“Deep Eden” was first published in The Mammoth Book of Cthulhu, edited by Paula Guran, Running Press, 2016.

“The Patter of Tiny Feet” was first published in Searchers After Horror, edited by S.T. Joshi, Fedogan & Bremer, 2014.

“The Rasping Absence” first appeared in Black Wings IV, edited by S.T. Joshi, PS Publishing, 2015.

“After the Final” was first published in The Grimscribe’s Puppets, edited by Joseph S. Pulver, Sr., Miskatonic River Press, 2013.

“The Sullied Pane” was first published in Crooked Houses, edited by Mark Beech, Egaeus Press, 2020.

“Crawlspace Oracle” was first published in Mannequin: Tales of Wood Made Flesh, edited by Justin Burnett, Silent Motorist Media, 2019.

“Cast Lots” was first published in Nightmare’s Realm, edited by S.T. Joshi, Dark Regions Press, 2015.

“Notes on the Aztec Death Whistle” was first published in Weird Fiction Review #10, edited by John Pelan, Centipede Press, 2020.

“Headsman’s Trust: A Murder Ballad” was first published in Pluto in Furs: Tales of Diseased Desires and Seductive Horrors, edited by Scott Dwyer, Plutonian Press, 2019.

“Three Knocks on a Buried Door” was first published in Apostles of the Weird, edited by S.T. Joshi, PS Publishing, 2020.

“Ten of Swords: Ruin” was first published in Their Dark and Secret Alchemy, edited by Robert Morgan, Sarob Press, 2019.

About the Author

About the Author

Richard Gavin explores the realm where fear and the numinous converge. His eerie, nightmarish stories have garnered high critical praise, appear in several volumes of Best New Horror and Year’s Best Horror, and have been collected in five previous books, including Sylvan Dread: Tales of Pastoral Darkness and At Fear’s Altar. Along with fiction, Richard produces works of esotericism and meditations on the macabre, such as The Benighted Path: Primeval Gnosis and the Monstrous Soul and The Moribund Portal: Spectral Resonance and the Numen of the Gallows. He dwells in the North. Online presence: www.richardgavin.net