Valancourt Books

Don't miss out on our pre-Black Friday special: our two newest PAPERBACKS FROM HELL titles at 28% off, plus free US shipping! Both books for a flat $25 with free shipping (US customers only). Scroll down to the Black Friday logo: http://www.valancourtbooks.com/paperbacksfromhell.html

Now available! This first-ever collection of the author’s short fiction brings together a rich and varied assortment of fourteen tales, including several never before reprinted, four previously unpublished early tales, and two new stories written specially for this volume. 

Over the past four decades, few writers have created a body of work as distinctive – or disturbing – as Stephen Gregory’s. In his tales of death and madness the menace usually comes not from the supernatural, but from the natural, and particularly birds, which in Gregory’s fiction often bring terror on their dark wings.
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Included in this volume are the ghost stories ‘The Late Mr Lewis’ and ‘The Boys Who Wouldn’t Wake Up’ as well as the macabre ‘The Cormorant’, which provided the inspiration for Gregory’s classic novel of the same name. But not all of the tales in this book are horror stories. The avian-themed entries also include tales like ‘To Catch a Thief’, in which a series of inexplicable thefts is revealed to have an unexpected culprit and ‘The Blackbird’s Song’, in which a celebrated flute player whose career was cut short by an accident rediscovers music after a visit from a blackbird.

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Now available: 11 stories of the weird...the unspeakable...the bizarre. NIGHTSHADE AND DAMNATIONS! Selected and introduced by Harlan Ellison.

From the pages of Grady Hendrix's best-selling Paperbacks from Hell (Quirk Books, 2017), Valancourt Books is pleased to announce a new limited series of five long-unavailable paperback horror gems from the '70s and '80s, chosen by Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson (Too Much Horror Fiction).  All five titles will be available for a limited time in a special mass-market size format, and in some cases will feature their original glorious paperback cover art. Each book will feature a brand-new introduction written specially for this edition by either Hendrix or Errickson.

THE NEST  by Gregory A. Douglas, introduced by Will Errickson

It was just an ordinary garbage dump on peaceful Cape Cod. No one ever imagined that conditions were perfect for breeding, that it was a warm womb, fetid, moist, and with food so plentiful that everything creeping, crawling, and slithering could gorge to satiation. Then a change in poison control was made, resulting in an unforeseen mutation. Now the giant mutant cockroaches are ready to leave their nest--in search of human flesh!

WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US by Elizabeth Engstrom, introduced by Grady Hendrix

Sally Ann and Martha. Two Women, searching for love. Finding Terror. During a terrifying storm, a gentle childhood is destroyed by a twisted man who promises love but delivers nightmare. In the lightless depths of an underground labyrinth, unseen creatures lie in wait for an innocent traveler, cold skeletal hands stretched out in welcome.

THE TRIBE by Bari Wood, introduced by Grady Hendrix

Highly acclaimed when first published in 1981, The Tribe follows a group of Jewish people who not only survive the concentration camps, but thrive. Their secret follows them to modern-day Brooklyn, where they continue their relationship and keep their deadly cabal until one day a new threat arrives... Drawing on Jewish mythology and folklore, the novel also combines well-drawn characters and police procedural to create a memorable and humane horror novel. 

THE SPIRIT by Thomas Page, introduced by Grady Hendrix

It's the stuff of nightmares and legends. It has many names: Bigfoot... Yeti... Sasquatch. But whatever it is, it's out there in the woods, and very dangerous. For John Moon, a half-Indian, it holds the key to his inner self. He worships its power and he'll kill to protect it. Desperate, exhausted, half-starved, Moon will follow wherever it goes.

THE REAPING by Bernard Taylor, introduced by Will Errickson

Tom Rigby couldn't believe his luck when he was commissioned to paint a portrait at Woolvercome House. But strange, inexplicable events in the secluded country mansion soon changed his mind. And the longer he stayed  there, the deeper Tom was drawn into an impenetrable maze of horror.

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Now available:

Released from a prison sentence for manslaughter, Sidney De Lakes returns home to West Virginia, where, in order to exorcise the memory of the lover he killed, he must keep his appointment with destiny in the shape of the man known as “the Renderer”. In this story of the powerful, violent passions of four young men in the remote Appalachians, James Purdy has crafted one of his most haunting and memorable works.

Long neglected, James Purdy (1914-2009) is being rediscovered as one of the masters of 20th-century American fiction, and in Narrow Rooms (1978), which Giordano Tedoldi in the new introduction to this edition likens to classic works of Greek tragedy, Purdy is at his very best.

