The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative. The books themselves are gorgeous, with foiled covers, printed edges and published only in hardcover editions, offering a lifetime of reading pleasure.

Introduction excerpt by Marie O’Regan and Paul Kane:

“Who doesn’t love a bit of revenge? The chance to see someone who’s wronged you get their just desserts. And, as everyone knows, that revenge is always Best Served Cold! But as another famous saying goes, especially in crime fiction circles, before setting out on that path you should dig two graves. Sometimes they’re metaphorical, other times they’re really not… The revenge story is as old as time itself. From Medea taking her revenge on Jason by murdering their children and his new bride in Greek mythology, and the ancient Chinese mythical tale of the Jingwei bird, to the many examples throughout The Bible. From Shakespeare’s Hamlet – which sees revenge being wrestled with over the course of weeks and months – to Dumas’ The Count of Monte Cristo and Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë, where both passion and long-term revenge are crucial themes… That most basic of human urges has always made for a cracking tale! But it is within the crime fiction genre that it comes into its own, with so many great examples…” 

Ghosted by Guy Morpuss

Killing Jack by William Hussey

The Promise by Helen Fields

Slab City by Iris Yamashita

The Wedding of the Season by Jo Jakeman

The Chaos We Keep in Our Lungs by Ronnie Turner

Hold the Mushrooms by Joanie Brittingham

The Lamia by John Connolly

How to Buy a Happy Ending by Terry Edge

Rabbits and Doves by Roxanne Kalinda

Age of Reason by Susi Holliday

The Girl Who Vanished by Amanda Brittany

The Final Edit by Ikechukwu Henry

Collision by Helen Cooper

Men Who Don't Exist by Marcus Field

The Unwanted Legs by Roz Watkins

A Marriage of Inconvenience by David Mark

Hunted by Victoria Selman

Paul Kane and Marie O’Regan are the award-winning authors and editors of many books. Together they have co-edited anthologies such as The British Fantasy Society: A Celebration, A Carnivàle of Horror: Dark Tales from the Fairground, Hellbound Hearts, The Mammoth Book of Body Horror, Exit Wounds, Wonderland (a Shirley Jackson Award finalist), Cursed, Twice Cursed and The Other Side of Never. Their previous edited anthologies published by Flame Tree are Folk Horror and Witchcraft. They have also been involved in organizing conventions for twenty years, co-chairing ChillerCon in Scarborough in May 2022. Find out more at their sites shadow-writer.co.uk and marieoregan.net.