Cherie Priest – författare

Although she was orphaned at birth, Eden Moore is never alone. Three dead women watch from the shadows, bound to protect her from harm. But in the woods a gunman waits, convinced that Eden is destined to follow her wicked great-grandfather - an African magician with the power to curse the living and raise the dead. Now Eden must decipher the secret of the ghostly trio before a new enemy more dangerous than the fanatical assassin destroys what is left of her family. She will sift through lies in a Georgian antebellum mansion and climb through the haunted ruins of a nineteenth century hospital, desperately seeking the truth that will save her beloved aunt from the curse that threatens her life.

The fields at Chickamauga, Georgia-America's oldest national military park-claimed 35,000 casualties during the Civil War, and any good guide will tell you that the grounds are haunted. The battlefield even has its own resident haunt, called Old Green Eyes for his tell-tale luminous gaze. It has long been said that Old Green Eyes intends no harm to those who respect the park. He is no menace, but a guardian of the dead. While he walks, the dead may sleep secure in the knowledge that their rest will be undisturbed. While Old Green Eyes patrols the battlefield, there is nothing to fear, for graves are not robbed and bones are not moved. But suddenly a different phenomenon starts puzzling and frightening visitors, causing tours to be cancelled and rangers to quit their jobs. These new ghosts are no illusions carved out of the low-rolling fog. One by one, solemn-faced spirits in ragged uniforms show themselves, and one by one, they point a determined arm off into the distance. Why do the soldiers march again, and what has become of their unblinking custodian? The spirits need a go-between, someone who can speak to them, and for them. Eden Moore is not interested.But the ghosts aren't taking no for an answer.

At the start of the Civil War, a Russian mining company commissions a great machine to pave the way from Seattle to Alaska and speed up the gold rush that is beating a path to the frozen north. Inventor Leviticus Blue creates the machine, but on its first test run it malfunctions, decimating Seattle's banking district.

The ageless water witch Arahab has been scheming for eons, gathering the means to awaken the great Leviathan. She aims to bring him and the old gods back to their former glory, not caring that their ascendance will also mean an end to the human race. However, awakening the Leviathan will be no small feat. In fact, Arahab can't complete the ritual without human aid. Arahab's first choice is Jose Gaspar, a notorious sea pirate from eighteenth-century Spain. But when the task proves too difficult for Gaspar, she must look elsewhere, biding her time until the 1930s, when the ideal candidate shows up: a slightly deranged teenager named Bernice. Bernice is sophisticated, torn from New York and forced to spend a miserable summer on Anna Maria Island, a tiny rock off the coast of Florida. She's also been saddled with the companionship of her farm-raised cousin Nia. Eventually, Bernice's disenchantment gives way to rage and she commits a terrible crime. When Nia won't cover for Bernice, she turns on Nia, chasing her into the deadly coastal waves.But the elementals have better ideas: the moment the girls go under, Bernice is commandeered for Arahab's task force, and Nia is turned into a strange and powerful creature by a servant of the earth who doesn't want to surrender his green fields and muddy plains. Add in a hapless fire inspector who's just trying to get his paperwork in order, a fire god whose neutrality has been called into question, and a bizarre religious cult, and rural Florida doesn't seem quite so sleepy anymore. With Fathom, Cherie Priest brings her masterful writing and unforgettable characterization to the realm of near-contemporary rural fantasy. The result is fast-paced, stunning, and quite unlike anything you've ever read.

Nurse Mercy Lynch is elbows deep in bloody laundry at a war hospital in Richmond, Virginia, when Clara Barton comes bearing bad news: Mercy's husband has died in a POW camp. On top of that, a telegram from the west coast declares that her estranged father is gravely injured, and he wishes to see her. Mercy sets out toward the Mississippi River. Once there, she'll catch a train over the Rockies and - if the telegram can be believed - be greeted in Washington Territory by the sheriff, who will take her to see her father in Seattle. Reaching the Mississippi is a harrowing adventure by dirigible and rail through war-torn border states. When Mercy finally arrives in St. Louis, the only Tacoma-bound train is pulled by a terrifying Union-operated steam engine called the DREADNOUGHT. Reluctantly, Mercy buys a ticket and climbs aboard. What ought to be a quiet trip turns deadly when the train is beset by bushwhackers, then vigorously attacked by a band of Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from battle lines into the vast, unincorporated west, so Mercy can't imagine why they're so interested.Perhaps the mysterious cargo secreted in the second and last train cars has something to do with it? Mercy is just a frustrated nurse who wants to see her father before he dies. But she'll have to survive both Union intrigue and Confederate opposition if she wants to make it off the DREADNOUGHT alive.

