Ed Truman's family is falling apart. His daughter Ally is being targeted by an alt-right incel organisation, Men Together. His house is being picketed, former clients are accusing him of sexual assault, his son won't speak to him. And then Ally disappears.Frantic, Ed suspects that Men Together have abducted her. But before he can go to the police, his DNA is found on the body of a young woman. Suddenly he's the subject of a nationwide manhunt, led by the tenacious DCI Jackie Rose. ...

The Regret is a gripping psychological thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat. If you are a fan of authors like Rachel Abbott, Cara Hunter and C.L. Taylor, you'll love this.Rachel Stone’s world was destroyed by a stalker, Alan Griffin. After he went to prison, she rebuilt her life. Now she has a daughter and is in a new relationship. But someone is stalking her again. Her phone, her emails and her social media are hacked. Rachel believes it’s Griffin, out of prison an...

It's always the husband... Isn't it?Astrid Webb is missing. The police have found her car crashed near the woods, the driver's door open, the seat spotted with blood. But there's no sign of Astrid herself, a sick woman who rarely left her house, who surely couldn't have left the scene of the accident without help.Her husband Bryan is sure that she's alive - after all, this isn't the first time she's vanished, only to reappear without explanation. But as the days pass, Bryan...

A stalker's victim hunts for answers when she believes he's at it again in this psychological thriller.Rachel Stone's world was destroyed by a stalker, Alan Griffin. After he went to prison, she rebuilt her life.Now she has a three-year-old daughter and is in a new relationship. But someone is stalking her again. Her phone, her emails, and her social media are hacked . . .Rachel believes it's Griffin, out of prison and looking for revenge. She needs to...

An ice cream van rolls into a war zone. A goldfish pleads with its owner, who has seasonal affective disorder. An advertising agency of the future struggles to capture the zombie market. A woman screams silently at a pair of social workers who visit to talk about her anorexic daughter.Brought together for the first time and introduced by prize-winning novelist Kerry Hudson, The Forge Anthology is a collection of over 30 pieces of startling and thought-provoking flash fiction from t...

SHORTLISTED FOR THE 2017 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARDSAcutely observed, evocative collection of short stories from the Man Booker Prize-longlisted author of Unexploded, blending fiction, biography and memoirHovering on the border of life and death, these stories form a ground-shifting collection, taking us into history, literature and the hidden lives of iconic figures.In 1920s Nova Scotia, as winter begins to thaw, a woman emerges fro...

Macabre meetings, sinister excursions, and deadly relationships; uncanny encounters; a classic ghost story featuring an American god; a historical murderer revived in a frightening new iteration; innovative Lovecraftian turns; shadowy fairy tales and weird myths; strange children, the unexpected, the supernatural, the surreal, and the all-too real . . . tales of the dark. Such stories have always fascinated us, and modern authors carry on the disquieting traditions of the past while invent...

**A horror short story from #1 bestseller, Paul Finch. Part of the Dark Winter Tales series: unputdownable reads for cold winter nights…**In 1975, 11-year-old Andrew Conroy was brutally murdered, his body hidden under a bush in a dense woodland area known as The Dell.The detective who headed the investigation, now in his late sixties, has felt guilty ever since that he was unable to solve the murder case.Each year he asks his son to drive him to The Dell so he can w...

On Spec: The Canadian Magazine of the FantasticFrom its modest beginnings with a single test issue to its Aurora Award-winning present, On Spec has delighted its fans with tales of the fantastic for 25 years. What better way to celebrate On Spec's silver jubilee than showcasing some of its best stories?Spanning two decades of On Spec's history, these twenty-four stories and poems offer a tantalizing taste of the wondrous, dark, humorous, and surreal tales that have appeared...

Featuring:Sarah Hall, Lucy Wood, Lisa Blower, Lavinia Greenlaw and Lionel Shriver.Edgar Allan Poe once claimed the greatest literary works were those that could be read ’in one sitting’. ‘Brevity must be in direct ratio of the intensity of the intended effect,’ he argued, once the effect has been established, of course.The stories shortlisted for the BBC National Short Story Award 2013 all use brevity with striking results, whether presenting a comp...

Exploring grief, yet neither bleak nor overwrought, this powerful short story won the 2013 Sunday Star-Times Short Story Competition. The judge, Carl Nixon, commended its 'seemingly effortless artistry' and its skilful and well-sustained handling of demanding narrative techniques: 'the author does not miss a beat', he said. Cleverly juxtaposing the past and present, the narrator draws the reader into her life. The judge concluded: 'Beautifully controlled use of simile and ...

These outstanding stories from the 2010 Bristol Short Story Prize will provoke, stimulate, move, amuse, unsettle, and entertain