Anthony Masters

First published in 1964, Anthony Masters' early collection of short stories , A Pocketful of Rye, is preoccupied with problems of social marginalisation and inequality. With his typical sensitivity, Masters observes universal human struggles caused by ageing, impoverishment, alienation and disability. These short stories are touching and poignant without being sentimental or patronising.

Every night Gary wakes sweating with fear. Every night the dreams come. Gary does not know what the dreams mean. Who is the stranger who hammers at the door? Who is the baby whose cries can be heard? He and his family are newcomers to the Isle of Wight, but Gary is soon to find his life inextricably bound up with both the island and the supernatural.'Masters evidently believes in giving his...readers more than thrills and spills' - Sunday Telegraph

Joe has been acting strangely lately. He's been causing serious trouble, and messing up his friends' lives. But they can't tell anyone. Not even each other. You see, no one would believe them. Everyone looks up to Joe...until he mysteriously disappears. Distraught, his sister Debs pleads with his friends to look for him. Reluctantly, they head for the obvious place - the marsh where they played as kids. But they are not kids anymore, and without Joe they're leaderless. How will they even find him? And do they want to, after what he's done? In fact, they would be quite happy if Joe stayed missing for good...

Racing along on his roller-blades, Terry feels like he is almost flying, yet he is in perfect control - until the blades take over. Terrified, he is propelled through an overgrown garden and into a sinister-looking house...

The storm rages. They huddle closer round the flames as the wind howls in the night. Another ghost story begins. But is the old house really deserted, or is something screaming in the darkness? Do you dare to find out?

The flames flicker. The night deepens. Something's moving in the shadows. Alone on the moors they gather round the fire, all waiting to tell their own horror story. Just listen...

Deserted by her husband, Anne Lucas wants him dead. Small-time villain Joe Barrington wants out from the manipulations of gangster-on-the-run Michael McMarn. Joe's brother, Eamonn Coyd, emotionally and physically scarred, wants to get him and his family abroad fast. As a result, Coyd comes up with what is to prove a deadly alliance. If Joe Barrington takes up Anne Lucas's contract on her wealthy husband, then he can not only walk away with £30,000 but bleed her financially for months to come. When Anne and her unknown contract killer begin a deadly game of mutual entrapment they run the risk of self-destruction. Behind these players moves the bizarre shadow of gangster boss, McMarn, determined to revenge himself on his renegade contract killer. I Want Him Dead is a fast moving, crisply written tale of avarice, vengeance and human frailty which grips like a vice until the final page.

The Château Letoric is the ancestral home of the highly respected Larche family obsessed with the past, with bitterness, rancour and revenge. Solange is one of France's most poignant Resistance heroines but, badly tortured, now senile, the repository of many dark secrets, she has been confined to a wheel chair since the end of the war. Her husband Henri was accused of collaborating with the Nazis. Their son, Marius, at forty-eight a senior officer in Interpol, has been fighting to clear his father's name. But Marius himself is also vulnerable in St Esprit where his past - a homosexual affair with a farm-worker - rises to plague him. Suddenly the years of tongue-wagging culminate in the first of three fatal tragedies: Henri Larche is murdered. The paralysis of a town trapped in the past is powerfully evoked in this superbly skillful story of a family whose dreaded secrets hound them to the death.

Summer has always been such fun, the family together at Formentera. This year is different. Colin's dad mysteriously disappears, presumed drowned, leaving a note - SORRY. CAN'T HOLD ON ANY LONGER. Suddenly nothing makes sense. Colin heads for New York to discover the truth about his father's 'death' but ends up on the run from the 'Sandman'. Who can be behind all of this? It must be someone very powerful indeed...

It's dark. A light snow is falling. Down in the crypt there are tales of vampires to be told. Could they be true?Vampire Stories to Tell in the Dark - Spooky Vampire tales for young adults.