Douglas Clegg

The Faces

Tuesday, October 1st, 2019

First Time in Trade Paperback & Ebook

Beneath the Mask of Nice, a Face of Horror

In this “masterful novella”* of horror and suspense from bestselling and award-winning author Douglas Clegg, a costume party opens the door to a terrifying world.

Hypnotic, haunting, and compulsively readable, THE FACES is high-test nightmare fuel. I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough.”—Richard Chizmar, author of Chasing the Boogeyman, and Gwendy’s Button Box(with Stephen King).

Are They Watching You?

Nothing goes right for Harold until he finds the famous mask based on his father’s favorite old-time comic strip. Joe Face and his family all had a nice smile and an easy-going attitude to the worst life could throw their way — in the funny pages.

But soon enough, his life turns inside out, revealing…

The Faces of Nightmare

A novella. Genres: Psychological Horror, Horror fiction, Weird Fiction.

Exceeds expectations…A suspenseful tale of mounting terror…”—Rue Morgue Magazine.*

“Superior horror fiction…powerful, succinct, and deep. Highly recommended.”—Scream Magazine.

THE FACES seems whimsical at first…until the story turns nasty and profoundly disturbing. The social satire is the real horror here, making us dread what lurks behind the faces of our closest friends and loved ones. Another masterful novella from Douglas Clegg.“–Norman Prentiss, author of Odd Adventures with Your Other Father.

Afterlife

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

In Hardcover, Paperback, and Ebook

A School for Psychic Children, a Legacy of Nightmare…

Buy Direct from the Author: eBook or Signed Paperback

Love page-turning suspense with a dark psychic twist? The fiction of Stephen King, Peter Straub, or Dean Koontz? You’re sure to enjoy reading Afterlife.

★★★★★ “Suspenseful, full of horror, and vastly entertaining.”★★★★★ Called Project Daylight, the school in Manhattan burned in a horrifying fire years ago. Decades later, in the suburbs, terrifying paranormal invasions drive Julie Hutchinson to the edge of sanity. What if Julie—and her children— can’t survive…the chilling touch of the afterlife?

The Starred Review from Publisher’s Weekly:

“Stoker-winner Clegg (The Hour Before Dark) has an uncanny ability to frighten readers…Many other writers would have taken twice as long to tell a tale half as captivating.”

Goat Dance

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

In Hardcover, Paperback, and Ebook

Small Town, Big Horror

If you love the supernatural horror fiction of Stephen King, Peter Straub, or Joe Hill,  you’re sure to enjoy this heart-pounding novel of suspense and supernatural horror. One of Clegg’s most enduringly popular novels, and also his debut novel, a finalist for the Bram Stoker Award. 498 pages in print.

Genre Categories: Supernatural horror, suspense, paranormal, haunted house, ghosts, demonic, small town, southern gothic. Other novels in this genre that would have similar readerships though different books, obviously: The Shining, ‘Salems Lot, Ghost Story, Haunted, Summer of Night, It, Phantoms, The Exorcist.

What secrets lie within the ancient place known as the Goat Dance?

A town must face its terrifying past as a possessed child threatens to unleash an unspeakable horror upon them all and a dark house at the edge of a frozen lake remains locked and abandoned…

Robert R. McCammon Says:

“Douglas Clegg is a weaver of nightmares! Goat Dance is a dark, mesmerizing delight!”

Praise for Douglas Clegg’s Fiction:

“Clegg’s stories can chill the spine so effectively that the reader should keep paramedics on standby.”
—Dean Koontz

“Douglas Clegg has become the new star in horror fiction.”
—Peter Straub author of Ghost Story and the New York Times Bestseller (with Stephen King) Black House

“Clegg approaches horror with a stark and vital simplicity that is utterly convincing. Fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz will appreciate this atmospheric gem.”
Library Journal

“Clegg is the best horror writer of the post-Stephen King generation.”
—Bentley Little, author of The Policy and Haunted

“Clegg delivers!”
—John Saul, bestselling author of Faces of Fear and The Devil’s Labyrinth

“A master of the genre. Absolutely thrilling! Douglas Clegg is the future of dark fantasy.”
—Sherrilyn Kenyon, New York Times bestselling author of The Dark-Hunters  

“Clegg is one of the best!”
Richard Laymon, author of Savage

“Clegg gets high marks on the terror scale.”
New York Daily News

“Douglas Clegg is a weaver of nightmares!”
—Robert R. McCammon, author of Usher’s Passing and Swan Song

 

The Halloween Man

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

A New England village…a terrifying legacy…

The Dark Season is Upon Us

If you  love October and enjoy fiction by Stephen King, Dean Koontz, or Peter Straub, you’re sure to enjoy The Halloween Man.