The air pirate Andan Cly is going straight. Well, straighter. Although he's happy to run alcohol and guns wherever the money's good, he doesn't think the world needs more sap, or its increasingly ugly side effects. But reforming is easier said than done: the captain's first legal gig will be paid for by sap money, because the Seattle Underground is in dire need of supplies. New Orleans is not Cly's first pick for a shopping run. He loved the Big Easy once, back when he also loved a beautiful mixed race prostitute named Josephine Early, but that was a decade ago. He's still on Jo's mind, he learns when he gets a telegram about a peculiar piloting job. It's a chance to complete two lucrative jobs at once, one he can't refuse. He sends his old paramour a note and heads for New Orleans, with no idea of what he's in for - or what she wants him to fly. But he won't be flying. Not exactly. Hidden at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain lurks an astonishing war machine, an immense submersible called the Ganymede. This prototype could end the war, if only anyone had the faintest idea of how to operate it...if only they could sneak it past the Southern forces at the mouth of the Mississippi River...if only it hadn't killed most of the men who'd ever set foot inside it. Now the only question is whether Cly and his crew will end up in the history books, or at the bottom of the ocean.

Take a road trip into a Southern gothic horror novel.Titus and Melanie Bell are on their honeymoon and have reservations in the Okefenokee Swamp cabins for a canoeing trip. But shortly before they reach their destination, the road narrows into a rickety bridge with old stone pilings, with room for only one car.Much later, Titus wakes up lying in the middle of the road, no bridge in sight. Melanie is missing. When he calls the police, they tell him there is no such bridge on Route 177.

Raylene Pendle (aka Cheshire Red) is a vampire and world-renowned thief. When the infuriatingly charming Ian Stott asks for help, Raylene doesn't bargain for a case that takes her from the wilds of Minneapolis to the mean streets of Atlanta. And with a psychotic scientist on her trail, a kick-ass drag queen on her side, and Men in Black everywhere, the case proves to be one hell of a ride.

With the government now off her tail, vampire and superthief Raylene Pendle is up to her old tricks, hired to retrieve a valuable magical artefact. But this time, a powerful witch also wants the artefact. So now, Raylene must cross the country with ex-Navy SEAL and fabulous drag queen Adrian, trying to juggle two incredibly tricky assignments without losing control of either.

At the Civil War battlefield at Chickamauga, Georgia, there have long been tales of sighting Old Green Eyes, said to be the guardian of the battle's dead, and now there's a new wrinkle. To wit, sightings of ghosts pointing frustratedly across the battlefield. The spirits need someone who can speak to them, and for them. Eden Moore is not interested. But the ghosts aren't taking no for an answer.

A devastating storm swells the Tennessee River to dam-breaking levels on the eve of Eden's planned move into a new riverside apartment complex. With the gushing waters comes a tide of corpses, animated and organized by a malignant force with an inscrutable purpose. Reluctant medium Eden may be the only one who can dissuade the zombie army from adding hundreds to their ghastly ranks.

WINNER OF THE LOCUS AWARD FOR BEST NOVELEzekiel Blue’s father committed a crime, unleashing a deadly menace into steampowered Seattle. And his bereaved family has paid the price. Now, Ezekiel is determined to clear his father’s name, risking death and the undead in the attempt.Sixteen years ago, as the American Civil War dawned, gold brought hordes to the frozen Klondike. Fanatical in their greed, Russian prospectors commissioned Dr Leviticus Blue to create a great machine, to mine through Alaska’s ice. Thus the Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine was born. But the Boneshaker went awry, destroying downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas. Anyone who breathed its fumes turning into the living dead.The devastated city is now walled in to contain the blight. But unknown to Briar, his widowed mother, Ezekiel is going in. His quest will take him into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive.‘Adventure of rollicking pace and sweeping proportions … this book is made of irresistible’Scott Westerfeld, ‘This is a hoot from start to finish’Cory Doctorow,‘Intelligent, exceptionally well written and showcasing a phenomenal strong female protagonist’ Publishers Weekly

Nurse Mercy Lynch is recently widowed, but the war has further unpleasant surprises in store. While working in a Confederate hospital, she receives word that her estranged father is dying and wants to see her. But reaching the far side of the country will be a harrowing adventure though war-torn border states.When her dirigible is shot out of the sky, Mercy is forced to join the mighty Union-operated steam engine known as the Dreadnought. But the journey turns deadly when they are beset by bandits, then attacked by Rebel soldiers. The train is moving away from the battle front, so Mercy can’t imagine why they’re so interested. Unless the train’s mysterious cargo is responsible?Mercy just wants to see her father before he dies. But she’ll have to survive Union intrigue and Confederate opposition to make it off the Dreadnought alive.‘Pure genius … I’m not exaggerating the potential of Priest’s Clockwork Century’ Paul Goat Allen, ‘Exceptional ... the real draw is Priest’s latest no-nonsense heroine’ Publishers Weekly, ‘The historical setting is finely detailed, the action is nonstop’ Booklist