Reviews

“I read Narrow Rooms with delight and awe . . . It is a dark and splendid affair.” - Gore Vidal

“A spellbinder from the master of the modern tale.” - The Antioch Review

“A breathtaking and overpowering narrative concerning the sexual passion among four young men in a remote West Virginia mountain town.” - London Review of Books

Out now:

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From the pages of Grady Hendrix's best-selling Paperbacks from Hell: The Twisted History of '70s and '80s Horror Fiction (Quirk Books, 2017), Valancourt Books is pleased to announce a new limited series of five long-unavailable paperback horror gems from the '70s and '80s, chosen by Grady Hendrix and Will Errickson (Too Much Horror Fiction). All five titles will be available for a limited time in a special mass-market size format, and in some cases will feature their original glorious paperback cover art. Each book will feature a brand-new introduction written specially for this edition by either Hendrix or Errickson. 

A subscription service including all five books is available. See details below. The books included:

THE NEST by Gregory A. Douglas, introduced by Will Errickson

WHEN DARKNESS LOVES US by Elizabeth Engstrom, introduced by Grady Hendrix

THE TRIBE by Bari Wood, introduced by Grady Hendrix

THE SPIRIT by Thomas Page, introduced by Grady Hendrix

THE REAPING by Bernard Taylor, introduced by Will Errickson



The inaugural volume, Gregory A. Douglas's The Nest, goes on sale April 2, with one new volume per month thereafter. Collect them all! 

Book Description

It was just an ordinary garbage dump on peaceful Cape Cod. No one ever imagined that conditions were perfect for breeding, that it was a warm womb, fetid, moist, and with food so plentiful that everything creeping, crawling, and slithering could gorge to satiation. Then a change in poison control was made, resulting in an unforeseen mutation. Now the giant mutant cockroaches are ready to leave their nest—in search of human flesh!

Following in the footsteps of other “animal attack” classics like Jaws and The Rats, Gregory A. Douglas’s shocker The Nest (1980) is an ’80s paperback horror classic and was the basis for a 1988 cult film adaptation. This edition features a new introduction by Too Much Horror Fiction blogger Will Errickson.

PRE-ORDER NOW:

Individual paperbacks can be ordered at the list price of $16.99 each plus $3.49 shipping in the US/UK, or you can subscribe to the whole set for a flat $85, which covers all five books and the five separate shipping costs to send each one (US/UK only), working out to a discount of 20% off the list price on the books.

INFORMATION ABOUT SHIPPING

Books are sent out as they become available. If you pre-order all five books, you will receive one at a time. Pricing for the subscription service includes shipping to the US and UK.

INTERNATIONAL CUSTOMERS

If you are outside of the US and UK and you want to pre-order all five paperbacks, please contact us through our contact form with your address and we can send you a Paypal invoice with the exact shipping for your country. Books are sent out as they become available. If you pre-order all five books, you will receive one at a time. Ebooks can be purchased without contacting us.

Books purchased individually will have shipping calculated during checkout using the Paypal buttons.

Visit our website for ordering. 

Widely acclaimed by critics during his lifetime and championed by writers as diverse as Gore Vidal, Tennessee Williams, and Jonathan Franzen, James Purdy (1914-2009) is now being rediscovered as a major figure in modern American literature. This long-awaited reissue of one of his finest works, In a Shallow Grave (1975), features a new introduction by Andrew Schenker, who argues that Purdy “provides a reading experience that is deeper, weirder, and ultimately more satisfying than the offerings of just about any other American novelist.”

Now through Dec. 31, we are offering free US & UK shipping on all orders placed on the Valancourt Books website, with no minimum purchase. UK orders will ship from the UK. Grab some holiday gifts early!

One of the finest and best-selling horror novels of the 1970s returns at last to chill a new generation of readers 

A masterpiece of terror whose sense of creeping menace and dread increases page by page, Joan Samson’s The Auctioneer (1975) is a rediscovered classic of 20th-century fiction. With echoes of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” and Stephen King’s Needful Things, Samson’s novel returns to print at last in this long-awaited new edition, which features an introduction by Grady Hendrix (Horrorstör, Paperbacks from Hell) and an afterword by the author’s husband.

Book Description

In the isolated farming community of Harlowe, New Hampshire, where life has changed little over the past several decades, John Moore and his wife Mim work the land that has been in his family for generations. But from the moment the charismatic Perly Dinsmore arrives in town and starts soliciting donations for his auctions, things begin slowly and insidiously to change in Harlowe. As the auctioneer carries out his terrible, inscrutable plan, the Moores and their neighbors will find themselves gradually but inexorably stripped of their freedom, their possessions, and perhaps even their lives ...

