Synopses & Reviews
Those Across the River, a beautifully written
exceedingly clever” (
Boston Herald) masterpiece of genuine terror” (
New York Times bestselling author F. Paul Wilson), was hailed by #1
New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris as one of the best first novels Ive ever read.” Now comes Christopher Buehlmans new novelone of uncommon horrors hiding behind the walls of the house next door
You think you got away with something, dont you? But your time has run out. We know where you are. And we are coming.”
The man on the screen says this in Russian.
Who are you?”
The man smiles, but its not a pleasant smile.
The image freezes.
The celluloid burns exactly where his mouth is, burns in the nearly flat U of his smile. His eyes burn, too.
The man fades, leaving the burning smiley face smoldering on the screen.
Oh Christ,” Andrew says.
The television catches fire.
Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a handsome, stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang, and a massive library. He is also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock, able to speak with the dead through film. His house is a maze of sorcerous booby traps and escape tunnels, as yours might be if you were sitting on a treasury of Russian magic stolen from the Soviet Union thirty years ago. Andrew has long known that magic was a brutal game requiring blood sacrifice and a willingness to confront death, but his many years of peace and comfort have left him soft, more concerned with maintaining false youth than with seeing to his own defense. Now a monster straight from the pages of Russian folklore is coming for him, and frost and death are coming with her.
Review
"Cormac McCarthy's
The Road meets Chaucer's
Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic...Buehlman...doesn't scrimp on earthy horror and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors...an author to watch."—
Kirkus Reviews
Praise for Those Across the River
“One of the best first novels I’ve ever read.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“What a treat. As much F. Scott Fitzgerald as Dean Koontz. A graceful, horrific read.”—Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Beautifully written…with a cast of Southern characters so real you can almost see the sweat roll down the page. The ending is exceedingly clever.”—Boston Herald
“Wonderfully eerie from start to finish—a novel sure to enthrall readers of all stripes.”—Grant Blackwood, New York Times bestselling author
“An unsettling brew of growing menace spiked with flashes of genuine terror—do not miss this chilling debut.”—F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Fatal Error
“Lures you into a different era, seduces you with eloquent prose and sensual period details, then clamps down on your jugular…an outstanding debut.”—Hank Schwaeble, Bram Stoker Award–winning author of Diabolical
“Buehlman’s lyrical prose vividly captures a landscape made familiar by William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor. A delightfully genre-bending juxtaposition of supernatural horror and gothic drama.”—California Literary Review
“A horror story that manages just the right balance between building dread and suspense and delivering action.”—The A.V. Club
Review
Praise for Those Across the River One of Publishers Weeklys Top-Ten SF, Fantasy and Horror Novels
A 2012 World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel
“What a treat. As much F. Scott Fitzgerald as Dean Koontz. A graceful, horrific read.”—Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“So real you can almost see the sweat roll down the page.”—Boston Herald
“Wonderfully eerie from start to finish—a novel sure to enthrall readers of all stripes.”—Grant Blackwood, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“An unsettling brew of growing menace…Do not miss this chilling debut.”—F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author of Cold City
“Sublimely crafted.”—New York Journal of Books
“Lures you into a different era, seduces you with eloquent prose and sensual period details, then clamps down on your jugular…An outstanding debut.”—Hank Schwaeble, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Diabolical
“A delightfully genre-bending juxtaposition of supernatural horror and gothic drama.”—California Literary Review
“Gripping, compelling gothic horror in the most classical sense, an American Dracula that absorbs the reader into its seductive embrace through lush rhythms and a veneer of homespun innocence.”—The Trades
And for Between Two Fires
“By combining modern horror dynamics with a convincing medieval setting, Christopher Buehlman secures his status among todays leading dark-fantasy authors.”—Shelf Awareness
“Fans of historical fantasy and horror will find this epic darkly rewarding.”—Publishers Weekly
“Buehlman is now two for two in delivering eerie, offbeat novels with admirable literary skill.”—Kirkus Reviews
Review
Praise for The Necromancers House
“[An] eruption of characters who evoke Dickensian whimsy and range from the merely unusual to the bizarrely imaginative...an explosion of enthralling fantasy. [A] vibrant, bracing atmosphere.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“You find yourself believing the unbelievable and fearing what you thought belonged only in those Old World, pre-sanitized fairytales."—Andrew Pyper, author of The Demonologist
Praise for Between Two Fires
"Cormac McCarthy's The Road meets Chaucer's Canterbury Tales in this frightful medieval epic...Buehlman...doesn't scrimp on earthy horror and lyrical writing in the face of unspeakable horrors...an author to watch."—Kirkus Reviews
