Chet Williamson – författare

Tired of the political machinations of his egotistical fellow wizards, Benelaius retires from the College of War Wizards to take up residency in Cormyr, where he lives peacefully until he and his legman, Jasper, are forced to investigate the murder of a messenger from King Azoun.

Scattered through the streets and homes of Merridale are glowing, transparent blue forms, frozen in their death agonies. They do not speak—and are all the more terrifying for their silence.Merridale's dead have returned. All hell is about to break loose.A classic novel of horror.

At first glance, Dreamthorp seems as named -- a charming Pennsylvania Chautauqua town set deep in the woods. A perfect haven from the pressures of urban life. But before long this "e;village of dreams"e; is enmeshed in a nightmare, a dark dream of cruel torture and savage death.Is the cause magic, centuries old? Or is it a new and unexpected magic born of random violence and mindless brutality?Among those searching for the answer are:Tom Brewer, a recent widower whose attempts to reconcile with his disturbed teenage son seem as futile as his efforts as a carver to bring life out of wood...Laura Stark, a newcomer to Dreamthorp, dealing with the mysteries of her newly discovered sexuality and the aftermath of her lover's vicious murder...And Gilbert Rodman, more than human and far less than divine, a serial killer who lives only for revenge on the one woman his twisted mind blames for his bizarre mutilation -- Laura.As Rodman blazes his own bloody trail across the country to reach Laura, the horrors of Dreamthorp intensify, until one unholy night Tom and Laura confront the terrors that haunt not only our worst dreams, but our most feared realities.

He is out there and he is dangerous beyond imagining.Two men walk the desert beneath the Arizona stars. By morning, one will lie buried beneath the blistering sands. The other will be the new Apostle.Laika Harris, Tony Luciano, and Joseph Stein are the Searchers – deep cover government agents directed by a man they dare not trust, exploring phenomena they cannot fathom. Now their hunt for the mysterious entity known as the Prisoner is leading them to a desiccated corpse in the Southwestern desert … and into the deadly midst of violent fanatics who are determined to set the enigmatic captive free. The Searchers are as close as a heartbeat to their quarry. But in this merciless place of ancient cultures and strange, mystical traditions, the echoing canyons form an inescapable labyrinth in which revelations, betrayals and death wait around every turn. For the Prisoner may be more – much more – than his hunters dream. And because of that, the most powerful forces on Earth are gearing up for the ultimate confrontation – one that no more mortal can stop … or survive.

Something is out there, and everything we know, everything we believe, everything we are – is doomed.Their identities are a secret. Their mission does not exist. There is no one they can trust…not even the one man pulling the strings.A trio of uniquely talented CIA operatives, their mission to explain the inexplicable: to debunk the work of psychic tricksters, magicians and frauds whose calculated deceptions pose a serious threat to security and the national psyche. But the strange disappearance of an artist in New York , coupled with the discovery of elevn charred bodies in an Adirondack mountain lodge – corpses that forensic evidence indicates are centuries old – suggest to agents Laika Harris, Tony Luciano, and Joseph Stein that there is more to their assignment than they've been led to believe, that the truth they seek is rooted in a conspiracy that stretches back countless millennia and is centered around the release of the most powerful prisoner the world has ever known – a conspiracy that could shatter every belief about the origin of man…and God.

He is The Prisoner, ageless, deathless, powerful beyond measure – and now he is free.A being as old as time, he has always been. For centuries a clandestine order of knights has guarded him, keeping his existence secret from an unsuspecting world. But The Prisoner has escaped his shackles, cutting a bloody swath of terror across America.His time is now.For covert CIA operatives Tony Luciano, Joseph Stein, and Laika Harris, the search is nearing an end. Each passing moment brings them closer to answers to the mystery they have been entrusted to solve; what spawned this awesome being and released him into the world? And what is his horrifying purpose? But their hunt has left an FBI man dead, and now the SEARCHERS are the hunted. Yet they dare not falter, for the Prisoner must be stopped at any cost, before he forges an unholy terrorist alliance that will rain destruction and death up on the Earth, and damn an enslaved human race to the torments of an eternal living Hell.BE SURE TO CHECK OUT BOOKS I and II of The Searchers. CROSSROAD PRESS is proud to offer a number of other books by CHET WILLIAMSON, including the novels Ash Wednesday, Lowland Rider, Reign, Second Chance, Dreamthorp, and the two new - original novels Defenders of the Faith & Hunters. CROSSROAD PRESS offers a wide variety of horror, dark fantasy, original series, Sci-Fi, Westerns, and more from authors like Tom Piccirilli, Richard Christian Matheson, Bill Crider, Loren D. Estleman, Ed Gorman, Sidney Williams, David Niall Wilson, and many more. If you like The Searchers, be sure to check out the original series O.C.L.T.

“An excellent collection” of vampire stories, from authors such as Harlan Ellison, Dan Simmons, Gahan Wilson, Tanith Lee, and Fritz Leiber (Publishers Weekly).   Renowned editor Ellen Datlow has gathered seventeen variations on vampirism ranging from classically Gothic to postmodern satire, from horrific to erotic. These stories reflect the evolution of vampire literature from Bram Stoker to Anne Rice and beyond, resulting in a deeper exploration of their inner lives. Expanding the concept of vampirism to include the draining of a person’s will or life force, Datlow’s collection transcends the traditional “black capes and teeth marks on the neck” to reinvent an eternally fascinating subgenre of horror.   In Harlan Ellison’s “Try a Dull Knife,” an empath stumbles bleeding into a nightclub, on the run from emotional vampires. A Broadway actress steals the emotions of her fellow performers in “. . . To Feel Another’s Woe” by Chet Williamson. And in “The Sea Was Wet as Wet Could Be,” Gahan Wilson offers his own surreal twist on Lewis Carroll’s “The Walrus and the Carpenter,” as two strangers on a beach lure intoxicated picnickers to a different kind of picnic . . .   Blood Is Not Enough includes contributions by Dan Simmons, Gahan Wilson, Garry Kilworth, Harlan Ellison, Scott Baker, Leonid Andreyev, Harvey Jacobs, S. N. Dyer, Edward Bryant, Fritz Leiber, Tanith Lee, Susan Casper, Steve Rasnic Tem, Gardner Dozois and Jack Dann, Chet Williamson, Joe Haldeman, and Pat Cadigan.

A Step Across the sea......is what Susanna Cassidy takes when she travels from America to Ireland's County Galway to keep a date made 31 years before between her late sister Julia and Michael Lynch, the Irishman she loved for a few passionate weeks in 1972.Susanna has promised her dying sister to meet Michael at the time and place ordained decades before. But when she does, he mistakes her for Julia, and Susanna is too overwhelmed by conflicting emotions to tell him the truth.Before she can find the love she seeks, Susanna must take even longer steps -- across the chasms of class and religion, of thirty-year-old jealousies and betrayals, and of peace and war in a still simmering, divided Ireland.________________________________________________________________Praise for Laurie & Chet Williamson's previous book, Murder Old and New:"e;Sharp writing, excellent characterization, and a satisfying conclusion should put this at the top of your reading list."e; -- Joe R. Lansdale"e;Intriguing...the Williamsons do a good job balancing suspense and humor."e; -- Publishers Weekly