Skip to content
Responsive image
Vendor
Fritz Agency
Christian Dittus
Original language
English
Categories

INTERIOR DARKNESS

Peter Straub

Selected Stories

Celebrated author Peter Straub's mastery of the short form shines in this wide-ranging collection of his most chilling, intense, and compelling tales from the past twenty-five years.

Peter Straub has spent forty years at the forefront of modern literary horror. The stories assembled here represent his astonishing range and his ability to terrify, transport, and hold a reader hostage.

"Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff" is a darkly comic masterpiece in which a stern estate lawyer known as the Deacon hires a pair of "Private Detectives Extraordinaire" to investigate and seek revenge on his unfaithful wife. In "The Ballad of Ballard and Sandrine," a man and his much younger lover explore their decadent and increasingly sinister fantasies on a luxurious yacht in the remotest stretch of the Amazon River. "Blue Rose" finds violence and power in the hands of the most innocent among us, leading to a conclusion that is fully surprising and devastating.

Each story cracks the foundation of our reality and opens our eyes, taking us further and further into the darkness that normally remains deeply, and safely, hidden. Interior Darkness is the gold standard of literary horror.

Peter Straub is the New York Times bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, most recently of A Dark Matter. Lost Boy Lost Girl and In the Night Room are winners of the Bram Stoker Award.
Available products
Book

Published 2016-02-01 by Doubleday

Comments

“Interior Darkness” is a book for those who think they dislike horror, as well as for those who love and respect the genre. Filled with terror, wit and unexpected grace notes, it's a remarkable achievement that reflects the arc of a lengthy and celebrated career. Louis Armstrong, wherever he may be, would probably agree. Read more...

There is nothing conventional or familiar in Peter Straub's exquisitely unsettling stories. Questions of genre be damned; Interior Darkness embraces a dizzying array of literary styles and structures and defies easy categorization. What a thrill to read an audacious storyteller writing at the very top of his game. -- Bill Clegg

This outstanding collection of 16 reprints highlights what makes Straub such a master of genre-bending horror and suspense, and it's an effective introduction for readers new to his considerable body of work Straub has a proven knack for black humor, and he coaxes the nightmarish out of the mundane with startling ease. This is a powerful collection from an enduring favorite in literary chills. (starred review)

A must-read for the author's fans and a perfect introduction for anyone new toStraub's brilliantly original and unsettling brand of fiction.

Though he's one of the most successful practitioners ever of the art of scary stories, Peter Straub has never been satisfied with its common limits. These stories show him ranging far and high into the uplands of literary fiction without ever leaving behind the dark impulses and fears that make his work so powerful. -- John Crowley

Peter Straub's shorter fictions are like tiny novels you drown in: perfectly pitched, terrifyingly smart, big-hearted, dangerous, and even cruel. Interior Darkness shows off his range, his intelligence, his bravery and, sometimes, at the edges, allows glimpses of his fierce sense of humour. Straub deploys a host of voices that cajole and whisper and talk to you from the darkness. If you care about the short story, you should read this book, and watch a master at work. -- Neil Gaiman