Dustjacket art by Phil Parks

Endsheet, autograph pages, and lettered frontis art by Glenn Chadbourne

Richard Chizmar and William Schafer invite you to a private showing at the Subterranean Gallery... a gallery like no other. For no paintings hang on the walls here, and no statues loom in the dimly lit corridors. The Subterranean Gallery is dedicated to the darkest of arts and the darkest of artists -- the word and the wordsmith.

This is a venue where the only canvas necessary is the imagination, and the artists' creations are works of whispers and screams, blood and shadows. Be forewarned -- there are no restrictions in theme, no all-too-familiar concentration on a single style or school. The works on display range from the disciplined to the unrestrained, from horror and crime to variations and explorations that cannot be -- and should not be -- so easily classified.

Witness Jack Ketchum's "Megan's Law," a tale whose bold brushstrokes slash switchblade quick through a suburban setting that could be your neighborhood, or mine... Deconstruct George Clayton Johnson's neoclassical reinterpretation of an ancient mythos in "The Monstering Kind," in which two boys search for the mysteries of life, death, and the supernatural... Admire the extraordinary vision of William Browning Spencer in "Your Faithful Servant," a portraiture of the clef d'or profession that is as precise in style as Earl Grey at four and as bizarre in execution as the Mad Hatter's Tea Party... Contemplate the studied quietude of Terry Lamsley's "The Stunted House," a sunny seascape where all is not so innocently picturesque as it appears... Unravel the rich red tapestry of two generations of music and murder in Tia V. Travis's "The Kiss," a tale of grief and revenge set to a mambo beat.

Now it's time to turn the page, and begin your exploration of the Subterranean Gallery. Twenty works of imagination and wonder await within. Keep your eyes on the shadows... listen to the voices that await you in the dark... and linger...

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