Untreed Reads sent along a short list of their most recent horror titles. Untreed Reads was founded by Jay A. Hartman in 2008 as a way to promote ebooks, with an emphasis on independent authors and publishers.
Miss Locks by Eric Arvin – Miss Virginia Locks has a date tonight, but something is wrong. She finds herself standing outside her home without any knowledge of how she got there. But what waits for her once she is back inside, a crawling, gasping thing, is even more unsettling. A short story.
Strange People, Scary People by Tally Harbour – Strange People, Scary People, is a collection of fourteen tales of terror and horror: the two aspects for which strange and scary people are famous. In its bowels, you will read of a strange, witch-like woman who likes to relate strange tales to young children – and who grinds her teeth together as she tells the story. Then there’s Eddie, a weird guy who has big problems around pregnant women. You will be introduced to a couple of undertakers – two rogues, really – who teach a town full of fools how to truly respect the dead. You will also meet little Rita Jean Shumate, a filthy young girl who suffers from those tiny, famous crawling things that no one has actually ever seen called “cooties.” Indeed, this collection of short stories contains all kinds of strange and scary people within it.
Shifting Is for the Goyim by Elizabeth Zelvin – Home for Passover with the family? Or a full-moon run with a werewolf pack? When Amy Greenstein, aka Emerald Love, nice Jewish girl and rising country music star, says good-bye to her boyfriend after a show in Nashville, she doesn’t know she’ll never see him again. Good thing she’s a shapeshifter. She’ll need to use her paranormal skills to find the killer of the man she loved. A novelette.
The Road of Things to Come by Benson Phillip Lott – When Sheriff Keylee discovers escaped mental patient Simon Fielding wandering down the desolate road of Shepherd’s Pass in a sleepwalking trance, he takes him into custody with the intent of returning him to Jessup County Hospital with few questions asked.
The sheriff’s dispatcher Debbie is a bit more curious. She has looked into the matter of Mr. Fielding’s escapes and come across some unsettling information regarding Jessup County Hospital and a former psychologist who was believed to be involved in a patient’s escape attempt from the hospital twenty years earlier.
Dr. Douglas Grover, a clinical psychiatrist on the ward, is a particularly strong advocate for Simon’s discharge. He meets with him for sessions on a weekly basis where they continually discuss the haunting dreams that Simon has convinced himself are glimpses of the future. These visions involve an illuminate figure that appears on a brightly lit path and produces a series of images, the most disturbing of which involves a terrible car accident on Shepherd’s Pass, which Simon believes is the revelation of his death.
Dr. Grover is suspicious of the images and wants to know more. He reveals to Simon his own personal investigation into the history of Shepherd’s Pass and even admits to having remarkably lucid dreams where he too is confronted with his own demise. He further confesses to have encountered a bizarre book, detailing several accounts of complex dreams similar to the ones that both of them are experiencing. The common denominator is, of course, the road: Shepherd’s Pass.
As the doctor and patient continue to exchange theories, a decision is made to return to the Pass for further investigation. What happens next will forever alter the men’s lives.
A novella.
You can find all these horror titles and more at: The Untreed Reads Store
