamers to imagine the strange dark aeons ahead, when the dead-but-dreaming gods return. Now, intrepid anthologist Ross E. Lockhart has delved deep into the Cthulhu canon, selecting from myriad mind-wracking tomes twenty-seven sanity-shattering stories of cosmic terror. Featuring fiction by many of today’s masters of the menacing, macabre, and monstrous, including Laird Barron, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Thomas Ligotti, The Book of Cthulhu goes where no collection of Cthulhu mythos tales has gone before: to the very edge of madness... and beyond! Do you dare open The Book of Cthulhu? Do you dare heed the call?

A psychic travel agent and a Seattle PD detective try to solve a murder in this "ebullient tap dance of a mystery" (Christopher Moore, New York Times bestselling author)--perfect for fans of Lisa Lutz's The Spellman Files and Elle Cosimano's Finlay Donovan series. Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent, and inconsistent psychic. Impulsively re-booking Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt's flight, she has no idea that her life is about to change in ways she could have never foretold. When his original plane blows up on the runway, Grady begins to suspect that Leda's special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can't crack. Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees to join the investigation for a secret reason: her fianc 's murder remains unsolved. Leda's psychic abilities couldn't help that sad case, but she's been honing her skills and drawing a crowd at her favorite bar's open-mic nights, where she performs her klairvoyant karaoke--singing whatever song comes to mind when she holds people's personal effects. Now joined by a ragtag group of bar patrons and pals, Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer--and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.

A haunted house, a killer ghost, and a long-lost comic come to life in another spectacular package of novel and comics from Cherie Priest, author of I Am Princess X.Denise Farber has just moved back to New Orleans with her mom and stepdad. They left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and have finally returned, wagering the last of their family's money on fixing up an old, rundown house and converting it to a bed and breakfast.Nothing seems to work around the place, which doesn't seem too weird to Denise. The unexplained noises are a little more out of the ordinary, but again, nothing too unusual. But when floors collapse, deadly objects rain down, and she hears creepy voices, it's clear to Denise that something more sinister lurks hidden here.Answers may lie in an old comic book Denise finds concealed in the attic: the lost, final project of a famous artist who disappeared in the 1950s. Denise isn't budging from her new home, so she must unravel the mystery-on the pages and off-if she and her family are to survive...

Take a road trip into a Southern gothic horror novel. Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon and have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car. Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177.

A haunted house, a killer ghost, and a long-lost comic come to life in another spectacular package of novel and comics from Cherie Priest, author of I Am Princess X.Denise Farber has just moved back to New Orleans with her mom and step-dad. They left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and have finally returned, wagering the last of their family's money on fixing up an old, rundown house and converting it to a bed and breakfast. Nothing seems to work around the place, which doesn't seem too weird to Denise. The unexplained noises are a little more out of the ordinary, but again, nothing too unusual. But when floors collapse, deadly objects rain down, and she hears creepy voices, it's clear to Denise that something more sinister lurks hidden here.Answers may lie in an old comic book Denise finds concealed in the attic: the lost, final project of a famous artist who disappeared in the 1950s. Denise isn't budging from her new home, so she must unravel the mystery-on the pages and off-if she and her family are to survive...

An anthology of horror stories in urban settings-whether back alleys, crumbling brownstones, gleaming high-rise towers, or city hall. Terrifying urban myths, malicious ghosts, cursed architecture, malignant city deities, personal demons (in business or relationships) twisted into something worse...virtually anything that inspires the contributors to imagine some bit of urban darkness.

A new dark historical fantasy from the "supremely gifted"* Cherie Priest, author of Mapelcroft and Boneshaker. In the trenches of Europe during the Great War, Tom s Cordero operated a weapon more devastating than any gun: a flame projector that doused the enemy in liquid fire. Having left the battlefield a shattered man, he comes home to find yet more tragedy--for in his absence, his wife has died of the flu. Haunted by memories of the woman he loved and the atrocities he perpetrated, Tom s dreams of fire and finds himself setting match to flame when awake.... Alice Dartle is a talented clairvoyant living among others who share her gifts in the community of Cassadaga, Florida. She too dreams of fire, knowing her nightmares are connected to the shell-shocked war veteran and widower. And she believes she can bring peace to him and his wife's spirit. But the inferno that threatens to consume Tom s and Alice was set ablaze centuries ago by someone whose hatred transcended death itself.... *Christopher Golden, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author

