Ray Garton – författare

Kealan Patrick Burke, Ray Garton, Bev Vincent, C. A. Suleiman, and Paul Melniczek treat readers to some spooky tricks with a hair-raising assemblage of tales gathered together by author, editor, and master of the macabre Brian James Freeman. THE MANNEQUIN CHALLENGE by Kealan Patrick Burke For some, office parties are the highlight of the season. For others, they can paralyze with dread. Theo is determined not to let his anxiety stop him from attending—though maybe he’s right to be afraid. ACROSS THE TRACKS by Ray Garton The candy’s always better on the other side of town, even if it means crossing paths with bullies. But a rich house with an unlocked door might just be too good to be true. . . . THE HALLOWEEN TREE by Bev Vincent Every town has one: a house or a field or an old tree that just gives off a bad vibe. Of course, those feelings are just silly superstition, nothing to take seriously. Right? PUMPKIN EATER by C. A. Suleiman Peter loves Halloween—almost as much as he hates his wife. Luckily, his favorite holiday presents an opportunity to fix his problem. After all, putting his wife in her place should be as easy as pie. WHEN THE LEAVES FALL by Paul Melniczek Haverville always seemed like a typical town to me: a place where people work hard, and no one ever really leaves. Until the night I went to Graver’s Farm—and discovered what Haverwille was really hiding.

When he was a boy, Stuart Mullond's mother held him down while his urologist Dr. Ferguson performed a medical procedure on him that was so traumatizing and humiliating that its painful memory stayed with him for decades. For his entire life, his nightmares have been haunted by the snick-snick-snick of the doctor's scissors.Now a divorced, unemployed adult with a troubled teenage son, Stuart is trying to hold his life together...when Dr. Ferguson suddenly shows up again. He's not confined to nightmares anymore. He's very real. And he is determined to perform that same horrible procedure on Stuart's son. But all these years later, Dr. Ferguson looks exactly as he did when Stuart was a boy. And he's kept his scissors nice and sharp ...Snick-snick-snick!

Psychotic killers, devious ghosts, alien monsters, howling storms, undead creatures, and other dark forces haunt the highways and the truckers who drive them in these 18 chilling tales.A ghostly voice on a trucker’s CB radio knows more about his life than it should… Two drivers find their cargo gives them inhuman appetites… A boy in a truck stop encounters a supernatural force that threatens to destroy the world… The hypnotic singing lulling a driver to sleep might not be coming from the tires… A fender-bender between a big rig and a four wheeler is not as accidental as it seems… The sinister cargo lurking in a rock and roll band’s fleet of trucks is unleashed at their final show...Hit the road with this anthology of trucking horror fiction!

"e;She walked into my office smelling like a meadow of flowers and looking like one long night of trouble."e;Myron Foote is a private detective on the wrong side of the tracks who does not like to be on the receiving end of violence but is sometimes a little too quick to hand it out to others. From his dumpy little office on the edge of the red light district, he works bottom‑of‑the‑barrel divorce cases ... until a gorgeous redhead walks into his life and offers him $105,000 to pose as her uncle Percy. It sounds simple. Too simple. But who could turn down that kind of money? Or that kind of redhead?The job takes him down a dark path littered with lies and secrets, blackmail and murder ... a path that leads straight into Cynthia Thacketer's arms ... and into a deadly trap. Soon, all that stands between Foote and life in prison is an alibi he cannot use.Author Ray Garton keeps the pace brisk and the action intense in this hard‑boiled modern noir that will have you guessing until the final gunshot.

Medical research? Genetic experiments? No one knows exactly what goes on inside the sprawling BioGenTech building on the edge of town. But after an enormous explosion at the facility, people in town start turning up dead ... and in pieces.Something is loose in Hope Valley. Something big ... and fast ... and hungry. It has a lot of legs, a nasty disposition and a big appetite. This is one spider you can't step on.

