World of Hurt gathers together for the first time twenty eight short stories and novellas by the award-winning, critically acclaimed author of horror and suspense, Thomas Tessier. By turns disturbing, mysterious, harrowing and horrifying, these tales illuminate the darkness swirling on the edge of what is real and what is not -- in both the world around us and in the lives of people caught up in it. Thomas Tessier's novels and stories have defied and pushed beyond genre expectations and norms, and World of Hurt is a milestone collection of his work. Stories included in this collection: In the Desert of Deserts The Vacant Lot Evelyn Grace The Banshee Blanca A Grub Street Tale Ghost Music La Mourante The Infestation at Ralls Infidel The Woman in the Club Car Curing Hitler The Green Menace In Praise of Folly The Ventriloquist Torching the Escalade Food Nocturne Club Saudade For No One Lulu If You See Me, Say Hello In the Sand Hills 10-31-2001 I Remember Me The Dreams of Dr. Ladybank Scramburg, USA Father Panic’s Opera Macabre

Bram Stoker Best Novel Award Finalist and International Horror Guild Best Novel Award Winner Two couples, both skeptical and desperate, are drawn together by a medium named Oona, a fragile, beautiful young woman who knows things that no other living person should know. Is her gift real, or is it the sign of a consuming madness? Can she lead them all to important truths, or will they be trapped in the tightening web of terror and death?

A businessman returns for his father's funeral and fixes upon an old high school friend with a perverted and obsessive love. No matter that Georgianne is happily married and has not thought of him in years. Jeff must have her--no matter what the cost.

Ned was only a kid, but he knew. There were forces that stalked the night. Like that night in Washington when his mother almost died and he heard them. In the house, at the dead of night he heard them. Then they moved to the tiny seacoast town of Lynnington, he still knew, even there, something was coming after him. In the end, Ned must face the terror alone. He must seek out the phantoms on their own ground and fight them for his very soul. Through a long night of cataclysmic battle… It's him up against them…

Bobby had almost convinced himself his lover's death was an accident. It wasn't his fault. Once the uncontrollable tingling began in his hands, he could only watch in horror as they killed her. But then he saw the jogger. As his eyes followed the man, he felt that same eerie power flowing into his arms and legs, and he found himself running with inhuman animal grace to overtake the runner. When the race turned into a chase, a reign of terror began. Night after night the beast will silently stalk the city streets, its bloody jaws and tearing claws leaving only death in its wake.

Money may be the root of all evil… but in the respectable community of Clearville there is a greater evil abroad. The first incident is a suicide: a young wife who cannot have children. The second is more bizarre—a God-fearing father butchers his family before turning a gun on himself. And then a well-respected accountant simply disappears. But dark secrets abound in this prosperous town, for behind the shuttered windows of the middle-class homes lies a network of depravity and vice. While babysitting for her neighbors' child, seventeen-year old Heidi stumbles across photographs from illicit sex sessions. Instead of going to the police, Heidi and her boyfriend Gary decide to exploit the crime for avaricious purposes, unaware of the magnitude of the horror and tragedy that will result from their blackmail. As they become greedier, suspicion and fear—like poison—corrode the heart of Clearville, and violence and retribution inevitably follow. Very soon, Heidi and Gary are trapped in a situation which is hurtling crazily out of control—the blackmailers are now the hunted, and family and old friends are no longer what they seem to be. Suddenly the people they grew up with, and knew all their lives, have become secret strangers…

The first sign was the disgustingly mutilated carcass of a cow. The second, an old man torn to pieces. The third, the eerily beautiful blue fires that hovered over the small town… Stark white faces, diabolical eyes—raging within the unearthly flames—were turned toward the innocent town. And now it moved—toward the children walking home from school. Toward the young priest who wondered if this hideous power came from heaven…or from hell. Toward the laughing housewife who called it a visitor from space…until her screams branded it a deadly terror from the unknown. Toward the news reporter out to get a story…who found instead a bloody swath of horror.

Beware the Blade… Jackie is lost. A college student stuck in a loveless marriage, she feels she cannot escape the monotony of her life. Then along comes Brooks, a mysterious but successful lawyer with political ambitions. He’s passionate, a true lover. But someone else has come to town. Brooks, Jackie discovers, is tracking a serial killer known as The Blade, whose victims are exclusively teenage girls. The killer is on a rampage, pursuing several women. Soon, many turn up dead – brutally murdered by the Blade. As he goes on however, he begins to get carried away with the killings and makes mistakes. Soon, the situation rises above boiling point. As Jackie has a confusing encounter with the man who appears to be the murderer, she is forced to decide: With the intensity of both the murders and her relationship hotting up, will she be able to keep her head? Will she be able to control herself? Or will the Blade add Jackie’s name to his list?

The small town of Winship seems so perfect … on the surface. But as investigator Jack Carlson is finding out, appearances can be deceiving. He's looking into a rash of mysterious deaths in the town, but the more he pokes behind the picture-postcard facade, the more frightened he becomes. How could someone disappear in an open meadow, as if swallowed by the earth? Why does the ground seem to glow in spots? Why is no one able to stop the gangs of young thugs who roam the streets at will? Local residents are afraid to answer his questions—with good cause. They know that Winship's tranquil exterior hides some truly … WICKED THINGS.

While on an extended holiday in London, Dr. Tom Sutherland has a torrid affair with Lina, a mysterious surgeon's assistant, who leads him into a dark world of dangerous desire where all of his fantasies soon become terrifying nightmares when he comes face-to-face with evil.