Reviews

“Buy this book ... there is no way to stop reading it, once you’ve started!”—Baltimore Sun

“A well-made piece of dynamite ... For all their talk, the author seems to be saying, men will permit their souls to be carried away bit by bit and auctioned off to the highest bidder. Samson has written a suspenseful, engrossing novel with the most gripping and violent ending we’ve encountered for some time.”—Newsday

“A frightening novel . . . a powerful book from a powerful writer.”—The Grand Rapids Press

“A novel you may never forget . . . a tight classic.”—San Diego Tribune​

“Brilliant, compelling . . . Add a powerful twist at the end and you have a total novel that takes hold of the reader on Page One and never lets go until the finish. This just could prove to be one of the top thrillers of the year.”—Dayton News

Now available:

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Audiobook 
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It's not too late to preorder Steve Rasnic Tem's FIGURES UNSEEN, a collection of 35 of his best weird tales, which goes on sale April 17. Orders placed direct through our site should arrive to you before the official release date, or it can be preordered at Amazon now. An audiobook version is already available for listening, no preorder required! More info on this exciting release here.

New audio release!

One of our favorite releases of last year is now available as an audiobook. Eric C. Higgs's THE HAPPY MAN is a rediscovered classic of 1980s horror fiction that Too Much Horror Fiction called "unlike anything else in the genre". The talented Matt Godfrey brings the book to life in this audio edition, which we think fans of Gothic and macabre fiction will really enjoy! More info here.

New Release! December is just around the corner, and you know what that means: it's time for more Victorian Christmas ghost stories! Volume 2 is on sale today in paperback, hardcover & ebook and includes 15 rare tales of Yuletide terror, most never before reprinted, plus an introduction by Allen Grove. Last year's volume is also still available!

Fifteen more chilling tales of Yuletide terror, collected from rare Victorian periodicals 

Following the popularity of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition. This second volume of Victorian Christmas ghost stories contains fifteen tales, most of which have never been reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Grant Allen and Eliza Lynn Linton as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Allen Grove.

“At first I was aware only of a bluish, misty, phosphorescent light, and then a ghastly terror, that froze the very blood in my veins, seized me, for suddenly I saw rise up out of the inky darkness the form of a man—the eyes of a hideous red, fixed on mine with a look of hate ...” - Coulson Kernahan, “Haunted!”

“As I stood in breathless horror, unable to stir a limb, the figure raised its arm, a skeleton hand emerged from the heavy folds of the cloak, and touched my elbow. A scorching pain shot through me, I uttered a shriek——” - Emily Arnold, “The Ghost of the Treasure-Chamber”

“Again that shudder passed through his body, and again he unwillingly met the glance of those diabolical eyes upon the scroll. Horror of horrors! was the face alive, or was he going mad?” - Anonymous, “The Weird Violin”

Contents:

Albert Smith, "A Real Country Ghost Story" • Emily Arnold, "The Secret of the Treasure Chamber" • Theo Gift, "Number Two, Melrose Square" • Anonymous, "The Weird Violin" • E. Morant Cox, "Walsham Grange" • Coulson Kernahan, "Haunted!" • W. W. Fenn, "The Steel Mirror" • Anonymous, "White Satin" • Alfred Crowquill, "Nicodemus" • Grant Allen, "Wolverden Tower" • Eliza Lynn Linton, "Christmas Eve at Beach House" • Isabella F. Romer, "The Necromancer" • James Grant, "The Veiled Portrait" • Anonymous, "The Ghost Chamber" • A. S., "The Terrible Retribution"

Now available:

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New Release

Available in hardcover, paperback and ebook (audiobook coming soon). “Writing in Shirley Jackson’s precise, sharp, chilly prose, Greenhall delivers a slippery book that can’t be pinned down, all about spectral photography, little dead girls, snowbound small towns, and the disquieting proposition that maybe God is not civilized.” - Grady Hendrix, author of Paperbacks from Hell.

Book Description

When photographer Jonathan Brewster’s four-year-old daughter Joanne tells him about her new invisible friends, he doesn’t think too much about it. But then he sees them for himself: weird and uncanny images of the dead appearing in his photographs. The apparitions seem to have some connection to Childgrave, a remote village in upstate New York with a deadly secret dating back three centuries. Jonathan and Joanne feel themselves oddly drawn to Childgrave, but will they survive the horrors that await them there?

The third novel by Ken Greenhall (1928-2014), whose works are receiving renewed attention as neglected classics of modern horror, Childgrave (1982) is a slow-burn chiller that ranks among Greenhall’s best.

