Carson Buckingham

Horror from around the world is featured in the 2018 edition. India, The Netherlands, the Philippines--What is it with the Hoosier state that inspires authors from all over the world to dredge up their darkest visions to make readers tremble and shudder? Could it be the ghost towns that dot the landscape? Or do we fear the living ghosts that walk its cities, large and small, that breed and fester on dashed hope and creeping dread? Or do their dark writings mirror the thoughts we thought we had buried deep beneath layers of civility, exposing them for what they are, reflections of the darkness all around us, propagated through us and our offspring, who emulate and improve on our own wickedness?

Alex and Leo Renfield are a husband and wife contractor team who've recently moved to the village of Woodhaven, Connecticut to escape the chaos of life in New York. Pretty close to broke, they meet Theodora Hamilton, a somewhat unsavory and odd individual, who offers them an astronomical amount of money to repaint the first floor of her family home. But along with the huge paycheck comes a set of unsettling rules that must be followed explicitly if they are to accept the offer; one of which is they must reside on the property having no direct contact with the outside world until the job is complete. Is Theodora Hamilton just an eccentric woman with a peculiar way of doing things, or is there a more sinister agenda that Alex and Leo are unaware of? What exactly does she have in store for this down-on-their-luck couple who have no choice but to accept the offer and the strange requirements that come along with it?