The Darkling Halls of Ivy

Dust jacket illustration by Ken Laager

In recent years, colleges and universities have become known for their “trigger warnings” and “safe spaces”—but as the 18 authors who penned stories for this powerful new anthology can tell you, there’s plenty of danger still lurking behind the stolid stonework, leather-bound volumes, and thickets of ivy. 

Award-winning editor Lawrence Block has assembled a Who’s Who of literary luminaries and turned them loose on the world of academia, where petty rivalries and grand betrayals inflame relations between professors and students, deans and donors. From Ian Rankin to Joe Lansdale, Seanan McGuire to David Morrell, each author reveals the dark truths and buried secrets that make institutions of higher learning such a hotbed of controversy. 

You’ll encounter plagiarism, sexual misconduct, and brutal competition—not to mention secret societies, cover-ups of murder, and one near-future course of study that makes The Handmaid’s Tale look like Mother Goose. So: collect your supplies, plan your schedule, and prepare to pull an all-nighter, because The Darkling Halls of Ivy is required reading.

Limited: 500 numbered copies signed by the editor

From Publishers Weekly (Starred Review):

“Set in and around colleges and universities, the 17 new stories and one reprint in this top-notch anthology explore the forbidding side of academia. Among the standouts are David Morrell’s devious ‘Requiem for a Homecoming,’ in which two alumni cast suspicion on each other while debating a 20-year-old murder… Creepy oddities include Owen King’s tale of heroism, ‘That Golden Way,’ A.J. Hartley’s supernatural ‘Rounded with a Sleep,’ and Jane Hamilton’s superlative ‘Writing Maeve Dubinsky,’ about the appropriation of another person’s work.”

From Booklist (Starred Review):

“David Morrell's ‘Requiem for a Homecoming’ uses a conversation between two alums about the fatal stabbing of a female student 20 years before to set up a wallop of a reveal. Other highlights include Reed Farrel Coleman's ‘An Even Three,’ which stars a bitter and possibly homicidal professor, and Ian Rankin’s ‘The Reasoners,’ which showcases an eerie secret society.”

Table of Contents:

• Foreword: Something to Skip — Lawrence Block
• Requiem for a Homecoming — David Morrell
• An Even Three — Reed Farrel Coleman
• Writing Maeve Dubinsky — Jane Hamilton
• Alt-AC — Warren Moore
• Einstein’s Sabbath — David Levien
• The Degree — Joe R. Lansdale
• Rounded with a Sleep — A. J. Hartley
• The Reasoners — Ian Rankin
• Noise Cancellation — Tom Straw
• Monkey in Residence — Xu Xi
• Bertie and the Boat Race — Peter Lovesey
• That Golden Way — Owen King
• With Footnotes and References — Gar Anthony Haywood
• Penelope McCoy — Nicholas Christopher
• Tess and Julie, Jule and Tess — Jill D. Block
• Why She Didn’t Tell — John Lescroart
• Foundational Education — Seanan McGuire
• Goon #4 — Tod Goldberg