Who holds the key to the chilling mystery of Stonehaven and its desolate woods — and what unspeakable creature remains trapped within its summer mansion?

Genre: Horror, gothic thriller, suspense, supernatural fiction. 358 pages in print.

What Horror Stalks the Village?

From New York Times bestselling author Douglas Clegg comes a riveting, edge-of-your-seat supernatural thriller of “overwhelming love and devastating terror.”*

The Halloween Man is one of the best horror novels that I’ve read in years…I had never read anything by Clegg before reading this novel, but now I’m going to go out and get the rest of his books. If you’ve never heard of Clegg either, or are a fan of horror fiction, get this book right now.” – Pixel Planet

“Every bit as good as the best works of Stephen King, Peter Straub, or Dan Simmons…” — Hellnotes: The Newsletter for the Horror Professional

*”The Halloween Man is about overwhelming love and devastating terror, human strength and supernatural power, and the eternal cycle of death and re-birth Packed with vivid imagery; a broadly-scoped but fast-paced plot; powerful, evocative writing; superb characterizations; and facile intelligence…Douglas Clegg has given horror lovers the best Halloween gift possible — an entertaining spinetingler written with unique style…” — DarkEcho

 

Haunts

Monday, March 6th, 2017

8 Novels of Supernatural Horror

This is a crazy huge box set of select books from Douglas Clegg dealing with haunted people, haunted places. Included are the first four novels of the Harrow series. In ebook only,

This exclusive ebook bundle contains:

The Hour Before Dark

Neverland

Nightmare House

Mischief

The Infinite

The Abandoned

Afterlife

Goat Dance

Note: This ebook is not currently available at Amazon because Amazon has a not-author beneficial royalty structure at the moment for bundled ebooks that cost more than $9.99. However, let’s hope that someday they’ll rectify this. In the meantime, you can purchase an epub-for-Kindle copy via the Payhip link, which sells direct from this website.

The Hour Before Dark

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

In Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audiobook

Gothic Horror on a New England Island

As children, they played the Dark Game

If you enjoy your supernatural horror with a mystery/suspense vibe, and the bestselling horror fiction of Stephen King, Peter Straub, Joe Hill, Richard Matheson or Dan Simmons, you may love The Hour Before Dark, considered by many fans one of Clegg’s best.

A riveting gothic novel of mystery and horror — from bestselling and award-winning novelist Douglas Clegg — The Hour Before Dark begins with a terrifying event…

When Nemo Raglan’s father is murdered in one of the most vicious killings of recent years, Nemo must return to the New England island he thought he had escaped for good . . . and the shadowy home called Hawthorn.

Genre categories: Horror, thriller, paranormal, gothic thriller, ghost story,  ghost thriller, suspense, supernatural fiction. This novel was 384 pages in its first edition.

Here Comes a Candle to Light You to Bed

As Nemo unravels the mysteries of his past and a terrible night of childhood, he witnesses something unimaginable…and sees the true face of evil…while Burnley Island comes to know the unspeakable horror that grows in darkness.

Peter Straub Says:

“Douglas Clegg has become the new star in horror fiction, and THE HOUR BEFORE DARK is his best and most exciting novel to date. This is pure imagination, and it is wearing speed skates.” –Peter Straub, NY Times bestselling author of Ghost Story and, with Stephen King, The Talisman.

What Others Say About It:

“…An eerie psychological tale of supernatural horror that builds suspense gradually as the characters slowly peel back the layers of their past and face the terrors of their shared childhood. Clegg approaches horror with a stark and vital simplicity that is utterly convincing. Fans of Stephen King and Dean Koontz will appreciate this atmospheric gem.” — Library Journal

“Suspenseful and relentlessly spooky, told in economical prose yet peopled by characters as fully realized as one’s own blood kin, this is at once the most artful and most mainstream tale yet from one of horror’s brightest lights.” — Starred Review from Publishers Weekly

 

Neverland

Monday, May 4th, 2015

In Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audiobook

Horror is a Shack in the woods

If you love supernatural horror fiction like Thomas Tryon’s The Other, Dan Simmons’ Summer of Night, Robert R. McCammon’s Boy’s Life, or Stephen King’s It – even Guillermo del Toro’s movie, The Devil’s Backbone – you may just want to spend time in a dangerous place called Neverland. This is Clegg’s most popular novel among readers.

Genre: Bestselling supernatural horror novel, Horror, southern gothic, coming of age, suspense, supernatural fiction, evil child genre, family suspense. This novel is 310 pages in print.

What lurks within the shack called Neverland?