“I was spellbound from the moment I opened the front cover…Intense and chilling…The ultimate good-versus-evil battle.”—Night Owl Reviews
“Fans of historical fantasy and horror will find this epic darkly rewarding.”—Publishers Weekly
Praise for Those Across the River
One of Publishers Weeklys Top-Ten SF, Fantasy and Horror Novels
A World Fantasy Award Nominee for Best Novel
“One of the best first novels Ive ever read.”—Charlaine Harris, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“What a treat. As much F. Scott Fitzgerald as Dean Koontz. A graceful, horrific read.”—Patricia Briggs, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Beautifully written…with a cast of Southern characters so real you can almost see the sweat roll down the page. The ending is exceedingly clever.”—Boston Herald
“Wonderfully eerie from start to finish—a novel sure to enthrall readers of all stripes.”—Grant Blackwood, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“An unsettling brew of growing menace spiked with flashes of genuine terror—do not miss this chilling debut. Christopher Buehlman is a writer to watch. I look forward to hearing from him again. And soon.”—F. Paul Wilson, New York Times bestselling author
“Seduces you with eloquent prose and sensual period details, then clamps down on your jugular…An outstanding debut.”—Hank Schwaeble, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Diabolical
“Buehlmans lyrical prose vividly captures a landscape made familiar by William Faulkner and Flannery OConnor. A delightfully genre-bending juxtaposition of supernatural horror and gothic drama.”—California Literary Review
“A horror story that manages just the right balance between building dread and suspense and delivering action.”—The A.V. Club
“Sublimely crafted...It is clear that Mr. Buehlman brings his poetic background to bear in creating the rhythm and meter of the story…A well-crafted novel that is a pleasure to read.”—The New York Journal of Books
“Masterful debut novel…moody and lush…[a] spellbinding tale of terror…filled with cowardice and bravery, foolishness and wisdom, grief and grace, and, alas, helplessness and beauty. Buehlman has written one of the best books of the year.”—Shelf Awareness
“Creepy, suspenseful...Recommended for horror fans and those willing to be scared enough to want to stay out of the woods.”—Library Journal
“In its unnerving depiction of small-town creepiness and heathen savagery, this surefooted debut resembles nothing more than Thomas Tryons Harvest Home…Viscerally upsetting…This is lusty, snappy writing, and horror fans will eat it up (or vice versa).”—Booklist
“Buehlman packs suspense and secrets into his debut novel…keep[s] readers on their toes right up until the big reveal.”—Publishers Weekly
“Fans of novels like Salems Lot or classic radio dramas will find this story impossible to put down…[It] feels completely fantastical by our rational minds but believable by our deepest fears.”—Suspense Magazine
Synopsis
You think you got away with something, dont you? But your time has run out. We know where you are. And we are coming.” Andrew Ranulf Blankenship is a stylish nonconformist with wry wit, a classic Mustang, and a massive library. Hes also a recovering alcoholic and a practicing warlock. His house is a maze of sorcerous booby traps and escape tunnels, as yours might be if you were sitting on a treasury of Russian magic stolen from the Soviet Union thirty years ago.
Andrew has long known that magic is a brutal game requiring blood sacrifice and a willingness to confront death, but years of peace and comfort have left him more concerned with maintaining false youth than with seeing to his own defense. Now a monster straight from the pages of Russian folklore is coming for him, and frost and death are coming with her.
Synopsis
His extraordinary debut,
Those Across the River, was hailed as “genre-bending Southern horror” (
California Literary Review), “graceful [and] horrific” (Patricia Briggs). Now Christopher Buehlman invites readers into an even darker age—one of temptation and corruption, of war in heaven, and of hell on earth…
And Lucifer said: “Let us rise against Him now in all our numbers, and pull the walls of heaven down…”
The year is 1348. Thomas, a disgraced knight, has found a young girl alone in a dead Norman village. An orphan of the Black Death, and an almost unnerving picture of innocence, she tells Thomas that plague is only part of a larger cataclysm—that the fallen angels under Lucifer are rising in a second war on heaven, and that the world of men has fallen behind the lines of conflict.
Is it delirium or is it faith? She believes she has seen the angels of God. She believes the righteous dead speak to her in dreams. And now she has convinced the faithless Thomas to shepherd her across a depraved landscape to Avignon. There, she tells Thomas, she will fulfill her mission: to confront the evil that has devastated the earth, and to restore to this betrayed, murderous knight the nobility and hope of salvation he long abandoned.
As hell unleashes its wrath, and as the true nature of the girl is revealed, Thomas will find himself on a macabre battleground of angels and demons, saints, and the risen dead, and in the midst of a desperate struggle for nothing less than the soul of man.
About the Author
Christopher Buehlman is the winner of the 2007 Bridport Prize for Poetry and the author of
Those Across the River and several plays. He spends half the year in St. Peterburg, Florida, and the rest on the road.