Michael Marshall Smith

For young Mark, the world has turned as bleak and gray as the Brighton winter. Separated from his real father and home in London, he's come to live with his mother and her new husband in an old house near the sea. He spends his days alone, trying to master the skateboard, while other boys his age are in school. He hates the unwanted stepfather who barged into Mark's life to rob him of joy. Worst of all, his once-vibrant mother has grown listless and weary, no longer interested in anything beyond her sitting room.But on a damp and chilly evening, an accident carries Mark into the basement flat of the old woman who lives at the bottom of his stepfather's house. She offers tea, cakes, and sympathy...and the key to a secret, bygone world. Mark becomes caught up in the frenetic bustle of the human machinery that once ran a home, and drawn ever deeper into a lost realm of spirits and memory. Here below the suffocating truths, beneath the pain and unhappiness, he finds an escape, and quite possibly a way to change everything.A richly evocative, poignantly beautiful modern-day ghost story, The Servants marks the triumphant return of Michael Marshall Smith—the first novel in a decade from the multiple award-winning author of Spares.

tark lives in Colour, a neighbourhood whose inhabitants like to be co-ordinated with their surroundings – a neighbourhood where spangly purple trousers are admired by the walls of buildings as you pass them. Close by is Sound, where you mustn’t make any, apart from one designated hour a day when you can scream your lungs raw. Then there’s Red – get off at Fuck Station Zero if you want to see a tactical nuclear battle recreated as a sales demonstration. Stark has friends in Red, which is just as well because Something is about to happen. And when a Something happens it’s no good chanting ‘Duck and cover’ while cowering in a corner, because a Something is always from the past, Stark’s past, and it won’t go away until you face it full on.

In the alley on his way home from work, Derrick Shaw witnesses a murder. To save his life, he promises not to reveal the identity of the shooter, a former Tubman student. But Derrick feels sick and guilty about his vow of silence.

"From the author of the best sellers The Last Werewolf and Talulla Rising, the hair-raising conclusion to the saga that has galvanized readers' imaginations: an electrifying, startlingly erotic love story that gives us the final battle for survival between werewolves and vampires, and one last incisive--brilliantly ironic--look at what it means to be, or to not be, human. Talulla has settled into an uneasy equilibrium: with her twins at her side and the devotion of her lover Walker, it's a normal family life--except for their monthly transformation into werewolves hungry for human flesh. But even this tenuous peace is interrupted for Talulla by nagging thoughts of Remshi, the 20,000-year-old vampire who haunts her dreams. In turn Remshi can't escape the feeling that he knows Talulla from years before (many, many, many years). They have their distractions: Talulla is being pursued by a fanatical Christian cult, and Remshi is following the trail of reckless feedings by a newly turned vampire. But, as the novel unfurls, they are inextricably drawn to each other--and toward the moment when an ancient prophecy may finally come to pass--in this tale of pulse-pounding supernatural suspense"--

Contains: Introduction, by Steve Berman If Damon Comes, by Charles L. Grant Treats, by Norman Partridge The Family, by Halli Villegas The Horse Lord, by Lisa Tuttle My Name Is Leejun, by John Schoffstall Princess of the Night, by Michael Kelly Duck Hunt, by Joe R. Lansdale The Choir, by Joel D. Lane Children of the Corn, by Stephen King Yellowjacket Summer, by Robert R. McCammon The Stuff that Goes on in Their Heads, by Michael Marshall Smith Second Grade, by Charles Antin Respects, by Ramsey Campbell Melanie Klein Said, by Robert McVey Gaslight, by Jeffrey Ford Endless Encore, by Will Ludwigsen Cockroach, by Dale Bailey By the Mark, by Gemma Files The Disappearance of James H, by Hal Duncan I Was a Teenage Slasher Victim, by Stephen Graham Jones Blue Rose, by Peter Straub Making Friends, by Gary Raisor You Deserve, by Alex Jeffers The Queen of Knives, by Georgina Bruce The Naughty List, by Christine Morgan The Perfect Dinner Party, by Cassandra Clare & Holly Black Make Believe, by Michael Reaves

"Eleven-year-old Mark is bored. He spends his days on the Brighton sea-front, practicing on his skate-board. His mother is too ill to leave the house, and his stepfather is determined that Mark shouldn't disturb her. So when the old lady who lives in the flat downstairs introduces him to rock cakes and offers to show him a secret, he's happy to indulge her. The old lady takes a large, old-fashioned key and leads Mark down a dusty corridor to a heavy door. Beyond the door is a world completely alien to Mark's understanding. For behind the old lady's tiny apartment, the house's original servants' quarters are still entirely intact, although derelict ..."--Publisher details.

Briefly discusses different types of stories and encourages the reader to complete and compose stories.