Gary McMahon sold two books to HarperCollins’ Angry Robot Books. According to the publisher, with this purchase, it has “turned its attention to reinvigorating horror.” The books, Pretty Little Dead Things and its sequel, Dead Bad Things, “promise an astonishing mix of David Peace and modern Japanese horror cinema to create a truly unique fusion of intense writing and sheer terror.”
Publishing Director Marc Gascoigne said “Horror thrives in movies and graphic novels. Like our other recent discovery, Kaaron Warren, Gary is at the forefront of a new generation of writers bringing that energy back to horror fiction.”
McMahon offers this teaser for the first book:
His name is Thomas Usher. A normal man. An average guy. Until he is involved in a tragic accident and his wife and daughter are killed…
After that, things begin to change. Usher is no longer normal. Or average. Now he can see the dead, and the dead can see him. They seek him out to help them. The lost. The Lonely. The departed. They never speak to him; they only ever demand his attention.
The ghosts are drawn to Usher, and he is compelled to help them in the hope that he might once again see his family. But sometimes, just sometimes, it isn’t enough and even his best efforts make things worse. Much worse.
His name is Thomas Usher.
He is an usher for the dead.
It’s who he is.
It’s what he does.
Pretty Little Dead Things will be published in Australia and the UK this July, and in the US next Winter. Dead Bad Things will follow in all three regions in Spring or Summer 2011.