Reviews

“Writing in Shirley Jackson’s precise, sharp, chilly prose, Greenhall delivers a slippery book that can’t be pinned down, all about spectral photography, little dead girls, snowbound small towns, and the disquieting proposition that maybe God is not civilized.” - Grady Hendrix, author of Paperbacks from Hell

“A very well-orchestrated, eerie tale.” - Publishers Weekly

Now available:

Hardcover
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Paperback
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eBook
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Halloween is coming near. The spooky time requires a special guest and we think that Charlene from Char’s Horror Corner is the perfect one for the Halloween Follow Friday interview. 

Check out what Charlene is reading and follow her blog Char’s Horror Corner on BookLikes http://charlene.booklikes.com

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How did your book love begin? 

It started early on! There weren’t a lot of other children around where I grew up, but there were a lot of elderly people. The bookmobile would come around so that those without transportation were able to get something to read, and in the summers I would stand in line with them. I loved to check out mysteries from Agatha Christie and other authors, and then I discovered Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and the great Edgar Allan Poe.

You’ve reviewed over 800 books on your BL blog. What do you enjoy about book blogging the most? 

What I enjoy the most about blogging/reviewing is giving and getting book recommendations. I just love when someone tries a book I recommended and they like it. Conversely, I always feel bad when a person tries a book I recommended and they do NOT like it.

You’re a horror book lover. Why this genre is so special for you? What do you cherish the most about it? 

Horror is often about outsiders and being an outsider, that always appealed to me. I felt like an outsider during most of my time in junior high and in high school and I related to those kinds of stories. What I cherish the most about the horror genre is the community. I help moderate a group on Goodreads, (Horror Aficionados), and we now have nearly 13,500 members. They are the best bunch of people, authors and readers both, they’re supportive, smart and funny and they welcome everyone! What’s not to cherish about that?

If not horror, than what? Do you often switch to another genre or is horror your ultimate love?

I do like to switch things up at times. I love to read biographies and autobiographies, as well as classics, mysteries, thrillers and true crime. Horror is my ultimate love though, and I never stray away for too long.

There are many sub-genres of horror. Can you tell more about them to our readers? 

As you’ve stated, there are many! These days, my favorites lean more towards Quiet Horror. This is horror that generally does not feature a lot of blood and guts. No slashers or torturing or things like that. It’s heavier on atmosphere, building dread and those things caught out of the corner of your eye.

I also enjoy Cosmic Horror. Now this can include parts of H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu Mythos and the monsters he created, or it can be more generic and just reflect the cold, unfeeling universe and the lowly place of mankind within it. I also enjoy ghost stories, creature features, (fun books with imaginative monsters, and usually faced paced killing), and haunted house tales.

Name your Top 3 horror books.

Yeah, that’s too hard! Today, my answer is:

1. Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon  , which is not exactly horror, but coming-of-age dark fiction.

2. It or The Stand by Stephen King  .

3. 'Salem's Lot by Stephen King  

Are there any particular titles you’re impatiently waiting for this fall/winter season?

Yes, I’ve been waiting for Joe Hill’s latest title, Strange Weather and I finally got it on Saturday at the Merrimack Valley Halloween Book Festival. Joe Hill appeared there and his fans were able to purchase copies prior to the book officially going on sale 10.24.17.

Read the relation from The Third Annual Merrimack Valley Book Festival!

We’ve noticed the horror audiobooks on your BookLikes bookshelf, recently you’ve also interviewed a horror story narrator -- do you prefer reading or listening to horror stories? Is there any difference in experiencing the novels? 

I prefer reading to listening, actually. In a very few cases though, a worthy narrator can elevate my reading experience. This has happened on a few occasions. The first was when I listened to Kate Mulgrew narrate Joe Hill’s NOS4A2. Her narration brought the story even more alive than Hill already had and that changed my original rating from when I read the book of 4/5 stars to ALL the stars.

 Bravo to both Joe Hill and Kate Mulgrew for the hours of pleasure that is the audible book NOS4A2! Read a full review ->

The second time this happened is actually still happening, with Matt Godfrey’s narration of Michael McDowell’s Blackwater. Since this saga is set in Alabama, and Matt is from Alabama, the accents and voices have really come alive for me, even more so than when I read the books a few years back. It’s amazing! (And HE’S amazing!)

The most wonderful horror author(s) is/are… 

Stephen King, Robert McCammon, and Joe Hill.

What are your three favorite book covers? 

1. Boy's Life by Robert R. McCammon  (see link above, on Question 6)

2. The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories: Volume Two.

3. Last Train from Perdition by Robert R. McCammon 

How do you pick another book to read? 

