To make Cherie Priest’s debut hardcover even more attractive to those who haven’t yet encountered her wonderful novels Four & Twenty Blackbirds and Wings to the Kingdom, Subterranean Press has added a bonus item. Upon publication, everyone who has ordered Priest’s book direct from SubPress will be emailed a mini-collection chapbook, containing 3-4 more stories by Priest, bringing the bang for your $25 (plus free US shipping) into even more wallet friendly territory. Subterranean is in the process of choosing the stories right now, and will get started on the design pronto, so everything will be ready for Dreadful Skin’s February release. In the meantime, if you haven’t already done so, the first third of Dreadful Skin, the novella “The Wreck of the Mary Byrd,” a tale of a gambler, a werewolf, and a nun blessed with a Colt strapped to her thigh is available for your perusal. To purchase: Dreadful Skin
The Painted Bride by Stephen Gallagher is gathering great reviews. From The Washington Times: “The Painted Bride is veteran thriller-writer Stephen Gallagher’s tense melodrama spun from the mysterious disappearance of auto dealer Frank Tanner’s wife Carol, the stalled police investigation into Frank’s possible guilt — and the complications ensuing from the obsessive actions of Carol’s burnt-out, former drug-taking younger sister Molly, who knows Frank did away with his wife, and devotes her dwindling energies to protecting the children now in his care and bringing him to justice. There’s even a hint of the supernatural in an endangered child’s anguished outcry: ‘He killed my mother and now he won’t die.’ It’s a neat capstone to an accomplished and suitably unpleasant shocker.” To purchase: The Painted Bride
