Elizabeth Hand

Even time travel can’t unravel loveTime-travel is a way for writers to play with history and imagine different futures – for better, or worse.When romance is thrown into the mix, time-travel becomes a passionate tool, or heart-breaking weapon. A time agent in the 22nd century puts their whole mission at risk when they fall in love with the wrong person. No matter which part of history a man visits, he cannot not escape his ex. A woman is desperately in love with the time-space continuum, but it doesn’t love her back. As time passes and falls apart, a time-traveller must say goodbye to their soulmate.With stories from best-selling and award-winning authors such as Seanan McGuire, Alix E. Harrow and Nina Allan, this anthology gives a taste for the rich treasure trove of stories we can imagine with love, loss and reunion across time and space. Including stories by: Alix E. Harrow, Zen Cho, Seanan McGuire, Sarah Gailey, Jeffrey Ford, Nina Allan, Elizabeth Hand, Lavanya Lakshminarayan, Catherynne M. Valente, Sam J. Miller, Rowan Coleman, Margo Lanagan, Sameem Siddiqui, Theodora Goss, Carrie Vaughn, Ellen Klages

The spirits of the dead have walked among our legends, myths, and stories since before recorded history. Ghostly visitations, hauntings, unquiet souls seeking the living, vengeful wraiths, the possibility of life beyond the grave that can somehow reach out and touch us are some of literature’s most enduring icons. Now, in the twenty-first century, we are no less fascinated with phantoms than our cave-dwelling ancestors or our Victorian-age forebears. Thirty modern masters of fright and fantasy fill this anthology with shivers, chills, and spooky explorations of both sides of the veil. Be prepared to keep a light on all night!

Strobe-lit against an apocalyptic background of rock and roll, rave culture, fast drugs, and transgressive photography, Hard Light continues the breathless, breathtaking saga of Cassandra Neary in the series that began with Generation Loss and Available Dark. Fleeing Reykjavik and a cluster of cult murders, Cass lands in London to rendezvous with her longtime lover Quinn, a person of interest to both Interpol and the Russian mob. Only Quinn doesn’t show up. Alone in London and fearing the worst, Cass hooks up with a singer-songwriter with her own dark past, who brings her to the wrong party. Cass becomes entangled with the party’s host, Mallo Tierney, an eccentric gangster with a penchant for cigar cutters and neatly-wrapped packages, and a trio of dissolute groupies connected to a notorious underground filmmaker. Forced to run Mallo’s contraband, Cass is suddenly enmeshed in a web of murder, betrayal, and artistic and sexual obsession that extends from London to the stark beauty of Land’s End , where she uncovers an archaeological enigma that could change our view of human history-if she survives.

Following the death of reclusive photographer Aphrodite Kamestos the police would like to talk to Cass Neary, but before they can bring her in, Cass accepts a job offer and hops on a plane.In Helsinki, she authenticates a series of disturbing but stunning images taken by a famous fashion photographer who has cut himself off from the violent Nordic music scene where he first made his reputation. Paid off by her shady employer, she buys a one-way ticket to Reykjavik, in search of a lover from her own dark past.But when the fashion photographer's mutilated corpse is discovered back in Finland, Cass finds herself sucked into a vortex of ancient myth and betrayal, vengeance and serial murder, set against a bone-splintering soundtrack of black metal and the terrifying beauty of the sunless Icelandic wilderness.In Available Dark, the sequel to the award-winning Generation Loss, Cass Neary finds her own worst fears confirmed: it's always darkest before it turns completely black.

Cass Neary is not afraid of living on the edge. A photographer whose shots of New York's punk scene in the seventies briefly earned her fame, cache, and a cultish kind of cool, Cass has spent much of her life since then in the dark, watching and waiting. But thirty years later she is alone, adrift, and falling rapidly into oblivion. So when an old acquaintance asks her to interview a fellow photographer - a notorious recluse who lives on an island off the coast of Maine - she accepts. There, she stumbles across a decades-old crime still claiming new victims. Amid this inhospitable hinterland, Cass comes to realise that her final shot might also be her shot at redemption. First published in 2007, Generation Loss is a mesmerizing literary crime thriller from the author of A Haunting on the Hill.

THE FIRST AUTHORISED FOLLOW-UP NOVEL TO THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE 'A fitting - and frightening - homage to The Haunting of Hill House ' NEW YORK TIMES'Full of totemic menace and a heart-in-mouth, can't-look-away frisson' BRIDGET COLLINS'Beautifully creepy. Welcome back to Hill House' ALIX E. HARROW'Like Hill House itself, this accomplished tribute stands alone: disturbing and unforgettable' GUARDIAN'A Haunting on the Hill captures the essence of the original whilst offering something brand new' CARLY REAGON**Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar**______Whatever walks there, no longer walks alone . . .Playwright Holly Sherwin is close to her big break. Having received a grant to develop her new play, all she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. Then on a weekend away, she stumbles upon Hill House - an ornate if crumbling gothic mansion, near-hidden outside a small town.Soon Holly's troupe of actors - each with ghosts of their own - arrive at Hill House for a creative retreat. But before long they find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself.For something has been waiting patiently in Hill House all these years.Something no longer content to walk alone.

**Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar**SIXTY YEARS LATER, HILL HOUSE IS OCCUPIED AGAIN . . . 'Scary and beautifully written, imbued with the same sense of dread and inevitability as Jackson's original' NEIL GAIMAN'A fitting - and frightening - homage to The Haunting of Hill House' NEW YORK TIMES'Disturbing and unforgettable' GUARDIAN'It's so vivid, full of totemic menace and with a heart-in-your-mouth, can't-look-away frisson' BRIDGET COLLINSDiscover the landmark first novel ever to return to Hill House, officially authorised by the Shirley Jackson estate.'Genuinely sinister and beautifully written' ROSIE ANDREWS'Welcome back to Hill House. Read by daylight, and never alone' ALIX E. HARROW'Hill House is back and as haunting as ever. Some of the most striking scares I've read in years' ANA REYES_______Whatever walks there, no longer walks alone . . .Playwright Holly Sherwin is close to her big break. Having received a grant to develop her new play, all she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. Then on a weekend away, she stumbles upon Hill House - an ornate if crumbling gothic mansion, near-hidden outside a small town.Soon Holly's troupe of actors - each with ghosts of their own - arrive at Hill House for a creative retreat. But before long they find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself.For something has been waiting patiently in Hill House all these years.Something no longer content to walk alone. _______'Evocative and unsettling, capturing the essence of the original whilst offering something brand new' CARLY REAGON'A novel dripping in atmosphere and intrigue' JOANNE BURN'As unnerving and disorienting as Hill House itself' LAURA SHEPPERSON'A subtle and deeply unnerving ghost story' AMANDA MASON'Creepy, tragic, and haunting. I tore through its pages' VICTOR LaVALLE'Not a simple act of ventriloquism but a true marriage of minds' DAN CHAON

From award-winning author Elizabeth Hand comes the first-ever novel authorized to return to the world of Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House--an "eerily beautiful, strangely seductive, and genuinely upsetting" (Alix E. Harrow) new story of isolation and longing perfect for our present time. **Named a Best Book of the Year by The New Yorker, The Washington Post, and Harper's Bazaar** Open the door . . . . Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play Witching Night, she may finally be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It's enormous, old, and ever-so eerie--the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play. Despite her own hesitations, Holly's girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house's peculiarities are made known: strange creatures stalk the grounds, disturbing sounds echo throughout the halls, and time itself seems to shift. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself. It seems something has been waiting in Hill House all these years, and it no longer intends to walk alone . . . "A fitting--and frightening--homage." --New York Times Book Review "It's thrilling to find this is a true hybrid of these two ingenious women's work--a novel with all the chills of Jackson that also highlights the contemporary flavor and evocative writing of Hand." --Washington Post "Only the brilliant Elizabeth Hand could so expertly honor Jackson's rage, wit, and vision." --Paul Tremblay

On a whim, Grady Kendall applies to work as a live-in caretaker for a luxury property in Hawai?i, as far from his small-town Maine life as he can imagine. Within days he's flying out to an estate on remote Hokuloa Road, where he quickly uncovers a dark side to the island's idyllic reputation: it has long been a place where people vanish without a trace.When a young woman from his flight becomes the next to disappear, Grady is determined-and soon desperate-to figure out what's happened to Jessie, and to all those staring out of the island's "missing" posters. But working with Raina, Jessie's fiercely protective best friend, to uncover the truth is anything but easy, and with an inexplicable and sinister presence stalking his every step, Grady can only hope he'll find the answer before it's too late.Perfect for fans of Peter Heller and The White Lotus, and from award-winning writer Elizabeth Hand, a master of crime fiction known for her magnetic characters, seductive prose, and fearless excavations into the darkest corners of our world, comes a chilling and illuminating new novel about a place unlike any other-and the deadly cost of keeping it so."Set in a Hawaii so vividly imagined I'm still shaking sand out of my shoes."-Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of The Final Girl Support Group"Twisty and dark . . . easily one of the best thrillers I've read." -Rachel Hawkins, New York Times bestselling author of The Wife Upstairs"This is the perfect book for your summer beach bag-an evocative mystery set in a tropical island paradise." -Jason Rekulak, author of Hidden Pictures

An intrepid young woman stalks a murderer through turn-of-the-century Chicago in "this rich, spooky, and atmospheric thriller that will appeal to fans of Henry Darger and Erik Larson alike" (Sarah McCarry). In the sweltering summer of 1915, Pin, the fourteen-year-old daughter of a carnival fortune-teller, dresses as a boy and joins a teenage gang that roams the famous Riverview amusement park, looking for trouble. Unbeknownst to the well-heeled city-dwellers and visitors who come to enjoy the midway, the park is also host to a ruthless killer who uses the shadows of the dark carnival attractions to conduct his crimes. When Pin sees a man enter the Hell Gate ride with a young girl, and emerge alone, she knows that something horrific has occurred. The crime will lead her to the iconic outsider artist Henry Darger, a brilliant but seemingly mad man. Together, the two navigate the seedy underbelly of a changing city to uncover a murderer few even know to look for.