Generally, my reading is booked far in advance. I have this crazy urge to haunt sites like NetGalley and Edelweiss for advance review copies of books. I generally try to read them by the publication dates, so that usually determines what I’m going to read next. I had challenged myself to read 40 books that I ALREADY OWN this year, and I’ve only read 7. That’s because I just can’t stop myself from browsing the books that are coming out soon and requesting them. I just want to read ALL the books.

A paper book or an e-book? 

Both!

Halloween is coming near. Can you suggest three titles to juice up a Halloween party? 

1.Haunted Nights, edited by Ellen Datlow and Lisa Morton. This is an excellent collection of short stories all connected by Halloween.

2. The Halloween Children by Brian James Freeman and Norman Prentiss. This is a fun little tale about what happens when you choose not to give out candy on Halloween, (among other things!).

3. The Valancourt Book of Horror Stories volume 1 or 2. Or better yet, both! These are excellent tales that have rarely or never been reprinted since their original release.

Featuring authors like Michael McDowell and Stephen Gregory, everyone should be able to find a pleasing story within.

What’s your reading spot? We’d love to see the photos :)

Anywhere, really, but my favorites are in my recliner, by the pool, or in what I optimistically call my library.

Your favorite quote?

We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds and see our destiny in grains of sand. But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls. We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out. We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible. Told to act our age. Told to grow up, for God's sake. And you know why we were told that? Because the people doing the telling were afraid of our wildness and youth, and because the magic we knew made them ashamed and sad of what they'd allowed to wither in themselves. - Robert McCammon, from Boy's Life

If you could meet one literary character, who would it be? 

I think I would like to sit down with Mary Love from Blackwater by Michael McDowell. I would love to hear her Alabama accent and ask her why she acted the way she did as the matriarch of her Southern family.

Shelfie time! Please share your home library photos :)

Thank you!

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Missed previous Follow Friday talks? Use ffwithbookbloggers tag or click the catch up links:

• #13 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Obsidian Blue -> 
• #12 Follow Friday with book bloggers: 99 problems, and a book ain't one ->
• #11 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Book Cupidity [Nominated] ->
• #10 Follow Friday with book bloggers: The Book Gourmet ->
• #9 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Midu Reads [Nominated] ->
• #8 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Momma Says to Read ->
• #7 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Sailing in a Sea of Words ->
• #6 Follow Friday with book bloggers: That's What I'm Talking About ->
• #5 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Silence in the library ->
• #4 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Nicole Reads ->
• #3 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Tigus ->
• #2 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Punya Reviews ->
• #1 Follow Friday with book bloggers: Jennifer's Books ->

You can nominate your blogger friends to the Follow Friday interview! Click here and leave the URL address in the comment section.

See you next Friday!

Now available! Though best known for his classic novel of Edwardian childhood The Go-Between, L. P. Hartley was also a master of supernatural and macabre fiction, the best of which is collected in The Travelling Grave and Other Stories.

This volume demonstrates Hartley’s versatility, ranging from traditional ghost stories like ‘Feet Foremost’ and ‘The Cotillon’ to the wickedly black humour of the horror masterpieces ‘The Travelling Grave’ and ‘The Killing Bottle’. Originally published in 1948 and long out of print, this collection features twelve of Hartley’s finest tales, presented in this edition with a new introduction by John Howard.

Now available:

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Now available! An extremely rare book, one of the earliest novels inspired by the Jack the Ripper murders, THE DEVIL IN A DOMINO (1897) by "Chas L'Epine". One contemporary critic called it “a gruesome compound of madness and butchery, with nameless horrors in the background. No sane person could find pleasure in reading such a story … it would have been better had it not been written.” Sounds like our kind of book!

Features a new introduction by Simon Stern and a colorized reproduction of the original cover art.

Book Description

The offspring of a profligate scoundrel and a drunken circus performer, Aleck Severn was born inside a prison’s walls after his mother stabbed his father to death. Severn shows no outward signs of inheriting his parents’ faults: a handsome, affable man about town, he is popular with his friends and beloved by his wife Marianne. But she begins to suspect her husband has a dark secret. What is he doing during those long nights alone at a remote house? And what connection could it have to the bodies of murdered women being found around London?

Reviews

“[A] peculiarly repulsive piece of writing, indicative of the low and morbid type of so-called literature which is purveyed to a half-educated constituency.” – Edinburgh Evening News

“In its diabolical horrors it recalls the ghastly series of crimes supposed to have been the work of ‘Jack the Ripper.’ Those who like to sup on sensation will find all they want in The Devil in a Domino.” – Dundee Evening Telegraph

Now available:

Hardcover
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Paperback
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eBook
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