Christopher Fowler: The Mammoth Book of Best New Horror. Volume 10

Despite his phenomenal popularity on both sides of the Atlantic, the author had not appeared at a public event in Britain for nearly fifteen years. To coincide with the publication of the new book, King visited London in mid-August for a rare promotional tour. Bottles of a special “King Lager” were available during the UK launch party, produced especially for the event by a London micro-brewery, and a commemorative signed edition of Bag of Bones, limited to just 2,000 copies, went on sale at London’s Royal Festival Hall when King was interviewed by novelist and broadcaster Muriel Gray, read from his work, and answered questions in front of a capacity audience.

Books Etc. in association with Hodder & Stoughton gave away a free trade paperback omnibus to coincide with the publication of Bag of Bones. Only available from stores in the London area, King etc. included a brief message from the author plus extracts from twelve of his novels.

Just in time for Christmas, Donald M. Grant, Publisher, re-released the first three books in King’s Dark Tower series, packaged together at a suggested retail price of $110. This included a third printing of the first title in the series, The Gunslinger (1982), with a new dustjacket, and a second printing of The Drawing of the Three (1987), with a new dustjacket and ten new paintings by artist Phil Hale. The third book, The Waste Lands (1991), was a first edition. The set weighed a total of eight pounds and was available in a leatherette slipcase stamped on the spine in silver and maroon.

Dean Koontz’s Seize the Night was the sequel to the author’s Fear Nothing, and once again involved night-dweller Christopher Snow, who discovered more about the mutated gene virus infecting the inhabitants of Moonlight Bay and a secret government time-travel experiment. It was also released in a 750-copy signed, leatherbound, slipcased edition by Cemetery Dance Publications, illustrated by Phil Parks, along with a 52-copy lettered edition.

Anne Rice’s Pandora was the first volume in the “New Tales of the Vampire” series, as Rice’s undead characters David Talbot and Pandora returned from the author’s previous books. It was followed by The Vampire Armand, which told the tale of the eponymous bloodsucker and leader of the Theatre des Vampires across the centuries.

The first volume in a new two-part series, Clive Barker’s Galilee: A Romance was a Southern Gothic involving the eponymous male protagonist whose love affair with Rachel Pallenberg reawakened an old conflict between rival families. While the Gearys were rich and powerful, the Barbarossas were much darker and stranger.

Butterfly, Crystal, Brooke, Raven and Runaways comprised the “Orphans” series by V. C. Andrews® and marked a transition away from horror to young adult fiction for the late author. The story involved four teenage orphans who escaped from an evil foster home. Meanwhile, Music in the Night was the fourth in the Gothic horror “Logan Family” series under the Andrews byline, still probably written by Andrew Neiderman.

Thriller novelist Frederick Forsyth sold the American, Canadian and audio rights for The Phantom in Manhattan to New Millennium Entertainment, a new publisher based in Beverly Hills, for an advance reported to be in the mid-seven-figure area. The novel was a sequel to Andrew Lloyd Webber’s version of the Gaston Leroux classic, The Phantom of the Opera. New Millennium also planned to release the book in DVD format, while rumours of a stage version of The Phantom in Manhattan had already been circulating in theatrical circles for over a year. Forsyth had previously said he did not want to write another book, but apparently offered his services to Lloyd Webber at a dinner party in late 1997.

Published in America but not in his native Britain, Ramsey Campbell’s psychological thriller The Last Voice They Hear involved an investigative journalist who was challenged by his long-missing brother to solve a series of murders, with his own family as the prize.

Although not usually known for their horror or dark fantasy work, Terry Brooks’ A Knight of the World was the sequel to his bestseller Running with the Demon, while Homebody was a haunted house novel from Orson Scott Card.

Legacies was the second Repairman Jack novel from F. Paul Wilson (“writing as Colin Andrews” on the UK edition). The mysterious fixer became involved with a woman intent on destroying a house she had just inherited, and also the evil Arabs, Japanese agents, and American hit men who were out to discover the secrets concealed in the dilapidated mansion.

Charles Grant’s “Millennium Quartet” continued with Chariot , the third novel in the series about the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. This time Plague used smallpox to wreak havoc in a world already at the mercy of Famine and Death, and only Las Vegas was spared. The author also launched a new series about a private occult investigation service with Black Oak 1: Genesis and 2: The Hush of Dark Wings.

The Searchers: City of Iron by Chet Williamson marked the beginning of a new X Files-type trilogy about a team of three CIA agents investigating the supernatural. Phil Rickman’s The Wine of Angels was the first in a series featuring new vicar Merrily Watkins and a mystery linked to a town’s 17th century witch-hunts.

Set in the near-future, Peter James’ Denial was about a psychiatrist who gave the wrong advice to a patient, an aging movie actress, who killed herself as a result. Her sociopath son held the doctor responsible and decided to avenge her death. Soho Black by Christopher Fowler concerned the high-pressure lifestyle of a failing film executive who dropped dead in a trendy bar one evening, and by doing so revitalised his career.

Michael Marshall Smith’s One of Us was set in a world where dreams and memories could be accessed, a group of survivors confronted an ancient evil released from the Chasm by Stephen Laws, a horror writer discovered where he got his bizarre ideas from in Straker’s Island by Steve Harris, and the myths behind the Arabian Nights and the secret history of Tut-ankh-amen’s tomb were explored by Tom Holland in The Sleeper in the Sands.

Terror was the third in Graham Masterton’s series about Jim Rook, a teacher with supernatural powers, while House of Bones was a young adult novel in the Point Horror series from the same author.

After his success in 1997 with the mainstream thriller Bad Karma (under the “Andrew Harper” pseudonym), Douglas Clegg’s The Halloween Man marked a return to the horror field for the author. It was set in the quiet New England town of Stonehaven, which was filled with secrets of both natural and supernatural origin, including the terrifying figure of the title.

William Browning Spencer’s Irrational Fears followed Jack Lowry, an alcoholic ex-professor trying to dry out. After witnessing the bizarre death of a fellow inmate in a hospital ward and being introduced to The Clear, a group of clean-cut young men who are the sworn enemy of Alcoholics Anonymous, Jack was transferred to a rural retreat where everyone gave thanks to H. P. Lovecraft’s Elder Gods.

Greg Kihn’s Big Rock Beat was a sequel to the author’s Horror Show, also featuring director Landis Woodley, who this time became mixed-up in the production of a bizarre teen/monster beach movie.

Andrew Neiderman’s In Double Jeopardy was about a female medical student who found herself involved with a man who behaved just like her brother-in-law, who had been executed for the brutal murder of her sister. The Good Children by Kate Wilhelm strayed into V. C. Andrews and Shirley Jackson territory with its tale of four young people trying to keep their family together in the face of lies, love, insanity and possible murder.