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Time and again, Guy Holman eluded death. No disease or disaster seemed capable of killing him; no injury could do him mortal harm. But for all his good fortune, he lost everyone he ever loved.

Then a young woman who bore an eerie resemblance to his dead wife suddenly appeared, and he thought his luck had changed. But unknown to Holman, he was the innocent pawn in an age-old battle between the forces of good and evil.

Blessed by some miracle, or damned by some horror, Holman had the power to change the destiny of the world -- the power to decimate or spare the souls of untold millions -- the power that could only be realized by saving or destroying his charmed life.

John Callow hated the people of Valley Green. For years, Callow waited while the townsfolk spurned him, insulted him, and cheated him. But with an ancient curse, he'd visit misery on everyone who had ever slighted him. And Callow's grim reaping could be stopped only by a power born of the same wicked domain.

DARK FOREBODINGS.

All should have been well for Colin and his English bride -- but his twin brother, David, sensed trouble. Growing obsessed, David made his way to England to calm his fears -- instead he found an...

UNBOUNDED HELL.

Colin and his wife were dead -- victims of ghastly violence. Their seemingly serene cottage seethed with an aura of murder, madness, and betrayal. Overpowered by the evil, David soon embarked on a...

JOURNEY INTO THE MACABRE.

Suffocatingly, the presence grew...grew to a malevolent force trying to kill David's fiancee...grew until David himself was a helpless prisoner of unholy passion!

Alan and Kate Marlowe are a typical, loving, middle-class couple, with four young children. But they wish they had just one more, a beautiful baby daughter. So when a strange young woman abandons her infant at their house, they view it as a blessing-a godsend-and adopt little Bonnie as their own.

But it is not long after Bonnie's arrival before terrible things begin to happen to the Marlowe family, beginning with the death of their son Matthew. As the tragedies mount, Alan starts to suspect Bonnie and fears he may be losing his grip on his sanity. After all, surely such a small, lovely, innocent child could not possibly be responsible for such horrors...?

After the death of their infant son, Hal and Rowan Graham decide to leave the mad bustle of London and move to a quiet country refuge. And the rustic village of Moorstone seems perfect. Too perfect...? Lying beneath a hill capped by an enormous stone, Moorstone hides mysterious secrets. Why does such a small town need such a large insane asylum? Why do the village's elderly residents leave everything they own to young newcomers they barely know? And why is everyone so friendly, so handsome, and so preoccupied with Hal and Rowan's health?

Before the Grahams can piece the insidious puzzle together they are plunged into a spiralling terror of ancient mysteries reborn, people who are not quite what they seem, and a village that is quaint, charming - and deadly!

The thirteen stories collected here represent the complete short fiction of Bernard Taylor, one of the bestselling horror authors of the 1970s and '80s, author of "The Godsend" and "Mother's Boys", both adapted for film, and "Sweetheart, Sweetheart", hailed by Charles L. Grant as the finest ghost story of all time. In these tales, which often feature an unexpectedly cruel or bizarre twist, Taylor offers a clever mixture of horror and black humour that will delight fans of the genre.

In 'Out of Sorts', things get hairy for a man's wife and his mistress when he begins to feel unwell on the night of a full moon. In 'Travelling Light', a traveller is obliged to share a room with a strange man who seems to know a little too much about a series of bizarre murders in which wives have been slain by their husbands. A tourist fascinated by the serial killer John Reginald Christie undergoes an uncanny and horrific experience on a trip to London in 'Forget-Me-Not'. And in 'Samhain', marital strife threatens to turn deadly when a witch turns to black magic to do away with her pathetic husband.

Table of Contents

• Out of Sorts (1983)
• Mama's Boy
• Forget-Me-Not (1975)
• Our Last Nanny (1973)
• Cera (1974)
• One of the Family (2012)
• Pat-a-Cake, Pat-a-Cake (1976)
• My Very Good Friend (1974)
• Samhain (1991)
• Peace Offering
• Travelling Light (1979)
• Mommy's Programme
• Green Fingers (1975)

When Tom Rigby is commissioned to paint a young woman's portrait at Woolvercombe House, the offer is too lucrative to refuse. But from the moment of his arrival at the secluded country mansion strange and inexplicable events begin to transpire. Soon he is drawn into an impenetrable maze of horror, and by the time he discovers the role he is intended to play in a diabolical design, it will already be too late. For the seeds of evil have been sown, and the time to reap their wicked harvest is nigh!

The classic third novel by '70s and '80s horror master Bernard Taylor, The Reaping (1980) returns to print at last in this edition featuring a new introduction by Will Errickson and the original cover painting by Oliver Frey.