Annal:2000 Bram Stoker Award for Novel

Traveling Vampire Show

Richard Laymon

• 2000 Stoker–Novel winner
• Score: 10.5

Though gloomy with clouds, it is a hot, August morning in the summer of 1963. All over the rural town of Grandville, tacked to power poles and trees, taped to store windows, blowing along the sidewalks, fliers have appeared announcing the mysterious one-night-only performance of The Traveling Vampire Show.

The show will feature Valeria, the only known vampire in captivity. According to the fliers, she is a gorgeous, stunning beauty. In the course of the performance, she will stalk volunteers from the audience, sink her teeth into their necks and drink their blood!

For three local teenagers who see the fliers, this is a show they don’t want to miss.

But they may have to.

Though they can probably scrape up the price of admission, other obstacles stand in the way. One problem, nobody under 18 years of age is allowed into the show. Dwight, Rusty, and Slim are only 16. Another problem, the show begins at midnight and the three teens always have to be home by then. If that weren’t bad enough, the show is to take place at Janks Field—a desolate patch of ground with a nasty history—that…

The Indifference of Heaven

Gary A. Braunbeck

• 2000 Stoker–Novel nominee
• Score: 6.5

 

Silent Children

Ramsey Campbell

• 2000 IHG–Novel nominee
• 2000 Stoker–Novel nominee
• Score: 12.5

Once upon a time there was a man who loved children. He loved them so much he tried to save them from their imperfect parents. Unfortunately, Hector Woollie didn’t work for Child Protective Services . . . and the children he rescued, he murdered.

Once upon a time, Leslie had a happy marriage, a happy son, and a happy life. Now divorced, she is trapped in ongoing battles with her ex-husband, Roger, especially over their newly-adolescent son, Ian.

When Ian and his young stepsister disappear, Roger insists the boy kidnapped the girl, while Leslie thinks Ian might have run away. She prays that her son is near and will come home soon.

Ian is near-right next door, just on the other side of a shared wall. Ian can hear his parents fighting and his mother’s desperate weeping, but he can’t call for help. Hector Woollie has him and his stepsister, and if either child makes a peep, the madman will slit both their throats.

The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club

Brian A. Hopkins

• 2000 Stoker–1st Novel winner
• 2000 Stoker–Novel nominee
• Score: 16.5

The Licking Valley Coon Hunters Club is a science-fiction, action-adventure, mystery-P.I.-suspense, humorous horror novel. Yep, it really is. You have to read it to believe it.

Those of you who haven’t read any of Hopkins’ Zolotow tales, you have quite a treat in store. Those of you who are familiar with this intrepid P.I. won’t be disappointed—this is perhaps the best one to date.

The Deceased

Tom Piccirilli

• 2000 Stoker–Novel nominee
• Score: 6.5

Something is calling Jacob Maelstrom back to the isolated home of his childhood—to the scene of a living nightmare that almost cost him his life. Ten years ago his sister slaughtered their brother and parents, locked Jacob in a closet . . . then committed a hideous suicide. Now, as the anniversary of that dark night approaches, Jacob is drawn back to a house where the line between the living and the dead is constantly shifting. But there’s more than awful memories waiting for Jacob at the Maelstrom mansion. There are depraved secrets, evil legacies, and family ghosts that are all too real. There’s the long-dead writer, whose mad fantasies continue to shape reality. And in the woods there are nameless creatures who patiently await the return of their creator.