A man regrets his impulse purchase of a yard sale painting when the image continually shapeshifts into more and more violent depictions of its subject in pursuit of its new owner in Stephen King's 'The Road Virus Heads North.'.Young siblings uncover a disturbing history of their scandalized family-and encounter a creature of twisted malevolence-when they find themselves in 'The Ruins of Contracocur' by Joyce Carol Oates.From otherworldly entities stalking prey to psychological terrors borne of trauma, these stories exemplify the limitless possibilities inherent in the genre, revealing that darkness can be found anywhere the imagination dares to look for it.

'One of the best anthologies of horror and suspense of all time.'-Rocky Mountain Newsįrom award-winning author and 'master anthologist'* Al Sarrantonio, 999: Twenty-Nine Original Tales of Horror and Suspense is a specially curated collection of evocative fiction that probes the depth of human fears and frailties. Here is a major publishing event with an attitude: to shake you up and scare you silly.Winner of the Bram Stoker Award for Best Anthology But together, these weirdest of tales join to form a great literary mosaic, a vivid contemporary portrait of a genre which is proud, potent, and irresistible.Not only is this the largest anthology of original horror/suspense fiction of all time - not one story in 999 has ever been published before - but it is also the finest. There is even an eerily echoing chuckle or two found inside. Some will haunt you long after you finish reading them.

Some of these stories will startle you or fill you with terror. As you will read the twenty-nine contributors responded by displaying the infinite variety which is the very hallmark of this field. Your hold in your hands the state of the art - of fear.To prepare this groundbreaking anthology, writer and editor Al Sarrantonio challenged a distinguished roster of authors to demonstrate with all-new stories the shape of horror/suspense literature as we enter the twenty-first century. But where does this age-old tradition stand at the cusp of a new decade, a new century, a new millennium? This mammoth volume seeks to answer that question. The weaving of fictional suspense and terror is as ancient as humankind itself.

999 by Al Sarrantonio