Recommendations based on "Monstrous Maud: Horror Holiday"

#1 BESTSELLER • Soon to be a new major motion picture • Ben Mears has returned to Jerusalem’s Lot in hopes that exploring the history of the Marsten House, an old mansion long the subject of rumor and speculation, will help him cast out his personal devils and provide inspiration for his new book."A master storyteller." —The Los Angeles TimesWhen two young boys venture into the woods, and only one returns alive, Mears begins to realize that something sinister is at work. In fact, his hometown is under siege from forces of darkness far beyond his imagination. And only he, with a small group of allies, can hope to contain the evil that is growing within the borders of this small New England town.With this, his second novel, Stephen King established himself as an indisputable master of American horror, able to transform the old conceits of the genre into something fresh and all the more frightening for taking place in a familiar, idyllic locale.

Santa Claus, my dear old friend, you are a thief, a traitor, a slanderer, a murder, a liar, but worst of all you are a mockery of everything for which I stood.You have sung your last ho, ho, ho, for I am coming to take your head. I am coming to take back what is mine, to take back Yuletide...The author and artist of The Child Thief returns with a modern fabulist tale of Krampus, the Lord of Yule and mortal enemy of Santa Claus.One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets earthward, a magical sack that will thrust the down-on-his luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus. But the lines between good and evil become blurred as Jesse's new master reveals many dark secrets about the cherry-cheeked Santa Claus, and how half a millennium ago, the jolly old saint imprisoned Krampus and usurped his magic.Now Santa's time is running short, for the Yule Lord is determined to have his retribution and reclaim Yuletide. If Jesse can survive this ancient feud, he might have the chance to redeem himself to his family, to save his own broken dreams...and help bring the magic of Yule to the impoverished folk of Boone County.

Thomas Ward is the seventh son of a seventh son and has been apprenticed to the local Spook. The job is hard, the Spook is distant and many apprentices have failed before Thomas. Somehow Thomas must learn how to exorcise ghosts, contain witches and bind boggarts. But when he is tricked into freeing Mother Malkin, the most evil witch in the County, the horror begins..

Jack the Ripper's faithful watchdog, Snuff, relates the shady tendencies of his master, as well as those of a vampire, witch, demented clergyman, and others who band together and are also accompanied by animal familiars. Reprint.

Four of the best novellas from one of the most underrated names in horror and weird fiction. Writers such as H. P. Lovecraft rated Blackwood as one of the very best writers of the genre. This title features an introduction and notes contextualizing this characterful author. "It is my firm opinion that...The Willows is the greatest weird tale ever written." - H.P. Lovecraft From one of the greatest and most prolific authors of 20th century weird fiction come four of the very best strange stories ever told. In "The Willows," two men become stranded on an island in the Danube delta, only to find that they might be in the domain of some greater power from beyond the limits of human experience. "The Wendigo" features a hunting party in Ontario who begin to fear that they are being stalked by an entity thought to be confined to legend. In "The Man Whom the Trees Loved," a couple is driven apart as the husband is enthralled by the possessive and jealous spirits dwelling in the nearby forest. And lastly, in conversation with the occult detective and physician Dr. John Silence, a traveler relates his nightmarish visit to a strange town in Northern France, and the maddening secret from his past revealed by its inhabitants, in "Ancient Stories."

The exhilarating conclusion of #1 New York Times bestselling author John Jakes' epic North and South Trilogy—the Civil War saga that inspired the classic television miniseries North and South—with over five million copies sold!The Civil War has ended, but the Hazards and Mains have yet to face their greatest struggles. Even as the embers of old hatreds continue to burn in the heart of a nation torn apart by war, a new future in the West awaits a new generation of Americans seeking a life of their own—and a place to call home. Filled with all of the vivid drama, passion, and action that has made John Jakes the acclaimed master of historical fiction, Heaven and Hell is the tumultuous final chapter in one of the greatest epics of our time.

Sister Fidelma must entreat the chieftain of a Druid clan to allow the construction of a Christian church and school in the region. On their way, she and Brother Eadulf find the slaughtered bodies of 36 young men--all covered with pagan ritual scars. Fidelma must learn who or what is behind the massacre. Martin's Press.

Terror comes to Elm Haven, Illinois, when something or someone makes off with a child, bizarre events occur with increasing frequency, and the long-silent Borgia Bell rings by itself, announcing a malignant presence

An extraordinary new verse translation of Dante’s masterpiece, by poet, scholar, and lauded translator Anthony EsolenOf the great poets, Dante is one of the most elusive and therefore one of the most difficult to adequately render into English verse. In the Inferno, Dante not only judges sin but strives to understand it so that the reader can as well. With this major new translation, Anthony Esolen has succeeded brilliantly in marrying sense with sound, poetry with meaning, capturing both the poem’s line-by-line vigor and its allegorically and philosophically exacting structure, yielding an Inferno that will be as popular with general readers as with teachers and students. For, as Dante insists, without a trace of sentimentality or intellectual compromise, even Hell is a work of divine art.Esolen also provides a critical Introduction and endnotes, plus appendices containing Dante’s most important sources—from Virgil to Saint Thomas Aquinas and other Catholic theologians—that deftly illuminate the religious universe the poet inhabited.

Satan has won the Triple Crown, yet Alec still misses the Black, who’s living in Arabia with Sheikh Abu Ishak. Unexpectedly, Alec receives word that the sheikh has died and has left the Black to Alec. A race between the Black and Satan is inevitable, but unexpected events put the horses in the path of a raging forest fire. Suddenly, they are racing for their lives.