The Rack

Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks

t’s 1980 and you have three crisp dollar bills in your pocket. You run to the drugstore, or maybe the supermarket, because you know THE RACK will be there, waiting… that black wire rack, tempting you with the latest and best horror paperbacks and their lurid covers.

You spin it slowly, ignoring the grating squeaks that try to warn you of the dangers THE RACK holds. You shiver as you take in the glossy covers: gothic mansions cloaked in fog, bulging eyes on blood-soaked faces, and all the creepy dolls you could ever wish for. You weigh the possibilities, pondering which nightmare to select, the vengeful vampire, the werewolf, demonic children, or perhaps parasitic insects? It doesn’t matter because THE RACK will beckon to you long after the last page is turned. THE RACK always contains new tales of terror by today’s masters of horror. And THE RACK is never done with you.

The twenty stories you’re holding are throwbacks to those golden years of horror, presented to you by today’s brightest stars in the genre. Giant spiders, haunted books, swarms of cicadas, killer bears, chemical spills, and so many more chronicles of carnage and camp await you. And did we mention the creepy dolls?

So go ahead…spin THE RACK, if you dare.

But don’t say we didn’t warn you.

***

Edited by Bram Stoker Award Winning Author, Tom Deady
Introduction by Will Errickson, co-writer of Paperbacks From Hell
With stories by:
Cynthia Pelayo “Black Pages”
Ronald Malfi “Other Things Have Happened”
Jeff Strand “Fuzzy Slippers”
Stephen King “The Raft”
Larry Hinkle “That Chemical Glow”
Mercedes Yardley “I Am a House Demanding to be Haunted”
Kristin Dearborn “Ursa Diruo”
Johnny Compton “A Devil We Used to Know”
Bridgett Nelson “Irish Eyes”
Candace Nola “They Look Back”
Christa Carmen “Blood of my Blood”
Errick Nunnally “The Keeper of Aswomet”
Gwendolyn Kiste “The Last Call of the Cicada”
Laurel Hightower “Mightier Than Bullets”
Max Booth III “Loud and Clear”
Rebecca Rowland “Better by You, Better than Me”
Richard Chizmar “A Nightmare on Elm Lane”
Philip Fracassi “The Visitor”
Steve Van Samson “Lips Like a Scythe”
Clay McLeod Chapman “White Pages”

Cover art by Lynne Hansen