Josephine Early, New Orleans brothel owner and Union spy, has a mission. And it might just end the Civil War. She must deliver Ganymede, an astonishing prototype submarine, to the North. But the giant war machine is at the bottom of a lake, no one has safely piloted it and she must sneak its huge bulk past enemy forces.Luckily, she knows the right man for the job. She hasn’t seen former lover and air-pirate Andan Cly for years, but has a sweet job to tempt him back. He agrees to help, but his primary mission is to retrieve supplies for blighted Seattle, where noxious gas has forced residents underground and undead rotters menace the city.Although legit, the Seattle run makes Cly uncomfortable. He no longer flies sap, disapproving of the drug’s ugly side-effects, and the job is funded with sap money. Josephine’s jaunt could be a great distraction. But will they make history, or end up at the bottom of the ocean?'Priest is at the top of her game ... the best yet’ Publishers Weekly, ‘Ganymede centres on intrigue and espionage’, SFRevu.com, ‘Alternative history storytelling at its finest’ BookSlut.com

Ex-spy ‘Belle Boyd’ is retired – more or less. Retired from spying on the Confederacy anyway. Her short-lived marriage to a Union navy boy cast suspicion on those Southern loyalties, so her mid-forties found her unemployed, widowed and disgraced. Until her life-changing job offer from the staunchly Union Pinkerton Detective Agency.When she’s required to assist Abraham Lincoln himself, she has to put any old loyalties firmly aside – for a man she spied against twenty years ago. Lincoln’s friend Gideon Bardsley, colleague and ex-slave, is targeted for assassination after the young inventor made a breakthrough. Fiddlehead, Bardsley’s calculating engine, has proved the world is facing an extraordinary threat. Meaning it's not the time for civil war.Now Bardsley and Fiddlehead are in great danger as forces conspire to keep this potentially unifying secret, the war moving and the money flowing. With spies from both camps gunning for her, can even the notorious Belle Boyd hold the war-hawks at bay?Cherie Priest has been hailed as 'the High Priestess of Steampunk' - and you can see why in this latest wonderfully written adventure.

"This smartly paced, genre bending novel is a good choice for the horror-curious thriller reader who enjoyed The Good House by Tananarive Due and Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia.” —Booklist, Starred Review“Cherie Priest is our new queen of darkness, folks. Time to kneel before her, lest she take our heads.” —Chuck Wendig, author of The Book of Accidents Houses fall into the Pacific Ocean all the time.Not one has ever come back. Until today.A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers—but decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all. Now they’ll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place—and on the way they’ll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he’s bringing back to Marrowstone Island. From award-winning author Cherie Priest comes a deeply haunting and atmospheric horror-thriller that explores the lengths we'll go to protect those we love.

Ronnie doesn't know it yet, but her fate rests in the hands of the dead. Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. And she's not alone. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan—her eternal nemesis—watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror, shackled by his own guilt and Venita's unrelenting wrath.Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it's Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house's blood-soaked history. But her arrival has stirred up more than just dust and decay. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence.Venita's fury awakens, and a deadly game unfolds.Caught between a vengeful ghost and a ruthless living threat, Ronnie's skepticism crumbles. The line between living and dead isn't as sharp as it seems, and she realizes too late that in Venita's house, survival might be just an illusion.

An anthology of horror stories in urban settings-whether back alleys, crumbling brownstones, gleaming high-rise towers, or city hall. Terrifying urban myths, malicious ghosts, cursed architecture, malignant city deities, personal demons (in business or relationships) twisted into something worse...virtually anything that inspires the contributors to imagine some bit of urban darkness.

Tales of tentacles, terror, and madness from the publisher who brought you Wastelands, The Living Dead, and Brave New WorldsFirst described by visionary author H. P. Lovecraft, the Cthulhu mythos encompass a pantheon of truly existential cosmic horror: Eldritch, uncaring, alien god-things, beyond mankind’s deepest imaginings, drawing ever nearer, insatiably hungry, until one day, when the stars are right.…As that dread day, hinted at within the moldering pages of the fabled Necronomicon, draws nigh, tales of the Great Old Ones—Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Hastur, Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, and the weird cults that worship them—have cross-pollinated, drawing authors and other dreamers to imagine the strange dark aeons ahead, when the dead-but-dreaming gods return.Now, intrepid anthologist Ross E. Lockhart has delved deep into the Cthulhu canon, selecting from myriad mind-wracking tomes twenty-seven sanity-shattering stories of cosmic terror. Featuring fiction by many of today’s masters of the menacing, macabre, and monstrous, including Laird Barron, Caitlín R. Kiernan, and Thomas Ligotti, The Book of Cthulhu goes where no collection of Cthulhu mythos tales has gone before: to the very edge of madness... and beyond!Do you dare open The Book of Cthulhu?Do you dare heed the call?