Books With Flair

"The four never-before-published novellas in this collection represent horror master King at his finest, using the weird and uncanny to riff on mortality, the price of creativity, and the unpredictable consequences of material attachments. A teenager discovers that a dead friend's cell phone, which was buried with the body, still communicates from beyond the grave ... A series of apocalyptic incidents [bears] out one character's claim that 'when a man or a woman dies, a whole world falls to ruin.' 'Rat' sees a frustrated writer strike a Faustian bargain to complete his novel, and in the title story, private investigator Holly Gibney ... faces off against a ghoulish television newscaster who vampirically feeds off the anguish he provokes in his audience by covering horrific tragedies"--Publishers Weekly (03/09/2020)

A collection of twenty stories dealing with morality, the afterlife, guilt and more, with autobiographical comments on when, why and how Stephen King came to write each story.

The short story OBITS won the 2016 Edgar for best short story. The No.1 bestselling author delivers an 'outstanding' (USA Today) collection of thrilling stories, introducing each one with a fascinating piece on when, where or how he came to write it. There is a treasure here for every reader: a man who keeps reliving exactly the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again; a columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries; a poignant tale about the end of the human race and a firework competition between neighbours which reaches an explosive climax. And, exclusive to this paperback edition (and the eBook from 6 September), a brand new story 'Cookie Jar'. 'I made them especially for you,' says King. 'Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.' TABLE OF CONTENTS FOR THE BAZAAR OF BAD DREAMS Introduction Mile 81 Premium Harmony Batman and Robin Have an Altercation The Dune Bad Little Kid A Death The Bone Church Morality Afterlife Ur Herman Wouk Is Still Alive Under the Weather Blockade Billy Mister Yummy Tommy The Little Green God of Agony Cookie Jar That Bus Is Another World Obits Drunken Fireworks Summer Thunder

In "Blockade Billy," a retired coach recounts the story of "Blockade Billy" Blakely, the only player to have his record erased from baseball history, and in "Morality," an elderly minister recovering from a stroke offers to pay his home care nurse a large

Collection of 23 short stories--from classic horror to vampire thrillers, imitations of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Raymond Chandler, a teleplay, and a non-fiction bonus, a heartfelt little piece on Little League baseball.

With the heart of Stand By Me and the genius horror of Christine, MILE 81 is Stephen King unleashing his imagination as he drives past one of those road signs . . . At Mile 81 on the Maine Turnpike is a boarded up rest stop, a place where high school kids drink and get into the kind of trouble high school kids have always gotten into. It's the place where Pete Simmons goes when his older brother heads off to the gravel pit to play 'paratroopers over the side'. Pete, armed with only the magnifying glass he got for his tenth birthday, finds a discarded bottle of vodka in the boarded up burger shack and drinks enough to pass out. That's why he doesn't notice a freshly mud-spattered station wagon (which is strange because there hadn't been any rain in New England for over a week) which veers into the Mile 81 rest area, ignoring the sign that reads 'closed, no services'. The driver's door opens but nobody gets out . . .

Now available for the first time in a mass-market premium paperback edition—master storyteller Stephen King presents the classic #1 New York Times bestseller about a mysterious store than can sell you whatever you desire—but not without exacting a terrible price in return. “There are two prices for this. Half…and half. One half is cash. The other is a deed. Do you understand?” The town of Castle Rock, Maine has seen its fair share of oddities over the years, but nothing is a peculiar as the little curio shop that’s just opened for business. Its mysterious proprietor, Leland Gaunt, seems to have something for everyone out on display at Needful Things…interesting items that run the gamut from worthless to priceless. Nothing has a price tag in this place, but everything is certainly for sale. The heart’s desire for any resident of Castle Rock can easily be found among the curiosities…in exchange for a little money and—at the specific request of Leland Gaunt—a whole lot of menace against their fellow neighbors. Everyone in town seems willing to make a deal at Needful Things, but the devil is in the details. And no one takes heed of the little sign handing on the wall: Caveat emptor. In other words, let the buyer beware…

