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"You know, I do believe in magic. I was born and raised in a magic time, in a magic town, among magicians." ~ from Robert R. McCammon's Boy's Life
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New and Recently Released!
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| The Troop: A Novel of Terror by Nick CutterOn their annual camping excursion to uninhabited Falstaff Island, a Boy Scout troop is surprised to find a strange-looking emaciated man. The troop leader offers to help him, and the ailment that has wrecked the man's body turns out to be contagious -- with revoltingly gory symptoms. Soon the five Scouts are alone with the deadly infection stalking them. In chapters that alternate with the scenes on the island, readers (but not the boys) learn what's behind the disease. According to Kirkus Reviews, you may prefer to read The Troop "in highly populated, well-lit areas -- snacks optional." |
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| By Blood We Live by Glen DuncanIn By Blood We Live, author Glen Duncan concludes his Last Werewolf Trilogy with werewolf Talulla falling in love with vampire Remshi -- despite the fact that vampires and werewolves are eternal enemies. As in the first two books, The Last Werewolf and Talulla Rising, terrifying battles and violent sex scenes punctuate the werewolves' frantic efforts to save themselves and their clan. You will definitely want to start from the beginning of the trilogy if you haven't already, and whether you enjoy literary fiction with gruesome aspects or horror with superbly crafted writing, you're in for a treat. |
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| Mayhem: A Novel by Sarah PinboroughMayhem, inspired by the Victorian-era serial murder case known as the Thames Torso murders, leads readers through the grim and gory back streets of London, where Dr. Thomas Bond helps police investigate the killings. Bond (based on a historical figure involved with the original cases) copes with the gruesome scenes by frequenting an opium den, but he's determined to track down the killer and banish the insane menace from London. Mayhem may appeal to historical true crime fans in addition to pleasing horror fiction aficionados. |
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| Strange Bodies: A Novel by Marcel TherouxIn an unusual twist on bringing the dead to life, Strange Bodies stars literary scholar Nicholas Slopen, who's trying desperately to prove he's alive in a body that wasn't originally his. Conspirators have developed a technique for implanting the soul of a dead person into a different body, and while Slopen was investigating someone who seemed to impersonate the 18th-century writer Samuel Johnson, he was trapped by this conspiracy to transplant souls. Author Marcel Theroux, employing a range of formats and literary styles, weaves a gothic tale compounded of horror and absurdity while offering a thought-provoking and chilling update on the undead. |
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| The Vanishing by Wendy WebbWhen Julia Bishop, who used to write horror fiction, finds herself alone in the world with no prospects, she's grateful for a job as companion to Adrian Sinclair's elderly mother. Julia's intrigued to learn not only that she'll be living in the storied Havenwood mansion, but that Adrian's mother is horror writer Amaris Sinclair -- supposedly long dead. A creepy sense of déjà vu overtakes Julia once she's arrived at the labyrinthine Havenwood, and she also perceives an ominous note in the stories about the place. Fans of Diane Setterfield's The Thirteenth Tale may appreciate this gothic story of a secluded author and a younger writer in a house haunted by the past, though The Vanishing has a faster pace. |
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Focus on: Bram Stoker Award Winners
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This year's Bram Stoker Awards will be presented on May 10, 2014. While you're waiting, here are some past winners to enjoy.
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| Just After Sunset: Stories by Stephen KingHorror master Stephen King presents a collection of 13 short stories guaranteed to make your spine tingle. Inspired partly by nostalgia (in his early days, King supported himself by selling short stories to men's magazines) and partly by his 2007 stint as guest editor of The Best American Horror Stories, King demonstrates his versatility as a horror writer with stories that range in tone from pulpy tales of terror to Hitchcockian suspense, with just a soupçon of gross-out gore. King, in an afterword, explains what inspired the stories. Just After Sunset won the Bram Stoker Award for a story collection in 2008. |
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| Boy's Life: A Novel by Robert R. McCammonBoy's Life, Robert McCammon's leisurely paced ode to boyhood, centers around a murder. Cory Mackenson and his father are delivering milk one cold March morning when they see a car sink into the town lake. Cory's dad dives in to save the driver and finds only a badly beaten naked corpse. Who in their small town could do such a thing? The two search for answers over the next year, and Cory finds homegrown terror and the supernatural in his ordinary town. Fans of Ray Bradbury, especially, will enjoy this 1991 winner of the Bram Stoker Award for best novel. |
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| Zombie: A Novel by Joyce Carol OatesTaking the form of a diary written by a vicious sexual predator and serial killer, Zombie explores the darkest corners of the human psyche. This could be the psyche of almost anyone -- a neighbor, close friend, or brother. As the journal entries proceed, readers follow Quentin P.'s descriptions of planning horrific crimes -- interspersed with mundane details of his apparently ordinary suburban life. The winner of the 1995 Bram Stoker Award for best novel, Zombie will leave you looking over your shoulder even when you're shopping for groceries. |
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| 999: New Stories of Horror and Suspense by Al Sarrantonio (editor)In 999, editor Al Sarrantonio brings together an extensive selection of horror stories by stellar writers, including Joe R. Lansdale, Joyce Carol Oates, Ramsey Campbell, and, of course, Stephen King. In Kim Newman's "Amerikanski Dead at the Moscow Morgue," captured zombies inhabit an onion-domed church; Bentley Little's "The Theater" acts out a chilling scenario; Eric van Lustbader's "An Exaltation of Termagants" features a mescal addict. Twenty-nine selections in total provide a wide variety of shudder-inducing tales in this anthology, by which Sarrantonio hopes to prove that the horror story is not just undead, but alive and well. 999 won the Bram Stoker Award for best anthology in 1999. |
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| The Throat by Peter StraubIn this 3rd volume of the Blue Rose trilogy, author Peter Straub produces a horrifying mystery in the form of a serial killer who seems to have returned from the dead. Tim Underhhill and his investigation partner Tom Pasmore gradually close in on the solution to the renewed "Blue Rose" murders, but Tim's memories of his own traumatic experiences provide a huge contribution to the terror emerging from the pages of The Throat. "Straub's characters inhabit a razor-edged world of unremitting suspense," says Publishers Weekly of this 1993 Bram Stoker Award winner for best novel. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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If you are having trouble unsubscribing to this newsletter, please contact the Round Rock Public Library at
512-218-5400, 221 E. Main Street Round Rock, Texas 78664
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