Best New Horror #26

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

THE EDITOR WOULD like to thank Kim Newman, David Barraclough, Ellen Datlow, Gordon Van Gelder, Robert Morgan, Rosemary Pardoe, R.B. Russell, Amanda Foubister, Andrew I. Porter, Johnny Mains, Mandy Slater, Jason V. Brock, Andy Richards, Shawn Garrett (Pseudopod), Andy Cox, Michael Kelly, David Longhorn and, especially, Peter and Nicky Crowther, Michael Smith, Marie O’Regan and Michael Marshall Smith for all their help and support. Special thanks are also due to Locus, Ansible, Classic Images, Entertainment Weekly and all the other sources that were used for reference in the Introduction and the Necrology.

INTRODUCTION: HORROR IN 2014 copyright © Stephen Jones 2015.

SECONDHAND MAGIC copyright © Helen Marshall 2014. Originally published in Gifts for the One Who Comes After. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE CULVERT copyright © Dale Bailey 2014. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, September/October 2014. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE PATTER OF TINY FEET copyright © Richard Gavin 2014. Originally published in Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE FOUR STRENGTHS OF SHADOW copyright © Ron Weighell 2014. Originally published in Summonings. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE NIGHT RUN copyright © Simon Kurt Unsworth 2014. Originally published as ‘The Private Ambulance’ in Noir. Reprinted by permission of the author.

HOME AND HEARTH copyright © Angela Slatter 2014. Originally published in Home and Hearth. Reprinted by permission of the author.

DUST copyright © Rebecca Lloyd 2014. Originally published in Mercy and Other Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.

SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN copyright © Robert Shearman 2014. Originally published in Fearful Symmetries. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE NIGHT DOCTOR copyright © Steve Rasnic Tem 2014. Originally published in The Spectral Book of Horror Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE DESECRATOR copyright © Derek John 2014. Originally published in The Ghosts & Scholars Book of Shadows Volume 2. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE WALK copyright © Dennis Etchison 2014. Originally published on Tor.com. Reprinted by permission of the author.

DIRT ON VICKY copyright © Clint Smith 2014. Originally published in Ghouljaw and Other Stories. Reprinted by permission of the author.

SKULLPOCKET copyright © Nathan Ballingrud 2014. Originally published in Nightmare Carnival. Reprinted by permission of the author.

TESTIMONY OF SAMUEL FROBISHER REGARDING EVENTS UPON HIS MAJESTY’S SHIP CONFIDENCE, 14-22 JUNE 1818, WITH DIAGRAMS copyright © Ian Tregillis 2014. Originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, July/August 2014. Reprinted by permission of the author.

AT LORN HALL copyright © Ramsey Campbell 2014. Originally published in Searchers After Horror: New Tales of the Weird and Fantastic. Reprinted by permission of the author.

SELFIES copyright © Lavie Tidhar 2014. Originally published on Tor.com, September 2014. Reprinted by permission of the author.

MATILDA OF THE NIGHT copyright © Stephen Volk 2014. Originally published in Terror Tales of Wales. Reprinted by permission of the author.

THE COLLECTED SHORT STORIES OF FREDDIE PROTHERO, INTRODUCTION BY TORLESS MAGNUSSEN, PH.D. copyright © Peter Straub 2014. Originally published in Turn Down the Lights and Conjunctions: 62 Exile, Spring 2014. Reprinted by permission of the author.

BURNT BLACK SUNS copyright © Simon Strantzas 2014. Originally published in Burnt Black Suns: A Collection of Weird Tales. Reprinted by permission of the author.

NECROLOGY: 2014 copyright © Stephen Jones and Kim Newman 2015.

USEFUL ADDRESSES copyright © Stephen Jones 2015.