The true extent of human evil is revealed in this suspenseful thriller in which children are stolen—and sold onlineChildren disappear all the time—but where do they go?While covering a missing-child case for a tabloid newspaper, washed-up reporter Bentley Noble accidentally stumbles upon a horrifying lead. What he thought was a single kidnapping leads him to discover a human trafficking ring, specializing in sexually obedient children. Noble slowly uncovers a society so depraved that it can only be classified as evil; its members are no ordinary pedophiles, but rather professionals. United by their Satanist beliefs, they're willing to use any means necessary to train their "e;merchandise"e;—and keep Noble from uncovering their business.With the help of a hacker, a researcher, and a true-crime writer, Noble descends into the dark world of human trafficking. But in order to destroy it, he'll have to gamble not only his life, but also his sanity.Shackled, author Ray Garton's most controversial work yet, is not for the faint of heart—or stomach.

This breakout thriller by the master of horror will take its place on the shelf next to other Garton classics like Live Girls and The New Neighbor.This blockbuster is a chilling combination of thrills, terror, black humor, plot reversals, and a climax so shocking it will leave you shaken.Adam Julian, son of a Hollywood screenwriter, has a life many would kill for ... and some would kill to keep. He is tangled in a web of forced sex, coerced into robbery, and it is only a short step to killing as a choice.At the center of the book is a sensational murder trial, which oddly resembles the O. J. Simpson case. The cast features an abrasive, starstruck female judge, blundering prosecuting attorneys, a nerdy defendant who reserves his right to silence, and Rona Horowitz, a pint‑size ball of fire of a defense lawyer. The defendant may be guilty, but energetic Rona tries one outrageous legal stunt after another in order to exonerate her client.Drenched in the glamour and the sleaze of highline and lowlife Hollywood, this satirical and entertaining look at the criminal justice system, turned inside out and upside down by showbiz at its best and worst, is a panorama of crime, corruption, and violence delivered with grim authenticity and hilarious awfulness.

When Emily Crane's car breaks down on a dark, lonely road at night, she is attacked and raped by a man she kills in self-defense. That night, the dead rapist walks out of the morgue. Later, Emily begins to experience strange cravings and her body undergoes terrifying changes.When brutal killings leave victims partially eaten in the northern California coastal town of Big Rock, Sheriff Arlin Hurley scoffs at the talk of werewolves ... until a tuft of wolf's fur is found on a victim. It soon becomes clear that whatever is responsible for the killings, it is not alone. There are more than one. And they are doing something much worse than killing and eating people.

In this "e;shocker from [a] horror maestro,"e; a grieving family's inheritance stirs the past and brings out the dead (Publishers Weekly).After the sudden death of their youngest child, Josh, Jenna and David Kellar need a fresh and healing new start. When Jenna is bequeathed her estranged father's home in the coastal town of Eureka, California, it's the opportunity the Kellars, their son Miles, and Jenna's elderly mother have been looking for. And the last thing they expected. The house has been waiting for them, and so have those who still walk there in the dark.There are the children seen playing in the backyard—at once innocent and terrifying; the noises and music that rattle the walls; the man who appears in Miles's bedroom at night, watching over him with an unhealthy obsession. But when Jenna sees Josh, she fears that she's either losing her mind or someone is playing a very sick game. For a local psychic, it's neither—it's a warning. For the Kellars, the past isn't dead. In fact, it's just starting to come alive.A Bram Stoker Award finalist for Live Girls, "e;Garton shows a sure hand in ... mixing The Amityville Horror, Poltergeist and Jack Ketchum's The Girl Next Door"e; (Bookgasm). A winner of the World Horror Convention's Grand Master Award, Garton is in the company of such recipients as Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Clive Barker, and Richard Matheson.

A terrifying tale from a Bram Stoker Award–nominated author who "e;has consistently created some of the best horror ever set to print"e; (Cemetery Dance).Foster care is like Russian roulette, says fifteen-year-old Ryan Kettering, who's spent most of his young life in largely abusive homes. Sometimes the hammer clicks and you're fine. Sometimes it's a bullet to the brain. This time it seems the hammer has clicked. Living with the Prestons in a rambling two-story house in Shasta County, the chores are split between Ryan and five other foster kids. Not counting nine-year-old Maddy. Not much is expected of her. She stays in the basement.The other children don't know much about Maddy. But what they do know, they don't like. She's just not right. She speaks in a strange, gravelly adult voice. Maybe Ryan can make a difference. Spend time with her. Get acquainted. He understands what it means to be lonely. That's when he decides to do what no other child in the house dares: Ryan's going down to the basement.From the author of Live Girls and The Loveliest Dead, a recipient of the World Horror Convention's Grand Master Award, this is a chilling story of supernatural terror.

