Hollywood has made a star of Todd Pickett. But time is catching up with him. He doesn't have the perfect looks he had last year. After plastic surgery goes awry, Todd needs somewhere to hide away for a few months while his scars heal.

As Todd settles into a mansion in Coldheart Canyon — a corner of the city so secret it doesn't even appear on any map — Tammy Lauper, the president of his fan club, comes to the City of Angels determined to solve the mystery of Todd's disappearance. Her journey will not be an easy one. The closer she gets to Todd the more of Coldheart Canyon's secrets she uncovers: the ghosts of the A-list stars who came to the Canyon for wild parties; Katya Lupi, the cold-hearted, nowforgotten star for whom the Canyon was named, who is alive and exquisite after a hundred years; and, finally, the door in the bowels of Katya's dream palace that reputedly open up to another world, the Devil's Country. No one who has ever ventured to this dark, barbaric corner of hell has returned without their souls shadowed by what they'd seen and done.

Mingling an insider's view of modern Hollywood with a wild streak of visionary fantasy, Coldheart Canyon is a book without parallel: an irresistible and unmerciful picture of Hollywood and its demons, told with all the style and raw narrative power that have made Clive Barker's books and films a phenomenon worldwide.

"[A] ferocious indictment of (and backhanded tribute to) Hollywood Babylon, depicted through Barker's glorious imagination....It's also one ripping ghost story....The narrative rocks, as Barker's always do, with intense violence and sex....[A] royal flush, one of the most accomplished, and most notable, novels of the year." Publishers Weekly

"[An] engagingly nutty melodrama....Barker possesses one of contemporary fiction's wildest and finest imaginations....If you can tolerate Barker at his most fantastical and effusive, you won't want to miss Coldheart Canyon." Kirkus Reviews

"Mayhem, sex, and namedropping abound...but they seem only ploys to pump up prurient interest in an opus whose every episode is unconscionably drawn out. Despite his success, Barker has none of Stephen King's or Peter Straub's talent for bringing settings and characters to life. This book should have been one of Barker's potboiler flicks, instead. Then, after 90 minutes or so, it would be over." Booklist

"To call Clive Barker a 'horror novelist' would be like calling the Beatles a 'garage band.' Always creating and always pushing into the farthest reaches of the human mind, he is an artist in every sense of the word. He is the great imaginer of our time. He knows not only our greatest fears, but also what delights us, what turns us on, and what is truly holy in the world. Haunting, bizarre, beautiful. These are the words we can use to describe Clive Barker only until we invent new, more fitting adjectives." Quentin Tarantino

"[A] mildly entertaining novel." Martin Morse Wooster, Washington Post Book World

Coldheart Canyon is an irresistible and unmerciful picture of Hollywood and its demons, told with all the style and raw narrative power that have made Barker's books and films a worldwide phenomenon.

Film's most popular action hero needs a place to heal after surgery that has gone terribly wrong. His fiercely loyal agent finds him just such a place in a luxurious, forgotten mansion high in the Hollywood Hills. But the original owner of the mansion was a beautiful woman devoted to pleasure at any cost, and the terrible legacy of her deed has not yet died. There are ghosts and monsters haunting Coldheart Canyon, where nothing is forbidden.

Clive Barker is the best-selling author of eighteen books, including his first book for children, The Thief of Always He is also an acclaimed artist, film producer, and director. For four years Mr, Barker has been working on a vast array of paintings to illuminate the text of The Books Of Abarat, over one hundred of which can be found within this first volume.

Mr. Barker lives in California with his partner, the photographer David Armstrong, and their daughter, Nicole. They share their house with four dogs, five goldfish, a parrot, fifteen rats, innumerable wild geckoes, a cockatiel, and a parrot called Malingo.