Laird Barron Knihy

"The first in a crime noir series, Isaiah Coleridge is a former mob enforcer banished from his Alaska home after an incident. Sent to a horse farm in the Hudson Valley in NY to recover, he winds up investigating the disappearance of the 18-year-old granddaughter of his hosts."--

Over the course of two award-winning collections and a critically acclaimed novel, The Croning, Laird Barron has arisen as one of the strongest and most original literary voices in modern horror and the dark fantastic. Melding supernatural horror with hardboiled noir, espionage, and a scientific backbone, Barron’s stories have garnered critical acclaim and have been reprinted in numerous year’s best anthologies. His work has been nominated for multiple awards, including the Crawford, International Horror Guild, Shirley Jackson, Theodore Sturgeon, and World Fantasy awards. Barron returns with his third collection, The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All. Collecting interlinking tales of sublime cosmic horror, including “Blackwood’s Baby,” “The Carrion Gods in Their Heaven,” and the World Fantasy Award-nominated “Hand of Glory,” The Beautiful Thing That Awaits Us All delivers enough spine-chilling horror to satisfy even the most jaded reader.

Ex-Mob enforcer Isaiah Coledrige has hung out a shingle as a private eye in New York's Hudson Valley, and in his newest case, a seemingly simple murder investigation leads him to the most terrifying enemy he has ever faced. When a small-time criminal named Harold Lee turns up in the Ashokan reservoir--sans a heartbeat, head, or hands--the local Mafia capo hires Isaiah Coleridge to look into the matter. The Mob likes crime, but only the crime it controls...and as it turns out, Lee is the second independent contractor to meet a bad end on the business side of a serrated knife. One such death can be overlooked. Two makes a man wonder. A guy in Harold Lee's business would make his fair share of enemies, and it seems a likely case of pure revenge. But as Coledrige turns over more stones, he finds himself dragged into something deeper and more insidious than he could have imagined, in a labyrinthine case spanning decades. At the center are an heiress moonlighting as a cabaret dancer, a powerful corporation with high-placed connections, and a serial killer who may have been honing his skills since the Vietnam War...

"Strange things exist on the periphery of our existence, haunting us from the darkness looming beyond our firelight. Black magic, weird cults and worse things loom in the shadows. The Children of Old Leech have been with us from time immemorial. And they love us. Donald Miller, geologist and academic, has walked along the edge of a chasm for most of his nearly eighty years, leading a charmed life between endearing absent-mindedness and sanity-shattering realization. Now, all things must converge. Donald will discover the dark secrets along the edges, unearthing savage truths about his wife Michelle, their adult twins, and all he knows and trusts. For Donald is about to stumble on the secret of The Croning."--Provided by publisher

Laird Barron je jedním z nejvýraznějších hlasů současného hororu a sbírka Okultace se již dnes řadí mezi základní díla temné fantastiky 21. století. V devateru povídek se běžní lidé záhadnými způsoby dostávají do křížku se silami hladového, chaotického kosmu. Na pozadí velkolepých přírodních scenerií či naopak v stísněném soukromí omšelých pokojů svádějí boj s přízračnými entitami, které se je snaží bytostně rozklížit a získat na svou stranu. Barron je duchovně spřízněný s Lovecraftem, ale hovoří veskrze moderním jazykem a černé hlubiny bytí v současném světě, jeho vztahy, posedlosti a krutosti prozkoumává s takovou lehkostí, neohrožeností, smyslem pro detail a spisovatelskou bravurou, že je činí o dost přístupnější, než je tomu v případě jeho slavného předchůdce. Povídku „Hotel Broadsword“ už známe z prvního svazku námi vydaných Černých křídel Cthulhu, dalším výrazným textem je novela „Mysterium tremendum“, která získala Cenu Shirley Jacksonové (jako ostatně celá tato sbírka). Nikterak však za nimi nezaostávají ani ostatní příspěvky, jež tvoří kompaktní makabrózní celek bez jediného slabého kusu.

The narrative explores the existence of spirits and their desire to connect with the living. It delves into themes of communication between realms, revealing the messages and insights these entities wish to share. The story invites readers to consider the implications of such interactions and the impact they have on the living, blending elements of the supernatural with emotional depth.

Exploring the evolution of humankind, this book delves into the potential trajectories of our species. It raises critical questions about whether our future will lead to mental transcendence, a divine existence, or a troubling regression. The narrative invites readers to contemplate the implications of these possibilities, engaging in a thought-provoking discussion about humanity's place in the universe and the nature of our evolutionary journey.

Ex-mob enforcer-turned-private investigator Isaiah Coleridge pits himself against a rich and powerful foe when he digs into a possible murder and a sketchy real-estate deal worth billions.Ex-majordomo and bodyguard to an industrial tycoon-cum-U.S. senator, Badja Adeyemi is in hiding and shortly on his way to either a jail cell or a grave, depending on who finds him first. In his final days as a free man, he hires Isaiah Coleridge to tie up a loose the suspicious death of his nephew four years earlier. At the time police declared it an accident, and Adeyemi isn't sure it wasn't, but one final look may bring his sister peace.So it is that Coleridge and his investigative partner, Lionel Robard, find themselves in the upper reaches of New York State, in a tiny town that is home to outsized secrets and an unnerving cabal of locals who are protecting them. At the epicenter of it all is the site of a stalled supercollider project, an immense subterranean construction that may have an even deeper, more insidious purpose. . . .

Presents a collection of nine tales of cosmic horror. This book includes the International Horror Guild Award-nominated "Proboscis", and the never-before published "Procession of the Black Sloth".