COME, YE FAITHFULHester Thorne is the beautiful and charismatic leader of the Universal Enlightened Alliance—and the channel for a centuries-old spirit named Orrin...From across the country and around the world, thousands gather at her retreat in northern California, to hear Orrin's soothing message of peace and love. Most donate only their money but a chosen few will make a much greater contribution...COME, BE DAMNEDJordan Cross came to investigate the disappearance of a reporter who got too close to the unspeakable truth.Lauren Shroeder was looking for the husband who joined the Alliance and then kidnapped their four-year-old son.Together they would uncover the Inner Circle and a horror more devastating than anything of human invention.For behind the meditation and sensitivity workshops lay an ancient cult of evil whose terrifying secret threatened to throw open the door between hell and earth - a cult whose dark rites of passage have already begun...DARK CHANNELEVIL HAS ITS OWN PROPHETS

One rainy night, Gerry Brady discovers a beautiful woman with heartbreaking eyes hiding in his garage. The moment he sees her, he is struck by an involuntary thought he does not understand: I've found you. She is a woman in danger. He does not understand why he feels so powerfully drawn to her, but he feels compelled to help her, even though doing so puts his life and the lives of his friends in jeopardy.Gerry's relationship with Kendra draws him into a conspiracy too horrifying to believe ... a conspiracy rooted in his own past. As he falls in love with a woman he does not know, he learns more about himself than he ever suspected.Trade Secrets is a riveting, emotional thriller that features the most memorable and terrifying villain Ray Garton has ever created.

What would you do if the person you loved could kill you with an accidental thought?A man: At the end of his rope, running from his own mistakes… a drug deal gone wrong and a lot of money owed to a powerful figure who will happily take his life as payment.A woman: Running from a husband who wants to kill her and a man who wants to own her, with a secret that could turn the city, the country, perhaps the world into a mass grave.Each has lost everything. Together, they have nothing to lose… but their lives.Drawn together by loneliness and desperation… and a secret project called… Biofire.

A terrifying tale of demonic horror close to home from the Bram Stoker Award–nominated author of Live Girls.Dean Koontz has praised the work of Ray Garton as "e;gripping, original, and sly"e; and Ramsey Campbell described it as "e;nightmarish."e; Now, the author of Night Life, Ravenous, and other chilling novels tells the story of a new neighbor who is far less friendly than she appears . . .The Pritchard family is content enough in their home on Deerfield Avenue—until Lorelle Dupree moves in across the street. Their new neighbor is pleasant, and also astonishingly beautiful. She catches young Robby's eye through a window while he's in a very compromising position, and eventually, he surrenders to her advances. So does his father. And his stepmother. And many others on Deerfield Avenue.But something about Lorelle's seduction leaves them spent, even sick. Her influence begins to change them in shocking ways—and then the killings start. This new neighbor doesn't just want their bodies; she wants their souls . . .A novel of supernatural evil from a Grand Master of Horror, The New Neighbor is a riveting story of demonic depravity hidden behind the facades of a quiet small town.

When Ray Garton's Live Girls was published in 1987, it changed the face of vampire fiction. The gritty, urban story of Davey Owen's dark seduction and reluctant transformation into a creature of the undead has become a classic of the genre.In Night Life, nearly two decades after battling the vampires of the Midnight Club in New York City, Davey is a marked man. He lives a quiet life in Los Angeles with the love of his life, Casey Thorne. The vampires he did not destroy back then have been hunting him ever since, eager to take their revenge—and now they have found him. For what he did to them, they are determined to make him pay with his last drop of blood. With the help of old friends and new allies, Davey and Casey must face the bloodthirsty nightmare of their past. This time, they may not have a future.

For sixteen years, Amy Grady has been married to a man who slaps, punches, and kicks her. His anger is unpredictable and violence can explode at any moment. Except for the love of her son, Danny, Amy's life is lonely and cold.Walter Loveless, who has just moved in next door to Amy, is lonely, too. He has been living a life of isolation. When they meet, electricity crackles between them and the attraction is instant and powerful. They find in each other the love and affection they have craved for so long. But Loveless has secrets and a past that haunts him. Someone from that past is still pursuing him. Someone deadly. When Amy decides to escape her own past, she runs headlong into Loveless's.

