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Автор James Newman

ALSO BY JAMES NEWMAN

Holy Rollers

Midnight Rain

The Forum

Revenge Flick!

Animosity

Olden

COLLABORATIONS

Night of the Loving Dead

(with James Futch)

Death Songs from the Naked Man

(with Donn Gash)

Love Bites

(with Donn Gash)

The Church of Dead Languages

(with Jason Brannon)

COLLECTIONS

People Are Strange

Massachusetts • Pennsylvania • New Mexico • Nevada

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Previously published in limited edition hardcover by Necessary Evil Press.

This edition has been revised and expanded.

Cover art and illustrations by Jesse David Young

Cover layout by Yannick Bouchard

Established in 2009

ISBN 978-0-615-41900-8

Printed in the United States of America.

Praise for The Wicked

“You might expect the work of a young Southern writer to show some roots, and you’ll see that clearly in James Newman’s writing. There’s a little bit of Davis Grubb and Joe Lansdale twisting into that dark earth, and a strong straight spike of Robert McCammon digging deep. But the story tree that grows above ground belongs to a tale-spinner who can raise one mean hunk of nightmare all on his own. The Wicked is a well-honed blade. ”

—Norman Partridge

Author of Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales and Lesser Demons

“The Wicked is a good old-fashioned, unabashed Horror novel. James Newman remembers when horror used to be fun, and he’s recaptured it here in all of its gory glory. A terrifying page-turner in the tradition of Graham Masterton, J. N.

Williamson, and Richard Laymon. WICKEDly good reading from one of horror’s new heirs!”

—Brian Keene

Author of The Rising, City of the Dead and Ghoul

“Demons, depravity and despair, oh my! Reminiscent of the best of 80’s horror and Bentley Little at his most grotesque and unrelenting, The Wicked is the kind of horror we don’t see enough of anymore. This is one wild and bloody ride, and in the capable hands of James Newman, it’s one worth taking. ”

—Kealan Patrick Burke

Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Turtle Boy and Kin

“James Newman looks like he’s far too young to be the bastard lovechild of William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor... but still, I wonder. In years to come, when we talk about great writers of the Southern gothic, we’ll be mentioning Newman alongside Massie, McCammon, Crews, Farris and the aforementioned. You can smell the magnolias, the kudzu and the blood... ”

—John Pelan

Author of The Colour Out of Darkness

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Foreword

Prelude

Part One

Part Two

Part Three

Epilogue

Afterword

Bonus Story

Click Here for a Full Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION

by Mark Allan Gunnells

I am a child of the 80s. Big hair, Member’s Only jackets, Rubik’s cubes, Ronald Reagan and George Bush (the first one)—I grew up with it all. And as a full-fledged horror geek from a very young age, I also was brought up on 80s horror. I was at the local theater for each new Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, and Halloween movie that was released. That also meant I was snapping up all the horror mass-markets I could find in the paperback rack of the drugstore down the street from my house.