Peter Straub
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First British Edition Harpercollins (2004) |
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In the Night Room
On the surface Willy Patrick’s future is rosy. She’s just won a prestigious prize for her latest children’s book, and she’s about to marry a handsome and successful man, following the shocking murder of her husband and daughter two years ago. But Willy fears she may be going mad. She keeps hearing her daughter’s voice calling for help, and is becoming convinced that her child is in fact still alive and in need of rescue. Than she begins to suspect that her mysterious fiancé may be have been involved in the murder of her family...
Meanwhile, another author, Tim Underhill, is also haunted by the deaths of loved ones, His sister, who died in childhood many years ago, recently appeared to him outside his favourite diner, and he’s been getting bizarre emails from people in his home town - none of whom are still alive. But when he meets Willy Patrick at a reading he starts to get really spooked. For Willy bears a striking resemblance to the heroine of the book he is currently working on, and appears to be in precisely the mortal peril he has invented for her...
A dark, elegantly written thriller with a chilling supernatural twist from the bestselling author of Koko and lost boy lost girl.
Praise for lost boy lost girl
`Lost Boy Lost Girl is intense and yet measured; serious and melancholy at times, but also humorous. Straub’s prose has a tart clarity that allows him to delineate the muddiness of life with great economy and richness. He has a superb ear for dialogue, both spoken and silent.’ Michael Marshall, Guardian
‘Mr Straub’s latest is an unusually taut, dynamic, spooky display of horror expertise, and its story is deftly told.’ New York rimes
`Stephen King’s mate and co-author puts the monster master into the shade. This’ll have you anxiously contemplating the shadows’ Mirror
Praise for Peter Straub
‘Straub is a master at creating fear out of everyday life.’ Sunday Telegraph
`No one is better than Straub at having whole communities rocked by the forces of wickedness.’ Observer
| Paperback - Harpercollins (2001) |
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Mr X
Every year on his birthday, Ned Dunstan has a paralysing seizure in which he is forced to witness scenes of ruthless slaughter perpetrated by a mysterious figure in black whom he calls Mr X. Now with his birthday fast approaching, Ned has been drawn back to his home town of Edgetton, Illinois, by a premonition that his mother is dying. On her deathbed, she imparts to him the name of his long absent father and warns him that he is in grave danger: Despite her foreboding he embarks on a search through Edgerton's past for the truth behind his own identity and that of his entirely fantastic family. But when Ned becomes the lead suspect in three violent deaths, he begins to realize that he is not the only one who has come home. . .
'Mr X marks Straub’s triumphant return to the tale of the paranormal and the supernatural. When Peter Straub turns on all his jets, no one in the scream factory can equal him. The plot is challenging, the characters are intriguing in their complexity and the language is a delight’ Stephen King
`No one is better than Straub at having whole communities rocked by the forces of wickedness.' Observer
'Simply take a small sown hr southern Illinois, filled with twisting alleys and strange buildings peopled with folk with Dickensian names, who are all oddly related to each other. Add some peculiarly nasty murders spiked with incest and skulduggery going back several generations. Then throw in a dash of time travel with a hint of brimstone and creeping blue fire. Straub stirs in a strong contemporary narrative, an ambiguous hero and a clutch of deliciously decadent relatives who simply leap from the page … spices it with a twist of bittersweet jazz and shakes the whole concoction well with the mastery of the seasoned storyteller with the power to shock, intrigue and chill… Peter Straub, who shot to literary prominence twenty years ago with his groundbreaking novel Ghost Story, returns with panache to the supernatural which over the years he has made so much his own. Powerfully told ... it's a must for every horror aficionado, but also recommended for anyone who enjoys the challenge of a meaty, meandering whodunit.' Daily Express
'A dauntingly tangled mystery ... continually surprising… wonderfully devious.' Miami Herald
'In this bravura new outing, Straub returns to his horror roots, lacing an ingenious whodunit with an intoxicating shot of the supernatural . . . One of the most invigorating horror reads of the year.' Publishes Weekly
'Entertaining . . . another monster thriller.' Chicago Tribune
'An enthralling, complex tale’ Amazon.com
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First British Edition Orion (1999) |
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Pork Pie Hat
When a graduate student with a passion for jazz arrives in New York to discover that a legendary musician he had assumed long dead - a great saxophonist known for his trademark pork pie hat is not only still alive but playing in an East Village club, he spends night after night in attendance, awed by the majesty of the man's art.