In the debut horror novel from the author of Live Girls, a small town in Northern California finds itself at the whims of an old and hungry evil.Donald Ellis is in a bad place. On a forced leave of absence from work, his personal life has also collapsed. But he's certain that something else is going on—something dreadfully wrong with his town. People are disappearing, leaving inexplicable traces of what might have happened to them. And then there are the dreams—horrifying nightmares seeping slowly into even more troubling daytime visions.Then Freddie appears on his doorstep—a strangely powerful young woman who tells him that his intuition is right. A dark force has taken over his once-sleepy northern California home. Creatures are roaming the night, hungry for lust, thirsty for blood, and knowing exactly how to satisfy their cravings.To fight an evil that hides in plain sight, Donald and Freddie will have to push the boundaries of their own sanity—and risk becoming a part of the very shadows they seek to destroy ...

A "e;lot lizard"e; is a female hooker who works a highway truck stop as her territory. When trucker Bill Ketter looks for a little relaxation and release, he discovers, too late, that he has bitten off more than he can chew. In fact, his lot lizard is the one who does the biting—she is a vampire, one of a number who move from one truck stop to the next under the watchful and vicious eyes of the repulsive Carsey Brothers. Against his will, Bill becomes one of the undead. He follows the brothers and their cargo to another stop where he meets his ex‑wife and children, and Bill finds himself battling the vampires and their age‑old leader for the life of his teenage son.Garton has created another small masterpiece, contemporary adult horror at its most gruesome and loaded with extra doses of sex and gore. The confined setting creates a perfect claustrophobic stage for the story and the hellaciously quick pace never lets the action slow down.

Something dark and sinister is spreading through the California town of Big Rock. Something more brutal and animalistic than normally lurks in the shadows of our daily lives. And its numbers are growing exponentially.Werewolves have arrived like an epidemic. This time, though, the outbreak is careful, planned by the hungry monsters themselves. The werewolves have dug their claws in deep and continue to grow ever more powerful. As the infection transfers through grisly violence and horrific sex, the entire town transforms into either starved predator or terrified prey. This time, there is no escape.Can the remaining band of humans fight back? Are there enough left to stop the trail of terror? Were there ever enough? This gut‑wrenching follow‑up to Ravenous by Grand Master of Horror Ray Garton will have you too scared to turn the page ... or too scared to stop, if only to seek refuge in its shocking end.

Ray Garton exposes himself as a master storyteller in METHODS OF MADNESS, with six stories centered on the psychotic, twisted deviations in human nature. Anchored by the riveting short novel, "e;Dr. Krusadian's Method,"e; Garton's style is so real, so believable, he could be describing people you encounter every day. The couple upstairs, your neighbors and relatives, maybe even your own husband or wife. What kind of madness is really played out behind their shuttered windows? Also features the stories "e;Fat,"e; "e;Active Member,"e; Something Kinky,"e; "e;Sinema,"e; and "e;Shock Radio."e; This is Ray Garton at his terrifying best."e;This is the first fiction collection from Garton…his writing is compelling."e; -- Publishers Weekly"e;Garton is on his way to becoming a major name in any field he works in."e; -- Joe R. Lansdale

One hot summer day, a man in a business suit running wildly down a busy street attacks a woman and her toddler, neither of whom have ever seen him before... As he waits in his pickup truck for his wife to finish shopping, a man decides to take the shotgun off its rack, go inside the mall, and open fire on total strangers... While waiting to see her doctor, a woman takes a knife from her purse and begins stabbing others in the waiting room.Something is making people become violent and murderous ... something they all have in common. When Eli Dunbar discovers what it is, he becomes afraid, because it is something he has in common with them—a drug prescribed to him by his psychiatrist. And now Eli is a ticking time bomb.Do you know all of the risks your prescription drugs might pose? Does your doctor? Or has the manufacturer hidden them from the public in the interest of profits? Meds... a thriller with deadly side effects.