A collection of original horror and dark fantasy from the world's best writers, including Stephen King and John Ajvide Lindqvist Many of us grew up on The Pan Book of Horror Stories and its later incarnations, Dark Voices and Dark Terrors (The Gollancz Book of Horror), which won the World Fantasy Award, the Horror Critics' Guild Award and the British Fantasy Award, but for a decade or more there has been no non-themed anthology of original horror fiction published in the mainstream. Now that horror has returned to the bookshelves, it is time for a regular anthology of brand-new fiction by the best and brightest in the field, both the Big Names and the most talented newcomers including: - Ramsey Campbell - Peter Crowther - Dennis Etchison - Elizabeth Hand - Brian Hodge - Caitlin R. Kiernan - Stephen King - John Ajvide Lindqvist - Richard Christian Matheson - Reggie Oliver - Robert Shearman - Angela Slatter - Michael Marshall Smith - Lisa Tuttle A Book of Horrors will be the foremost in the field: an eclectic collection of the very best chiller fiction from across the world.

Includes the story “Premium Harmony”—set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine The masterful #1 New York Times bestselling story collection from O. Henry Prize winner Stephen King that includes twenty-one iconic stories with accompanying autobiographical comments on when, why and how he came to write (or rewrite) each one. For more than thirty-five years, Stephen King has dazzled readers with his genius as a writer of short fiction. In this new collection he introduces each story with a passage about its origins or his motivations for writing it. As Entertainment Weekly said about this collection: “Bazaar of Bad Dreams is bursting with classic King terror, but what we love most are the thoughtful introductions he gives to each tale that explain what was going on in his life as he wrote it." There are thrilling connections between stories; themes of morality, the afterlife, guilt, what we would do differently if we could see into the future or correct the mistakes of the past. In “Afterlife,” a man who died of colon cancer keeps reliving the same life, repeating his mistakes over and over again. Several stories feature characters at the end of life, revisiting their crimes and misdemeanors. Others address what happens when someone discovers that he has supernatural powers—the columnist who kills people by writing their obituaries in “Obits;” the old judge in “The Dune” who, as a boy, canoed to a deserted island and saw names written in the sand, people who then died in freak accidents. In “Morality,” King looks at how a marriage and two lives fall apart after the wife and husband enter into what seems, at first, a devil’s pact they can win. “I made these stories especially for you,” says King. “Feel free to examine them, but please be careful. The best of them have teeth.” Stories include: -Mile 81 -Premium Harmony -Batman and Robin Have an Altercation -The Dune -Bad Little Kid -A Death -The Bone Church -Morality -Afterlife -Ur -Herman Wouk Is Still Alive -Under the Weather -Blockade Billy -Mister Yummy -Tommy -The Little Green God of Agony -Cookie Jar -That Bus Is Another World -Obits -Drunken Fireworks -Summer Thunder

SIX SCARY STORIES SELECTED AND INTRODUCED BY STEPHEN KING Winning stories from The Bazaar of Bad Dreams Hodder-Guardian competition The Number 1 bestselling writer Stephen King introduces and presents six gripping and chilling stories in this captivating anthology: WILD SWIMMING by Elodie Harper EAU-DE-ERIC by Manuela Saragosa THE SPOTS by Paul Bassett Davies THE UNPICKING by Michael Button LA MORT DE L'AMANT by Stuart Johnstone THE BEAR TRAP by Neil Hudson Stephen King discovered these stories when he judged a competition run by Hodder & Stoughton and the Guardian to celebrate publication of his own collection The Bazaar of Bad Dreams. He was so impressed with the entries that he recommended they were published together in one book. Reader beware: the stories will make you think twice before cuddling up to your old soft toy, dipping your toe into the water or counting the spots on a leopard...