The Shaft

A low-level drug runner named Cruz finds himself exiled from sunny Miami to frigid Chicago. He holes up in a decrepit rooming-house, the Kenilworth Arms, in the dead of winter. There he meets Jonathan, a yuppie struggling to get over a failed romance, and Jamaica, a prostitute on the payroll of the drug kingpin Bauhaus. When Cruz and Jamaica are forced to drop two kilos of cocaine down a ventilation shaft in the rooming-house to escape a police raid, strange things begin to happen... 

David J. Schow’s The Shaft features a unique mingling of supernatural horror with the very real dangers involved in drug-running, creating a uniquely compelling atmosphere. Amid the inexplicable terrors of a building that seems weirdly animate and of some loathsome monstrosity lurking in the bottom of the ventilation shaft, the pursuit of Cruz, Jonathan, and Jamaica by Bauhaus and his minions seems by turns insignificant and chillingly immediate. 

This edition features a new introduction by F. Paul Wilson, new artwork by David Ho, a new afterword by Schow, and the original short story, as well as images of old editions of the book. 

This edition is limited to just 300 copies, each signed by Schow, F. Paul Wilson, and David Ho. Long unavailable, and regarding as one of the finest horror novels ever written, this definitive edition, beautifully illustrated with a gorgeous dustjacket, printed endpapers, and a printed sleeve to hold the book, promises to be an instant classic.

Edition specification

• The author’s preferred text.
• Limited to 300 copies, each signed by artist David Ho, F. Paul Wilson, and David J. Schow.
• New introduction by F. Paul Wilson.
• New afterword by David J. Schow.
• The complete original short story, on which the novel is based.
• Double-page spread interior illustrations.
• Striking full-color, wraparound dustjacket printed on Mohawk Carnival stock.
• Four color sleeve.
• Two-color printed endpapers.
• Full cloth cover with image inset on front board.
• Ribbon marker, head and tail bands, full Dutch cloth binding.
• signed edition sold out at the publisher