Hot Off the Crossroad Press

First Halloween Edition!/

Author

David Niall Wilson
October 05, 2025

In partnership with

FROM THE EDITORS

It’s october, so we’re going to start rolling out horror-themed books for your reading pleasure. This week the theme is Halloween, with some classics you won’t want to miss. It’s just about my favorite time of year. Not going to front-load this newsletter with holiday nostalgia, but we have published hundreds of horror titles spanning decades of dark work.

If you listen to audiobooks or do reviews, but don’t actually like reading newsletters, you should jump to the bottom because we have been offering free Audible download codes, UK and US, for a few weeks now, but very few have taken advantage of it. We also have the instructions for requesting review copies.

Let’s get to the books!

HALLOWEEN TREATS

Black and Orange – Benjamin Kane Ethridge - Winner of the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel

Forget everything you know about Halloween. The stories are distortions. They were created to keep the Church of Midnight hidden from the world. Every October 31st a gateway opens to a hostile land of sacrificial magic and chaos. Since the beginning of civilization the Church of Midnight has attempted to open the gateway and unite with its other half, the Church of Morning. Each year they’ve come closer, waiting for the ideal sacrifice to open the gateway permanently.

With pumpkins appearing, skeletons and ghosts sprouting on porches and lawns, and slasher flicks streaming on every online service, we’re going to start promoting some Hallowee tales to add to the darkness. Benjamin Kane Etheridge universal Book Link.

Roll Them Bones – David Niall Wilson – Finalist for the 2003 Bram Stoker Award for long fiction

In Random, Illinois, not much has changed in the last century. Things there move more slowly than they do in the city. At times, history seems to be moving in reverse. That’s how it seems; some folks would say that’s how it is. For Jason, Frank, Ronnie and Lizzy, there are bits and pieces of the past that won’t go away. Not in the daylight world, and not in their dreams. They shared a secret, a bond of silence and guilt. They shared the memory of an old woman’s dry, crackling voice, the heat and sizzling terror of flames beyond their control, and the mesmerizing image of a handful of bones.

Her eyes Haunt them. Her voice follows them through their nightmares. The flames lick up from below with the slow promise of destruction. "For an evil heart, no deed atones, to know the future? Roll them bones… David Niall Wilson univeral Book Link

STUNTS – Charles L. Grant - The senior class of New Jersey’s Port Richmond High School is busy planning Halloween “stunts"—practical jokes on a town-wide scale. The school’s new principal has outlawed stunts, but that won’t keep Brian Oakland and his friends out of mischief. After all, they’re not planning anything serious, nothing damaging (except to the principal’s reputation).

Others have different ideas. Dominic Pastore’s waited all year for Halloween. His rifle is ready, but Dorn hasn’t decided if he’ll fire blanks or bullets. Rich little Mickie Farwood wants to pull a stunt too, but first must choose between Dorn’s danger and Brian’s innocence. None of them knows that this Halloween will alter their lives forever.

The shadow of the wolf has fallen on two men. In England, visiting lecturer Evan Kendal flees a murderous madman once his best friend flees for Port Richmond and home. And in Port Richmond, in the woods that surround the town, another killer waits … waits for Halloween, when those he hates will die. At his bidding the whole town will die.

SPOTLIGHT

Charlie Jacob - Nell Anne ‘Charlee’ Jacob was an American author specializing in horror fiction, dark fantasy, and poetry. Her writing career began in 1981 with the publication of several poems under the name Charlee Carter Broach. She began writing as Charlee Jacob in 1986.

This native Texan is best known for her graphic explorations of the themes of human degradation, sexual extremism, and supernatural evil. Her first novel This Symbiotic Fascination was nominated for the International Horror Guild Award and the Bram Stoker Award. Her novel Dread in the Beast tied David Morrell's Creepers for first place for the Bram Stoker Award for Best Novel of 2005, and her poetry collection Sineater won the Bram Stoker Award for Best Poetry Collection in 2005 as well.

COMPLETE SERIES RELEASES

The Orangefield Series – Al Sarrantonio  - Three novels that take place in the fictional upstate New York town of Orangefield – guaranteed to get you into the Halloween spirit!The two collections aren’t linked separately, but you can find them at the author’s universal book link below.

Horrorween: When a boy from the town disappears, detective Bill Grant is convinced Samhain is responsible. But even Grant cannot imagine the horrific extent of the Lord of Death's grand scheme. As what may prove to be the last Halloween approaches, the fate of the world will depend on the survival of a small group of people, pawns in a terrifying game of cosmic proportions.

Hallow’s Eve: After twelve years, Corrie Phaeder is returning home to Orangefield—the last place in the world he wants to be. Orangefield is a town of nightmares, a town where the impossible and the horrific happen all too often, where ghosts rise screaming from their graves, and where trick-or-treating goblins have no need for scary costumes. Something is waiting patiently for Corrie's homecoming. This Halloween, a messenger from a realm of shadows, with the body of a scarecrow and the head of a pumpkin, will usher Corrie into what might prove to be his last nightmare, a battle to the death with the ultimate darkness.

