The Brooligan Press

A room with terrible secrets in its walls: a drug that will blow more than just your mind: an art installation to die for: a supermarket poltergeist with an eye for fashion. Sixteen short stories and one novella from a master of the strange, the unusual, the downright unsettling. “Laurence Staig writes stories that creep up quietly... and sink needle teeth into your spine. He does in print what Hammer House of Horror did onscreen—shows very nasty, yet horribly credible haunted stretches of Britain. Highly recommended and not for the nervous” Kim Newman “There’s a strong whiff of The Twilight Zone about some of these stories… no bad thing in my eyes. Inescapable nightmares.” Lucian Poll, Writer and critic “Laurence Staig is one of the great unsung heroes of British horror and fantasy fiction.” Stephen Jones, World Fantasy Award-winning writer and editor “A similar theme and atmosphere to ‘The Companion’, but one that succeeds in being more M R Jamesian. On route to the climax the...

The novel that inspired the headline-grabbing ITV series starring John Lynch, Kenneth Cranham, and Christine Kavanagh. A terrifyingly plausible journey into the disturbing nerve-centers of medical science where our secret future is formed today. When Peter Carson is invited to the pioneering Jenner Clinic by one of the lab assistants, he's naturally intrigued. But when he arrives at the remote site in the Cumbrian fells to find police roadblocks and official silence, he realises that he's stumbled onto a story that will do him no good at all. Dr Jenner's work matters to the government. Enough to warrant unlimited funding, high security, and the best technicians in the country. But something has gone badly wrong. The project that has no room for mistakes has produced a result so terrible that it must never see the light of day. And now the evidence must be destroyed, whatever the cost. “A rip-roaring chiller . . . a latter-day Prometheus both Unbound and bloody”...

“There it was again. More scrabbling. No question about it now. Someone, or something, was scratching at the window. Someone, or something, wanted me to open it up and let them in...”  John Croydon is out of his depth. His latest client is classy, beautiful and very, very rich. And she’s being stalked by her fiancé’s ex-wife, who is threatening to disrupt the wedding, or worse. Croydon has just one week to persuade this inconvenient ex to leave the happy couple alone.  Problem is, she’s going to take some persuading. Because she’s dead. Has been dead for some time.  And she isn’t looking pretty. From the author of cult vampire novel Suckers and Notting Hill ghost story Stiff Lips comes another ghost story, narrated with self-lacerating humour by a private eye who has a lot to learn about himself and the supernatural. In the course of an investigation that will lead him from London to Norfolk and, ultimately, to Venice, John Croydon will be forced to dig into...

Something is stalking the Northumberland moors, slaughtering sheep and other livestock. There have been sightings of a big cat, a huge, feral creature that has so far managed to elude capture. Some of the locals are terrified, while others scoff that it’s only a legend. Still, the killings continue. Cath Lane is a young novelist and mother, eager to explore her new home in rural Northumberland. To her the legendary beast of the moors is excellent fodder for a new novel. How could she know as she begins her research that the beast is no mere myth?  How could she foresee the terror that waits for her, crouching in the dark…? “Ferocity draws on horror’s history. I was particularly reminded of the style and worlds of Cornell Woolrich. Both Woolrich and Laws share engaging writing styles; incorporating the worlds of crime and horror. Stephen Laws’ prose generates suspense with exquisite simplicity” Horror Reader “This is a wonderfully involving and truly frightening tale that b...

A STORM IS COMING Christmas. And an entire office block of revellers has disappeared into thin air. A STORM IS COMING DI Jack Cardiff and his investigating squad are about to discover the Hell that is ‘Darkfall’; where bricks, plaster and stone have a life of their own, where the inexplicable and the insane become horrifyingly real. A STORM IS COMING And for those trapped in the block and cut off by the violent weather, a terror beyond imagination is about to descend from the howling tempest. “A slam-bang paranormal thriller, Laws is one of the most inventive writers on the scene” The Times “Makes the reader distinctly uneasy about touching any walls or doors when the thunder rumbles” Penthouse “One of Britain’s masters of terror” Vector “A powerhouse of a book that hooks you immediately and never lets go. Exciting, relentless, gory and hugely entertaining” Million Magazine “Truly barnstorming supernatural horror from a writer of tremendous pace and energy. A v...

Paperback and ebook.   In the lobby of a Blackpool hotel, one year after the end of the Great War, Britain's spymaster recruits a young sideshow fortune-teller for a mission of historic importance. A standalone novella from the author of the Sebastian Becker novels The Kingdom of Bones, The Bedlam Detective, and The Authentic William James. MELODY JAMES: a novella Stephen Gallagher The Brooligan Press $7.95 (102p) ISBN 978 999920784  Buy the paperback Buy the ebook The Sebastian Becker Stories: Reviews The New York Times: "The Kingdom of Bones... shows the occult mystery in its best light. Vividly set in England and America during the booming industrial era of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, this stylish thriller conjures a perfect demon to symbolize the age and its appetites… although Gallagher delivers horror with a grand melodramatic flourish, his storytelling skills are more subtly displayed in scenes of the provincial theaters, gen...

A story of modern terror and suspense set against an authentic and spectacular background. The Follower—one of Scandinavia’s most intriguing myths. It brings together geologist John Visco, chasing a survey job that may not exist, and Sara Hansun, a woman sticking to her side of a lovers’ agreement in an affair gone cold. Their shared destination: the Arctic fishing village of Tromstad.  But the roads are closed. And the snow is falling. And out in the darkness, the Follower waits; half-human, half-beast, a demon spirit rejected by its maker to live independently and in misery.   The Follower’s sole and driving purpose; to achieve a return to human form.   To find a new host. "If thriller reading were a sin, Stephen Gallagher would be responsible for my ultimate damnation. His work is fast-paced, well-written, infused with a sense of dark wonder, and altogether fresh."—Dean R Koontz   "Gallagher knows the secret of good supernatural horror. He keeps th...