Peter Crowther

Bibliography - Key Titles

DARKNESS FALLING

  • A NOVEL by Peter Crowther
  • PUBLICATION DATE: 2011
  • EDITION: Paperback
  • COVER ART: Vincent Chong
  • ISBN: 978-0-85766-168-5 (UK)
  • ISBN: 978-0-85766-169-2 (US & Canada)

SYNOPSIS:

It was a typical all-American backwater—until the night the monsters came.

When four employees of KMRT Radio investigate an unearthly light that cuts off communication with the outside world, they discover that something has taken the place of their friends and fellow townfolk, and imbued them with malign intentions. Little do they know, the phenomenon is not unique to the town of Jesman’s Bend . . .

BY WIZARD OAK 

  • A NOVEL by Peter Crowther
  • PUBLICATION DATE: February 2011
  • EDITION: Jacketed Hardcover
  • COVER ART: Glenn Chadbourne
  • PRINT RUN: 500 signed by Peter Crowther
  • INTRODUCTION: Rick Hautala
  • ISBN: 978-0-979505-48-5

SYNOPSIS:

It’s just a book that the folks of the small town of Magellan Bend recall reading. A little gruesome, perhapsand, in more than one instance, not the reader’s usual fare. But it’s just a book. Nothing more.
 
But when the town’s resident sleeper awakes from an eight-year nap, his memories are much more than mere words and phrases in a cheap and gaudy horror novel. And as he becomes more and more aware of the shocking truth, the knowledge spreads like graveyard mist sending a clarion call far and wide . . . but not only to the townsfolk. No, indeed. There are other things out there, things that ride the night winds on All Hallows Eve . . . and they know a lot more about the events recorded in the fabled By Wizard Oak And Fairy Stream.
 
Clearly, there is unfinished business in Magellan Bend this October and, as the night turns smoky and the world settles down for the onset of winter, the visitors arrive. Again . . . And no, it’s not just a book . . . No way.

SONGS OF LEAVING

  • A COLLECTION by Peter Crowther
  • PUBLICATION DATE: October 2004
  • EDITION: Jacketed Hardcover
  • COVER ART: Edward Miller
  • PRINT RUN: Signed by Peter Crowther
  • ISBN: 978-1-931081-85-6

SYNOPSIS:

An undercover patron of literature restores hope in a bookless society; the survivor of a long-ago space mission receives a visit from a hauntingly familiar UFO; a time-traveling assassin wreaks havoc in the execution of his latest contract; a late-night driver undergoes a most unusual police interrogation; a small town meets alien life and encounters a small problem regarding the measurement of time; the clone of Abraham Lincoln strives to find peace in modern-day New York City; a super-villain discovers his true place in the scheme of things; and the imminent impact of a county-sized piece of space debris brings to the remnants of humanity a multitude of old friends to witness the fall of mankind.

Just some of the stories in this new collection from Award-winning author Peter Crowther, who—already renowned for his work in horror/dark fantasy and crime/suspense—turns his attention here to the other-worldly elements of SF. But, as ever, the emphasis is on people . . . the things that motivate them and the things that bring them together.

THE SPACES BETWEEN THE LINES

  • A COLLECTION by Peter Crowther
  • PUBLICATION DATE: 2007
  • EDITION: Jacketed Hardcover
  • COVER ART: J.K. Potter
  • PRINT RUN: 750 signed by Peter Crowther
  • INTRODUCTION: Jack Dann
  • ISBN: 978-1-596060-79-1

SYNOPSIS:

A very special jukebox in the abandoned saloon of a dusty deserted town plays much more than mere tunes for two weary wanderers . . . A travelling carnival in a post-apocalyptic world comes across the Earth's very last vampire . . . A chair fashioned out of the wood from the original cross provides a comfort of sorts down the ages . . . A lonely girl dreams of freedom, whatever the cost . . . A one-time orphan embarks on a bizarre bus-journey with his newfound parents . . . Two old men tamper with the dark arts and open a gateway that threatens the destruction of the world . . . A grieving widower goes to great lengths to bring his wife back from the dead only to find that she's brought someone else with her . . . And a man uses a roll of magical tape to halt time and save his wife's life, unaware that there are things in this stopped-clock dimension that take a dim view of visitors . . . Twelve more stories from the fertile mind of Peter Crowther, award-winning author of The Longest Single Note, Songs of Leaving, Lonesome Roads and the Forever Twilight SF/horror sequence.

THE LONGEST SINGLE NOTE

  • A COLLECTION by Peter Crowther
  • PUBLICATION DATE: 1999
  • EDITION: Jacketed Hardcover
  • COVER ART: Alan M. Clark
  • PRINT RUN: 750 signed by Peter Crowther
  • INTRODUCTION: Michael Marshall Smith
  • ISBN: 1-881475-56-5

SYNOPSIS:

This book received a Starred Review in Publishers Weekly — the first such honor for a Cemetery Dance hardcover and a major coup for a small press!

Twenty-two stories, three poems and an extract from a novel in progress: just some of the worlds and characters from the mind of Peter Crowther, who insists that loss is the biggest monster of them all . . . and hope the only weapon it fears.

ESCARDY GAP

  • A NOVEL by Peter Crowther & James Lovegrove
  • PUBLICATION DATE: 1996
  • EDITION: Jacketed Hardcover
  • PRINT RUN: Signed
  • ISBN: 978-0-812555-39-4
SYNOPSIS:

A former bestselling author sits at the typewriter day after day, fearing his talent spent, unable to produce a sentence. The typewriter taunts him, and he abandons it for days until the night he hears the sound. It is faint, at first, but grows louder. It reminds him of something he can't quite place. He begins to type, describing the sound - the first words he's written in months. On the page, a train appears far in the distance, speeding across the plains. As he continues to write, the train's destination appears on the horizon: a small town from the 1950s - Escardy Gap. Escardy Gap is a re-creation of the writer's hometown in the Midwest. The characters that begin to appear - Mayor Raymond, Station Master Walt - are all memories from his childhood. A pack of boys abandons their baseball game, running toward the unexpected train, and with a start the writer recognizes himself as one of them. Who or what is on the train and why it has come to Escardy Gap does not seem important. The words are flowing faster than they ever have. But the writer has a terrible sense of foreboding, and though something doesn't seem quite right about this train and its passengers, he can't stop writing. This may be the blockbuster novel that saves his career. Or it may be the beginning of his descent into madness as the disturbingly real creatures of his imagination threaten to take over both the story and his life.