Halloweenland: In Orangefield, Halloween is never normal—and this year will be no exception. For Orangefield is now the home of Halloweenland, a bizarre carnival run by the mysterious Mr. Dickens. No one who sees the carnival doubts that it's a very strange place, but its real secrets can hardly be imagined.

Orangefield is also the home of Detective Bill Grant, who thinks he's seen it all. He's on the trail of an odd little girl, a girl who could hold the end of the universe in her hand. The trail will lead Grant to Ireland, the ancient home of the Lord of the Dead, then back to Orangefield, where, on what may be the last Halloween, the ultimate battle between Life and Death will take place.

Al Sarrantonio was born in New York City on May 25, 1952, and grew up on Long Island. He was of Italian and Scots-Irish descent. He began his career at the age of 16 with a nonfiction appearance in one of editor Ray Palmer's publications. He continued to write throughout university, and in 1974, after graduation from Manhattan College with a B.A. in English, he attended the Clarion Science Fiction Writers Workshop at Michigan State University.

Al died on January 27, 2025, at the age of 72. Crossroad Press is proud to continue making his books available to new generations of readers.

FREE AUDIOBOOK DOWNLOAD CODES FOR AUDIBLE

Here is our new list of books we are offering free download codes for.  We are trying to build reviews, and while we don’t require a review for a free download, even just a rating on Audible or Amazon can make a huge difference in visibility. Beneath the new books are those from last week, because all still have some codes available for US and UK listeners. We will offer them to the first five who request them, and only one title per requester. To request a code send a note to [email protected]

THIS WEEK’S TITLES:

Catherine the Ghost – Kathe Koja – Performed by Jennifer Pickens – Audio Sample

From Bram Stoker Award-winning author Kathe Koja comes a fiercely poetic homage to Emily Brontë’s supernatural masterpiece Wuthering Heights, where love is relentless and the dead are never gone. Cathy Earnshaw. Catherine Linton. Mother. Daughter. They never saw each other alive. In Catherine the Ghost these two young women confront loss, captivity, and the dark edge of eternity itself, to claim their full existence and share their power. With hauntings that escape the page and passion that bleeds them red, Koja crafts a tale that transcends the material plane as an eerie comfort that ghosts keep loving long past the grave. This modern gothic punk remix of Emily Bronte’s classic Wuthering Heights is a ghost story told from the POV of Catherine Earnshaw’s restless spirit from beyond the grave. This short novel is sure to delight fans of ghost stories, feminist retellings of classics and the cult fan base of Kathe Koja, who has built a legacy with her intense speculative and horror fiction ever since her award-winning debut, The Cipher.

The Worms – Al Sarrantonio – Performed by Scott MacDonald – Audio Sample

A young couple travel to the girl's hometown and are plunged into a living nightmare of evil -- an evil from deep in the past which appears in a shocking and deadly form. Provine, Massachusetts, is one of those picturesque New England towns where nothing ever seems to change. At least that is how it has always seemed to Felicity Cramer. So when she brings Paul, her fiance, to Province to meet her family, the last thing she expects is for anything out of the ordinary to occur. Under the sleepy surface of Province lies a devastatingly sinister fate, a fate sealed three hundred years ago when Granny Brind was burned as a witch. Now, the horrifying legacy Granny Brind bequeathed to Province is about to explode with a murderous vengeful power, from which there will be no escape.

The Worms elicits the kind of heart-pounding response fans of horror and fantasy fiction crave. The knockout pace of this terrifyingly suspenseful story will leave you gasping for breath.

This is the very first collection of short stories written by author David Niall Wilson. It was originally published as a signed, limited edition trade paperback in 1995. This book includes many early stories that have never been reprinted, and some, like "On the Third Day," and "A Candle Lit in Sunlight" that were later expanded to full-length novels.

This collection includes vampires, magic, Lovecraftian horror, and religious fable. The introduction is by the late grandmaster of horror and fantasy, Hugh B. Cave.

LAST WEEK REVIEW COPIES -Codes still available

The Hungry Earth – Nicholas Kaufmann – Performed by Linda Jones – AUDIO SAMPLE

Time After Time (Book 1 of the Pastmaster Series) – Performed by Thomas Metzinger – Audio Sample

Tuxedo Junction – Thom Carnell – Performed by David Gilmore – Audio Sample

REVIEW COPIES AVAILABLE

There is a form on our website for requesting review copies of any of our titles, but you can also do so by emailing us at [email protected] – Let us know which of our many books you’d like to read and review. Provide us with the places you will post your review, and let us know if you’d like to be added to our list of reviewers to hear about all upcoming titles.

THAT’S A WRAP!

Thanks to everyone who made it to the end of the newsletter. Remember to share, and check out all our titles, available on most eBook platforms.

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David & David

 Wilson & Dodd