A diabolical, haunting, and unforgettable horror** short story collectionfrom USA TODAY bestselling author Nat Cassidy, featuring his unique blend of gleefully terrifying fiction, and including his Bram Stoker Award–nominated novella Rest Stop**. “[A] platter of phobias...Luckily, for every scare, there is a sense of resilience and a laugh in the face of fear to get you there.” —Fangoria Magazine, on Rest Stop There are locations in this world where the light doesn’t seem to reach. Where, no matter how illuminated the place might be, shadows creep in too strongly to fight back. A suspiciously empty gas station rest stop in the middle of the night, littered with googley eyes... A doctor’s office, where a bottle of booze and a tear-stained folder wait on the desk... A tech millionaire’s haunted kitchen... A Bible-quoting ventriloquist’s dingy apartment... A yoga retreat in the middle of the desert, silent except for the screaming... These supernatural and sinister locations are your destination, and bestselling author Nat Cassidy will be your guide. Featuring the Bram Stoker Award–nominated, critically acclaimed novella Rest Stop (one of Esquire’s Best Horror Books of 2024), along with a number of other original short stories, some which have never been published before, I Know A Rest Stop and Other Dark Detours is a travelogue down twisting side streets and through alleyways where the darkness has eyes...and teeth. Let’s hope you make it home in one piece—if the ghosts, gory visions, and splatterpunk nightmares don’t get you first. “A blood-soaked freakout that does for gas stations what Jaws did for beaches.” —Kirkus Reviews, on Rest Stop
Author
Born in North Carolina, raised in Arizona, and currently residing in New York City, Nat Cassidy in an award-winning horror playwright, horror novelist, actor, and musician. His debut novel, MARY: AN AWAKENING OF TERROR, was published by Tor Nightfire in July 2022 and was named one of the best horror novels of that year by Esquire, Paste Magazine, Harper's Bazaar, CrimeReads, and The Lineup. His follow up novel, NESTLINGS, is due out by Nightfire in October 2023. As an actor, Nat has guest starred on television shows such as "Law & Order: SVU" (NBC), "Bull" (CBS), "Blue Bloods" (CBS), "FBI" (CBS), "Quantico" (CBS), "The Following" (Fox), "The Affair" (Showtime), "Red Oaks" (Amazon) "High Maintenance" (HBO), "The Last O.G." (TBS), "The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show" (Netflix), as well as on stages Off-Broadway, Off-Off-Broadway, and across the country. You can watch him battle giant mutant cockroaches and twentysomething malaise in the horror-comedy film "They Will Outlive Us All," available for streaming on this very site. As a playwright, Nat is known as "one of New York City's rising playwrights, with numerous productions and awards, critical acclaim, and a reputation for producing intelligent, bold, darkly comic plays with one foot in horror and the other in literary allusion" (Usher Nonsense). He writes thrilling, emotionally compelling horror stories about demons, zombies, Old Gods, ghosts, serial killers, werewolves, cannibals, mutants, and all kinds of ends of the world, and his work has been produced and/or developed at places such as The Kennedy Center, Washington National Opera, Primary Stages, The Flea, and numerous other companies throughout New York City and regionally. His scripts have been published by Samuel French, Broadway Play Publishing, Smith & Kraus, Applause Books, NYTE, and Indie Theatre Now. Nat is an alumnus of Primary Stages' ESPADrills and was commissioned by The Kennedy Center as part of the inaugural American Opera Initiative to write a libretto with composer Scott Perkins, which the Washington Times called "brilliant" and "remarkable." Nat was named one of NYTHEATRE.COM's People of the Year in 2011 and is an inductee in the Indie Theater Hall of Fame. Nat is also a member of the multimedia production company, Gideon Media, whose hit podcast STEAL THE STARS, was co-produced with Tor Labs (an imprint of Tor Books). Nat played the character of Lloyd in the podcast and also wrote the novelization of Mac Roger's audio scripts, which was published by Tor Books in November 2017 and named one of the best books of the year by NPR.
