The Number 121 to Pennsylvania & Others

The acclaimed collection THE NUMBER 121 TO PENNSYLVANIA & OTHERS, almost 100,000 words of short fiction by the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of THE TURTLE BOY.The lonesome sound of a long forgotten train draws an old man to memories of a horrific past... A journalist makes the mistake of visiting a website where real-life executions are the order of the day... At the foot of an old tree, an insidious evil awaits two boys digging for treasure... A browbeaten salesman finds hope and a possible escape from the banality of his world when he returns home to find a fairytale beanstalk sprouting from his garden... A man resists the social pressure to quit smoking and puts himself at an unimaginable risk... A high school student accepts a dare to ask out the ugliest girl in school and enters a world of pain and violence... A comedian finds himself faced with a most peculiar and deadly audience...The pariah of a village accepts an offer of peace at his mother's funeral, but the olive branch may have hidden thorns...A bunch of barflies doomed to murder sinners get together for one last drink in a dying town...These are just some of the passengers, headed for a ride through the dark uncharted regions of the heart and mind...on The Number 121 to Pennsylvania.Includes such reader favorites as Empathy, Mr. Goodnight, Underneath, The Grief Frequency and Peekers.In 14 dark fantasies collected here, Burke creates characters whose angst opens them up to uncanny incidents and ghostly encounters that seem an extension of their own spiritual malaise... Burke shows skill at imagining expressive supernatural experiences appropriate for his well-developed characters and their agitated emotions. - PUBLISHERS WEEKLYDon't read it late at night. - BOOKLISTEach tale grabs you within the first few sentences and never lets go, resulting in a collection guaranteed to take you on one of the scariest rides of your life. - RUE MORGUE