William H. Hallahan – Keeper of the Children (Sphere, 1980)

William H. Hallahan – Keeper of the Children  (Sphere, 1980)

Blurb:

THE MASTER HAD TAKEN THEIR CHILDREN – ONE BY ONE BY ONE ….

Alone in a child‘s bedroom in a suburban Philadelphia home, Eddie Benson listens for footsteps on the stairs.
The footfall Eddie is waiting for will not be human. lt could be someone’s pet cat, or a stuffed toy, or even a smiling marionette doll.
But whatever it is that comes creeping up the stairs it will have only one intention — murder.
If Eddie Benson wants his daughter back he will have to fight a battle no human has ever fought before. And he must win. For only the victor can return with his life — and soul — from the realms of such dark, unnatural evil.

John Stockholm – Succubus

John Stockholm – Succubus (Sphere 1985)

Cover illustration: Kevin Tweddell

Blurb:

Succubus: n. a fiend or devil who assumes female form and in such guise consorts wickedly with the souls of sleeping men

Uncanny things began to happen to Peter Conway almost as soon as he set foot in the remote Cornish village of Penthor. First there was the shipwreck, those two rotting corpses alongside the perfectly preserved body of the sea´s third victim. Then there was the beautiful, mauve-eyed woman whom he had greedily watched making love on the cliff-top, her aura of erotic energy seemingly reaching out to flicker all around him. And there was the reunion with his old friend Andrew, long devoted to other-worldly pursuits, who in the few short years since he had last seen him had aged by a quarter-century or more.

Yes, he thought with a shudder, there was in Penthor an unmistakable sense of evil, spiced with the heady, musky scent of forbidden lusts and passions. And even as he pondered on what he had seen, Penthor´s macabre miasma was sucking him in, enticing him deeper and deeper into the a dark and fearsome mystery enshrouded in necromancy, terror and death …

Peter Haining – More Weird Tales

Peter Haining  (ed.) – More Weird Tales (Sphere, 1978)

Manly Wade Wellman – The Valley Was Still
Ken Gary – A Weird Prophecy
Ray Bradbury – Bang! You’re Dead!
Robert Bloch – The Beasts of Barsac
The Eyrie – Readers’ Letters
Nictzin Dyalhis – The Heart of Atlantan
Fritz Leiber – The Phantom Slayer
Caroline Evans – San Francisco
Alice Olsen – Winter Night

Richard Matheson – Shock 2

Richard Matheson – Shock 2 (Sphere, 1978)

Brother to the Machine
No Such Thing As a Vampire
Descent
Deadline
The Man Who Made the World
Graveyard Shift
The Likeness of Julie
Lazarus II
Big Surprise
Crickets
Mute
From Shadowed Places
A Flourish of Strumpets

Blurb:
THIRTEEN STORIES – THIRTEEN SHOCKS!
Master of the macabre Richard Matheson presents his second collection of stories to chill and terrify — thirteen SHOCKing tales that will make your blood run cold.

The man who became a machine …

The noblewoman who believed in vampires ….

The doctor who faced a witchdoctor’s voodoo curse …

The peculiar old man who gave local children a big surprise …

and many more characters guaranteed to give you the SHOCK of your life!