Three nightmare-inducing classics of contemporary horror from the award-winning “master of the genre” ( Rocky Mountain News ). As “the living inheritor of the realm of Edgar Allan Poe,” Graham Masterton takes his place alongside Stephen King and Peter Straub in the canon of contemporary horror authors. Here are three of his most memorable novels, all steeped in supernatural shocks, Lovecraftian creepiness, and Masterton’s own boldly original vision ( San Francisco Chronicle ). The Manitou : A tumor growing on the back of a young woman’s neck is in fact a vengeful spirit attempting to reenter the world. This acclaimed debut novel was adapted into a film starring Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, and Burgess Meredith. “A chilling tale.” — Kirkus Reviews Charnel House : In this Edgar Award Finalist, a house in San Francisco is possessed by an ancient demon with an insatiable hunger for blood. As it threatens to escape from its prison, the hapless homeowner, a civil servant, and a Native American shaman are the only ones who can stop it. “[A] horror stalwart . . . Masterton is capable of conjuring a spooky atmosphere and evoking chills from understated terrors.” — Publishers Weekly The Hymn : In this masterwork of supernatural suspense, a man haunted by his fiancée’s suicide investigates a mysterious rash of sacrificial deaths in California and descends into a nightmare world of paranormal cults and Nazi terror. Originally published as The Burning .
Author
Graham Masterton was born in Edinburgh in 1946. His grandfather was Thomas Thorne Baker, the eminent scientist who invented DayGlo and was the first man to transmit news photographs by wireless. After training as a newspaper reporter, Graham went on to edit the new British men's magazine Mayfair, where he encouraged William Burroughs to develop a series of scientific and philosophical articles which eventually became Burroughs' novel The Wild Boys. At the age of 24, Graham was appointed executive editor of both Penthouse and Penthouse Forum magazines. At this time he started to write a bestselling series of sex 'how-to' books including How To Drive Your Man Wild In Bed which has sold over 3 million copies worldwide. His latest, Wild Sex For New Lovers is published by Penguin Putnam in January, 2001. He is a regular contributor to Cosmopolitan, Men's Health, Woman, Woman's Own and other mass-market self-improvement magazines. Graham Masterton's debut as a horror author began with The Manitou in 1976, a chilling tale of a Native American medicine man reborn in the present day to exact his revenge on the white man. It became an instant bestseller and was filmed with Tony Curtis, Susan Strasberg, Burgess Meredith, Michael Ansara, Stella Stevens and Ann Sothern. Altogether Graham has written more than a hundred novels ranging from thrillers (The Sweetman Curve, Ikon) to disaster novels (Plague, Famine) to historical sagas (Rich and Maiden Voyage - both appeared in the New York Times bestseller list). He has published four collections of short stories, Fortnight of Fear, Flights of Fear, Faces of Fear and Feelings of Fear. He has also written horror novels for children (House of Bones, Hair-Raiser) and has just finished the fifth volume in a very popular series for young adults, Rook, based on the adventures of an idiosyncratic remedial English teacher in a Los Angeles community college who has the facility to see ghosts. Since then Graham has published more than 35 horror novels, including Charnel House, which was awarded a Special Edgar by Mystery Writers of America; Mirror, which was awarded a Silver Medal by West Coast Review of Books; and Family Portrait, an update of Oscar Wilde's tale, The Picture of Dorian Gray, which was the only non-French winner of the prestigious Prix Julia Verlanger in France. He and his wife Wiescka live in a Gothic Victorian mansion high above the River Lee in Cork, Ireland.