And a short time later, when the legend grants him an interview on Halloween, he jumps at the opportunity.
What unfolds is an endless night filled with an extraordinary story told by a dying master-artist: a story centred upon the Halloween night of his eleventh year, a white woman screaming in a forbidden shanty town, a killer named Eddie Grimes, and an unidentified man fleeing from nightmare with a strange bundle in his arms.
One of the Criminal Records series of specially commissioned novellas. Series editor: Otto Penzler.
'Peter Straub is a national treasure. His work holds you in a death grip even as it touches you in unexpected ways, and he never stops growing, evolving, taking risks' Lawrence Block
'Peter Straub is the great classicist of horror fiction. His style, his storytelling and his grasp of horror's true potential know few equals. In any genre, a world class author.' Clive Barker
'Peter Straub is a fine storyteller. His brutally whimsical mystery is as engagingly precise and ornately interrelating as a crossword puzzle.
The reader solves one element of the puzzle only to be challenged by the next' Washington Post
'Straub is a master at creating fear out of everyday life' Sunday Telegraph
'Straub can write circles around most of the authors topping bestseller lists these days' Booklist
| Paperback - Harpercollins (2001) |
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Koko
`KOKO. . .’Only four men knew what it meant. Vietnam vets. One was a doctor. One was a lawyer. One was a working stiff. One was a writer. All were as different as men could be - yet all were bound eternally together by a single shattering secret.
And now they are joined together again on a quest that could take them from the graveyards and fleshpots of the Far East to the human jungle of New York, hunting an inhuman ghost of the past risen from nightmare darkness to kill and kill and kill...
`Complexly plotted, thickly layered evil . . . the ultimate horror!’ New York Times
‘Brilliantly written… an inspired thriller… his finest work’ Washington Post
`An enormously entertaining and scary story . . . rich, complex, dark and tough to put down.’ New York Daily News
`A dead-centre hit . . . a gripping, enthralling, non-stop read.’ San Francisco Chronicle
‘A blood-chilling hair-raiser!’ Los Angeles Times
‘A masterpiece . . . a crime novel, a suspense novel, a horror novel and a study of human relationships. Fascinating and complex.’ Houston Post
‘Gripping . . . The characters are realistic and complex, and the story continues to resonate in the mind long after the final page is turned.’ Publishers Weekly
‘Vastly entertaining and brilliantly written . . . evokes bizarre fevers and brimstone terror . . . Peter Straub flexes all his muscles . . . his style is at its peak . . . Koko is his finest work . . . with an inspired, wonderfully handled ending . . . judged as a thriller it deserves to be compared to the best.’ Washington Post
‘Remarkable . . . an unusual and wonderfully suspenseful thriller . . . evokes a fascinating and frightening picture of war and its aftermath.’ Boston Herald
About The Author
Peter Straub was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and was educated at the University of Wisconsin, Columbia University and University College, Dublin. He is the author of fourteen novels, including Ghost Story, Shadowland, The Talisman (with Stephen King), Koko, Mystery and The Throat. He has won the British Fantasy Award, the Bram Stoker Award and two World Fantasy Awards, and his books have been translated into twenty one languages. For a decade he lived in Ireland and England, and he now resides in New York City, where he is working on a new collaboration with Stephen King: Black House, a sequel to their acclaimed co-written bestseller, The Talisman.
Bibliography
N.B. dates and publishers in dark red indicate British First Editions. Dates and publishers in black indicate recent reprints.
In the Night Room
(Harpercollins,
2004)
Harpercollins Pbk Jul 05
Lost Boy Lost Girl
(Harpercollins,
2003)
Mr X
(Harpercollins,
2000)
Harpercollins Pbk Feb 01
Pork Pie Hat
(Orion,
1999)
Koko
(Viking,
1988)
Harpercollins Pbk May 01
Hellfire Club
(Harpercollins)
In the Night Room
by Peter Straub
