The Dead Hours of Night

In a career spanning almost 50 years, Lisa Tuttle has proven herself a master of the weird tale, and now this new collection of twelve unsettling stories - some never previously collected - offers readers a chance to discover some of her finest work. In 'Replacements', a woman adopts a monstrous pet, with unforeseen consequences. In 'Born Dead', a stillborn child mysteriously continues to grow just like a living one. 'My Pathology' (whose ending Thomas Tessier has cited as one of the best in the history of horror) explores the sinister results of a couple's alchemical experiments. And a book lover in 'The Book That Finds You' has her life changed in strange ways by the discovery of a rare horror book at a second-hand bookshop. In these weird and chilling tales, Tuttle is at her diabolical best. This edition features an introduction by Lisa Kröger, and each story is specially introduced by the author. ► Lisa Tuttle is, quietly and unsensationally, the finest practitioner of unsettling fiction writing today. She can make you doubt reality, she can chill your flesh and walk you into the darkness with gentle, perfectly constructed prose. Her authorial voice is so sensible that it's easy to forget, over and over, in story after story, that she's one of the dangerous ones, the kind of writer that somebody really should have warned you about, and now it is (as it so often is is in Tuttle's fiction) much, much too late. ◄ Neil Gaiman ► The tales are intense and character-driven, exploring women's lives and realities, and the inherent terror therein. Filled with complicated, fully realized women -- not just 'final girls' -- Tuttle's captivating protagonists narrate dark, unsettling stories with a direct tone, immediately drawing readers into their weird worlds, immersing them in the dread until the inevitable, emphatic last line that leaves readers gasping, yet eager to dive back in to the next story and experience it all over again. These dark emotions gloriously build throughout the collection, never disappointing. ◄ Booklist (starred review) CONTENTS 1. Objects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear • (2011) • short story 2. Closet Dreams • (2007) • short story 3. Born Dead • (2013) • short story 4. Replacements • (1992) • novelette 5. A Birthday (revised) • (1987) • short story 6. My Pathology • (1998) • novelette 7. Food Man • (1994) • short story 8. Mr. Elphinstone's Hands • (1990) • novelette 9. The Dream Detective • (2013) • short story 10. Where the Stones Grow • (1980) • short story 11. Vegetable Love • (2017) • short story 12. The Book That Finds You • (2015) • short story * Paperbound