What kinds of dangerous — and deadly — games do the children play there? Who is leading them into darkness? For years, the Jackson family vacationed at Rowena Wandigaux Lee’s old Victorian house on Gull Island, a place of superstition and legend off the southern coast of the U.S. One particular summer, young Beau follows his cousin Sumter into a shack hidden among the brambles and windswept trees near the bluffs overlooking the sea.

David Morrell Says:

“Douglas Clegg’s Neverland is an unforgettable novel that combines creeping horror and psychological suspense. It starts like a bullet and never slows down.”

What Others Say:

Neverland is a masterpiece of dark suspense that will forever haunt your dreams.”
—Douglas Preston, New York Times bestselling author

“This is a powerful and thrilling tale, Douglas Clegg’s best novel yet. The novel builds in whispers and ends in a scream. You will never forget Neverland.”–F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of the Repairman Jack series

“A brilliant novel that grows richer with each reading, a multilayered marvel that will one day be recognized as one of the classics of supernatural literature.”–Bentley Little, bestselling author

“I can tell you without hesitation that Neverland is a true gothic masterpiece*. I am incredibly impressed with it. This is a remarkable piece of literature.”
–Scott A. Johnson, Dread Central.com

Coming of Age

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

In Hardcover, Paperback, and Ebook

Face of Innocence, Mind of Monster

 

The box set of the Coming of Age short novels. A triple-feature bundle of suspense thrillers – Purity, The Words, and The Attraction!

Coming of Age: Three Dark Novellas by Douglas Clegg, Print EditionPurity

In Purity, the darkest force is love. From award-winning author Douglas Clegg comes a twisting, dark psychological thriller of dangerous obsession. “Douglas Clegg turns the screws dexterously in this sleek, multifaceted suspense story…in a vacation paradise saturated in alcohol, entitlement and hypocrisy…” — Publisher’s Weekly

The Words

In The Words, two young men discover a secret world of monsters…When teenager Mark befriends outsider Dash, he believes his new friend to be an outcast rebel. But a dark mystery unfolds as Dash leads Mark into dangerous games and rituals that allow them to see into another world — a world of absolute darkness and terror.

The Attraction

The Attraction is a drive-in movie-style horror chiller of roadside terror! The signs along the desert highway read Come See the Mystery! But some mysteries should remain buried forever… “Clegg takes the idea of a cheapjack tourist hustle for a decrepit gas station in middle-of-nowhere Arizona and turns it into a terrifying quick punch of horror…” – Alternate Reality Web Zine Reviews.

 

The Nightmare Chronicles

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

In Hardcover, Paperback, Ebook, and Audiobook

Horror & Suspense Page-Turners

Love the dark short fiction of Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Clive Barker, Richard Matheson, or Shirley Jackson? You’re sure to enjoy The Nightmare Chronicles.

The Bram Stoker Award-winning and International Horror Guild Award-winning short story collection — 13 tales of disturbing horror and twisted psychological suspense from Douglas Clegg

Dean Koontz Says:

“Clegg’s stories can chill the spine so effectively that the reader should keep paramedics on standby.”

Read the Reviews — If You Dare!

“Clegg brings his stories together with a chilling fictive conceit….The effect is dangerously seductive.” — Locus

“Clegg’s (The Halloween Man, etc.) collection of 13 tales takes risks and is full of passions that sometimes burst forth violently…Clegg’s use of innovative metaphors catapults each story beyond a landscape crowded with the horror genre’s usual monsters and madmen into a territory he alone can claim.” – Publisher’s Weekly

“Clegg writes some of the most harrowing, unforgettable tales you’re ever likely to come upon.. Clegg’s best stories…slip into your subconscious and stay with you well beyond the last turning of the page…” – The Chiaroscuro

“I was truly impressed with this collection, and was not surprised to learn that it received the 1999 International Horror Guild Award for Best Collection, and the 1999 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a Fiction Collection.” – Casual Debris

 

Night Cage

Wednesday, May 6th, 2015

Now in Trade Paperback & eBook

The Criminally Insane Series, Book Three

Love the page-turning thrills of James Patterson, the horror of Thomas Harris, the chills of serial killer fiction? Night Cage and the Criminally Insane series may be for you. Each novel has a very slight paranormal twist to it.

He only feels safe in his cage

They are the most dangerous mother-son serial killer team in history. “Bloody Mary” Chilmark is certifiable – just ask her doctor. The Darden State Hospital is home to the most dangerous psychopathic killers in the country. But Bloody Mary got out, and raised her baby away from that bad environment. And now, he’s all grown up…

But if he escapes, you’ll never feel safe again

As fires rage in the hills above the hospital, Bloody Mary and her son “Doc” are on a murdering rampage in southern California. Who will stop them?