Acclaimed crime writer Elizabeth Hand returns to her "fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful" cult-favorite series: Photographer Cass Neary is hard-up for cash and in more danger than she realizes on the hunt for an ancient, legendary book (Tess Gerritsen). Photographer Cass Neary is desperate to get home, and she's already lost her camera -- like losing a limb. Now her only chance is to cash in on a deal that a friend is about to cut for a legendary illuminated manuscript: The Book of Lamps and Banners. Rumored to have been rescued from the Library at Alexandria, the Book is said to contain ancient esoteric knowledge, even an otherworldly power. So when an intruder brazenly steals the manuscript, Cass and her ex-con lover Quinn must get it back-plunging headlong into a shady underworld where antiquarian booksellers, unhinged tech entrepreneurs, and brutal nationalists all converge. This breathless psychological thriller, featuring one of the greatest amateur sleuths of the past decade, could only come from the mind of Elizabeth Hand. "Kaleidoscopic, dark, and mysterious . . . This novel is a jaw-punch, written with a snarling grace." -- Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World"I love Cass Neary . . . . Her latest misadventure is vivid and haunting, braiding the ancient and occult with the unholy frights of the modern world." ―Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay"Elizabeth Hand has delivered a startling book that is dirty, wise, aching, and almost magical."―Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women

Acclaimed crime writer Elizabeth Hand returns to her "fiercely frightening yet hauntingly beautiful" cult-favorite series: Photographer Cass Neary is hard-up for cash and in more danger than she realizes on the hunt for an ancient, legendary book (Tess Gerritsen). Photographer Cass Neary is desperate to get home, and she's already lost her camera -- like losing a limb. Now her only chance is to cash in on a deal that a friend is about to cut for a legendary illuminated manuscript: The Book of Lamps and Banners. Rumored to have been rescued from the Library at Alexandria, the Book is said to contain ancient esoteric knowledge, even an otherworldly power. So when an intruder brazenly steals the manuscript, Cass and her ex-con lover Quinn must get it back-plunging headlong into a shady underworld where antiquarian booksellers, unhinged tech entrepreneurs, and brutal nationalists all converge. This breathless psychological thriller, featuring one of the greatest amateur sleuths of the past decade, could only come from the mind of Elizabeth Hand. "Kaleidoscopic, dark, and mysterious . . . This novel is a jaw-punch, written with a snarling grace." -- Paul Tremblay, author of The Cabin at the End of the World "I love Cass Neary . . . . Her latest misadventure is vivid and haunting, braiding the ancient and occult with the unholy frights of the modern world." ―Steph Cha, author of Your House Will Pay "Elizabeth Hand has delivered a startling book that is dirty, wise, aching, and almost magical."―Ivy Pochoda, author of These Women

Cass Neary made her name in the 1970s as a photographer embedded in the burgeoning punk movement in New York City. Her pictures of the musicians and hangers on, the infamous, the damned, and the dead, got her into art galleries and a book deal. But thirty years later she is adrift, on her way down, and almost out. Then an old acquaintance sends her on a mercy gig to interview a famously reclusive photographer who lives on an island in Maine. When she arrives Downeast, Cass stumbles across a decades-old mystery that is still claiming victims, and into one final shot at redemption. Generation Loss is the Shirley Jackson Award winning novel that launched Elizabeth Hand's ex-punk photographer Cass Neary into the world.

The title story, "Fire." written especially for this volume, is a harrowing postapocalyptic adventure in a world threated by global conflagration. Based on Hand's real-life experience as a participant in a governmental climate change think tank, it follows a ragtag cadre of scientists and artists racing to save both civilization and themselves from fast-moving global fires. "The Woman Men Couldn't See" is an expansion of Hand's acclaimed critical assessment of author Alice Sheldon, who wrote award-winning SF as "James Tiptree, Jr." in order to conceal identity from both the SF community and her CIA overlords. Another nonfiction piece, "Beyond Belief" recounts her difficult passage from alienated teen to serious artist. Also included are "Kronia," a poignant time-travel romance, and "The Saffron Gatherers," two of Hand's favorite and less familiar stories. Plus: a bibliography and our candid and illuminating Outspoken Interview with one of today's most inventive authors.