What Mark says about the book: 'Close to Midnight is my third anthology for Flame Tree Press, and one thing that never fails to escape me whenever I’m editing an anthology is what an incredibly privileged position I’m in. Not only are some of the top names in the horror genre willing to send me their stories, but often I’m the first person besides themselves, and perhaps one or two members of their immediate family, to read words and ideas freshly minted from their amazing brains. Most of these stories were written during the pandemic, and although these annual anthologies are non-themed, one thing that struck me this year was how many of them deal with the subject of loss. Loss can take many forms, and the most obvious example of all, loss of life, is often used as a catalyst in fiction, and more so in horror and crime fiction. But within these pages we also have stories that deal with a loss of control, the loss of sanity, the loss of identity and the loss of reason, and as ever, these particular themes are explored in a myriad of inventive, startling and unexpected ways. The twenty tales in this book are, by turns, scary, funny, numinous, heart-breaking, disturbing and redemptive. There really is something for everyone here.'

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