The Year's Best Dark Fantasy & Horror 2012

Take a journey into darkness. Visit places where one might expect to find the dark — in a house where love was shared and lost, a milky-white pool in an Australian cave, the trenches of World War I, the deep woods. You would not be surprised to find the dark in a cheap apartment on the wrong side of town, down mean streets, under a gallows-tree, along dank passageways, trapped underground, in the near future, or among the mysteries of old New Orleans. Dunes, lakes, isolated cabins, old books, and Old West saloons — well, the darkness might easily be there. But we've also found locales you thought were safe from shadows — a rib joint with good blues playing, inside an old wardrobe, on a baseball diamond, the Beverly Wilshire Hotel...Travel into the best dark fantasy and horror from 2011 with more than five-hundred pages of tales from some of today's best-known writers of the fantastique as well as new talents — stories that will take you to a diverse assortment of dark placesContents Hair • (2011) • shortstory by Joan AikenRakshasi • (2011) • shortfiction by Kelley ArmstrongWalls of Paper, Soft as Skin • (2011) • shortstory by Adam CallawayThe Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Tananarive DueTell Me I'll See You Again • (2011) • shortstory by Dennis EtchisonKing Death • (2011) • shortfiction by Paul FinchThe Last Triangle • (2011) • shortfiction by Jeffrey FordNear Zennor • (2011) • novella by Elizabeth HandCrossroads • (2011) • shortstory by Laura Anne GilmanAfter-Words • (2011) • novelette by Glen HirshbergRocket Man • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen Graham JonesThe Maltese Unicorn • (2011) • shortfiction by Caitlín R. KiernanThe Dune • (2011) • shortfiction by Stephen KingCatastrophic Disruption of the Head • (2011) • shortfiction by Margo LanaganThe Bleeding Shadow • (2011) • shortfiction by Joe R. LansdaleWhy Light? • (2011) • novelette by Tanith LeeConservation of Shadows • (2011) • shortstory by Yoon Ha LeeA Tangle of Green Men • [Chronicles of the Borderlands] • (2011) • novella by Charles de LintAfter the Apocalypse • (2012) • shortfiction by Maureen F. McHugh [as by Maureen McHugh ]Why Do You Linger? • (2011) • shortfiction by Sarah MonetteLord Dunsany's Teapot • (2011) • shortstory by Naomi NovikMysteries of the Old Quarter • (2011) • novelette by Paul ParkVampire Lake • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman PartridgeA Journey of Only Two Paces • (2011) • shortstory by Tim PowersFour Legs in the Morning • (2011) • shortfiction by Norman PrentissThe Fox Maiden • (2011) • shortfiction by Priya SharmaTime and Tide • (2011) • shortstory by Alan Ryan [as by Alan Peter Ryan ]Sun Falls • (2011) • shortstory by Angela SlatterStill • (2011) • shortfiction by Tia V. TravisObjects in Dreams May Be Closer Than They Appear • (2011) • shortstory by Lisa TuttleThe Bread We Eat in Dreams • (2011) • shortstory by Catherynne M. ValenteAll You Can Do Is Breathe • (2011) • shortstory by Kaaron WarrenJosh • (2011) • shortfiction by Gene Wolfe