Ex-spy ‘Belle Boyd’ is retired – more or less. Retired from spying on the Confederacy anyway. Her short-lived marriage to a Union navy boy cast suspicion on those Southern loyalties, so her mid-forties found her unemployed, widowed and disgraced. Until her life-changing job offer from the staunchly Union Pinkerton Detective Agency. When she’s required to assist Abraham Lincoln himself, she has to put any old loyalties firmly aside – for a man she spied against twenty years ago. Lincoln’s friend Gideon Bardsley, colleague and ex-slave, is targeted for assassination after the young inventor made a breakthrough. Fiddlehead, Bardsley’s calculating engine, has proved the world is facing an extraordinary threat. Meaning it's not the time for civil war. Now Bardsley and Fiddlehead are in great danger as forces conspire to keep this potentially unifying secret, the war moving and the money flowing. With spies from both camps gunning for her, can even the notorious Belle Boyd hold the war-hawks at bay? Cherie Priest has been hailed as 'the High Priestess of Steampunk' - and you can see why in this latest wonderfully written adventure.

Josephine Early, New Orleans brothel owner and Union spy, has a mission. And it might just end the Civil War. She must deliver Ganymede, an astonishing prototype submarine, to the North. But the giant war machine is at the bottom of a lake, no one has safely piloted it and she must sneak its huge bulk past enemy forces. Luckily, she knows the right man for the job. She hasn’t seen former lover and air-pirate Andan Cly for years, but has a sweet job to tempt him back. He agrees to help, but his primary mission is to retrieve supplies for blighted Seattle, where noxious gas has forced residents underground and undead rotters menace the city. Although legit, the Seattle run makes Cly uncomfortable. He no longer flies sap, disapproving of the drug’s ugly side-effects, and the job is funded with sap money. Josephine’s jaunt could be a great distraction. But will they make history, or end up at the bottom of the ocean? 'Priest is at the top of her game ... the best yet’ Publishers Weekly, ‘Ganymede centres on intrigue and espionage’, SFRevu.com, ‘Alternative history storytelling at its finest’ BookSlut.com

Best friends, big fans, a mysterious webcomic, and a long-lost girl collide in this riveting novel, illustrated throughout with comics, and now out in paperback.Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure.Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window.Princess X?When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon -- her best friend, Libby, who lives.

From Cherie Priest, the award-winning author of" Maplecroft," comes a new tale of Lizzie Borden's continuing war against the cosmic horrors threatening humanity... Birmingham, Alabama is infested with malevolence. Prejudice and hatred have consumed the minds and hearts of its populace. A murderer, unimaginatively named "Harry the Hacker" by the press, has been carving up citizens with a hatchet. And from the church known as Chapelwood, an unholy gospel is being spread by a sect that worships dark gods from beyond the heavens. This darkness calls to Lizzie Borden. It is reminiscent of an evil she had dared hoped was extinguished. The parishioners of Chapelwood plan to sacrifice a young woman to summon beings never meant to share reality with humanity. An apocalypse will follow in their wake which will scorch the earth of all life. Unless she stops it...

Best friends, big fans, a mysterious webcomic, and a long-lost girl collide in this riveting novel, perfect for fans of both Cory Doctorow and Sarah Dessen, & illustrated throughout with comics.Once upon a time, two best friends created a princess together. Libby drew the pictures, May wrote the tales, and their heroine, Princess X, slayed all the dragons and scaled all the mountains their imaginations could conjure. Once upon a few years later, Libby was in the car with her mom, driving across the Ballard Bridge on a rainy night. When the car went over the side, Libby passed away, and Princess X died with her.Once upon a now: May is sixteen and lonely, wandering the streets of Seattle, when she sees a sticker slapped in a corner window. Princess X? When May looks around, she sees the Princess everywhere: Stickers. Patches. Graffiti. There's an entire underground culture, focused around a webcomic at IAmPrincessX.com. The more May explores the webcomic, the more she sees disturbing similarities between Libby's story and Princess X online. And that means that only one person could have started this phenomenon---her best friend, Libby, who lives.

Lizzie Borden took an axe and gave her mother forty whacks; and when she saw what she had done, she gave her father forty-one.... The people of Fall River, Massachusetts, fear me. Perhaps rightfully so. I remain a suspect in the brutal deaths of my father and his second wife despite the verdict of innocence at my trial. With our inheritance, my sister, Emma, and I have taken up residence in Maplecroft, a mansion near the sea and far from gossip and scrutiny. But it is not far enough from the affliction that possessed my parents. Their characters, their very souls, were consumed from within by something that left malevolent entities in their place. It originates from the ocean's depths, plaguing the populace with tides of nightmares and madness. This evil cannot hide from me. No matter what guise it assumes, I will be waiting for it. With an axe.