Coffin Nails

Jacket art by Keith Minnion

THE FILM-MAKERS who unleash a curse from an ancient abbey . . . The teenager who murders the sister he never had . . . The care-home whose attic harbours a monstrous secret . . . A schoolbook of poetry that means death for its readers . . . The witch's familiar unleashed by church organ music . . .

Welcome to the sinister, scary, and sometimes outrageous world of John Llewellyn Probert. A place filled with troubled schoolchildren, overbearing theatre producers, brilliant surgeons, and nervous billionaires. Where a walk in the country can lead to a mansion filled with beautiful women, or a trap from which you can never escape. Where a picture on the wall of a primary school classroom can come to life with appalling consequences, and a rugby match can be the scene for a burned witch's revenge. Meet the parents who think they know what is best for their son—until he returns from the grave to show them otherwise. Learn about the girl who found solace in a burial chamber near Prague; and discover the real reason why West-End musicals succeed or fail.

Ash-Tree Press is proud to present award-winning author John Llewellyn Probert's Coffin Nails—eighteen tales designed to make you gasp with horror and shudder with delight: a volume so gripping that, as you read it, you may well fail to notice the twisted, taloned creature that escaped when you opened the book creeping up behind you to do its dreadful work. Once you've satisfied yourself that there is nothing there, please feel free to read the rest of the book. But remember—we never said that it was visible.

CONTENTS

• Introduction
• The Moving Image
• Nefarious Assortment
• Of Music and Mayhem
• The Brook
• The Ossuary
• Final Act
• Between the Pipes
• The Sacrifices We Make
• The Measure of a Man
• Keeping It In the Family
• Taking Over
• Don't Look Back
• Maleficarum
• NewLands
• Guided Tour
• A Matter of Urgency
• The Topiary Patch
• An Absence of Malice
• Afterword and Story Notes

Limited to 400 copies