From the author of The Watchful Dead and Dark House of Dreams, comes this highly anticipated collection of 16 spellbinding tales of supernatural suspense. Among them: • A merchant is kidnapped on a moonlit trail and brought to a sinister lair where he undergoes a hideous transformation at the hands of a hooded figure known only as “The Craftsman.” • A cavalry general leads a charge that traps him in perilous face-to-face combat with a savage foe. But all is not as it appears, and the general soon learns that “His Greatest Battle” may not be with an enemy composed of flesh and blood. • A dazzling temptress stands between an aging woman and her happiness, and only a dark deed can rectify the situation. But how much does vengeance truly cost when it comes with the otherworldly assistance of “The Toad Woman?” And there’s much more. The sins of her parents are visited on an innocent girl. A mysterious fog settles on a city, leaving its inhabitants questioning whether they aren’t all living false lives. A stranger knocks on a door in the dead of night and the simple twisting of a knob changes a family’s fortunes forever. All these people lived average lives, until one day they found their realities turned upside down, and recorded by a demonic scribe in an ancient tome known as The Vermilion Book of the Macabre.