Dust jacket and interior illustrations by Dirk Berger.

Published by SST Publications.

“…Fans of the Twilight Zone or creepy tales will find this collection pleasurable to read.”
—Publishers Weekly

Terror is Our Business gathers together all of Dana’s and Jana’s previous cases in a single volume, and features an all-new adventure, “The Case of the Ragman’s Anguish,” written exclusively for this collection.

Award-winning author and “Champion Mojo Storyteller” Joe R. Lansdale (Hap & Leonard, Bubba Ho-Tep) and his daughter, author / country singer Kasey Lansdale, have joined forces to bring you a short story collection showcasing the new dynamic duo of supernatural sleuthing, Dana Roberts and her sidekick Jana!

Join Dana and Jana as they investigate—and battle—angry jinns, malevolent shadows, ancient travelers, and soul-sucking shapeshifters. With two tough, resourceful women on the case, the specters from “the other side” won’t know what hit them!

Signed Limited Hardcover Edition:

Limited to only 500 signed and hand-numbered copies
Personally signed by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale on a specially designed full-colour illustrated signature page
Larger 6.14” x 9.21” trim size
Printed on a heavier 100gsm acid-free paper
Bound in premium cloth with coloured head and tail bands
Featuring ten interior illustrations including two printed in full colour on a special silk art stock & tipped into the book
Hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine
Offset printed and bound with full-colour endpapers
Sewn binding for increased durability
Dust jacket artwork and interior illustrations by Dirk Berger

Table of Contents

Introduction: Dana Roberts, Her Kith and Kin by Joe R. Lansdale
The Case of the Lighthouse Shambler by Joe R. Lansdale
The Case of the Stalking Shadow by Joe R. Lansdale
The Case of the Four Acre Haunt by Joe R. Lansdale
The Case of the Angry Traveler by Joe R. Lansdale
Introduction: Jana and Dana by Kasey Lansdale
Blind Love by Kasey Lansdale and Joe R. Lansdale
The Case of the Bleeding Wall by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale
The Case of the Ragman’s Anguish by Joe R. Lansdale and Kasey Lansdale
The Case of the Wailing Ghosts by Joe R. Lansdale & Kasey Lansdale (bonus story)

Introduction by Joe R. Lansdale
(excerpt)

When I was growing up I read all kinds of fiction. I was especially drawn to horror and the fantastic, science fiction, the odd and the weird. One branch of horror and weird fiction I particularly enjoyed was the psychic investigator.

There were a number of investigators I liked. John Silence, for one, created by Algernon Blackwood; Carnaki, the ghost finder, the creation of William Hope Hodgson; and later I discovered Seabury Quinn’s Jules De Grandin adventures. The Night Stalker TV show was cut of the same cloth, and I loved it, especially the pilot that led to the series, scripted by Richard Matheson, based on the work of Jeff Rice. Lord Dunsany’s Jorkins tales also deserve a nod. There were others, of course, but these pop to mind, and are therefore most likely the greater influences.

I also liked non-series stories where someone would go into a bar, or into a club, always a men’s club back then, and they would be sitting around talking, and then someone would tell a story about a weird experience. These stories often had a narrator that framed the story, then let the actual teller of the tale take over, and in the end the narrator would return and wrap it up.

As a writer, I am known primarily in the horror world for things that don’t quite fit into the normal approach to horror, but in the last few years I’ve had the bug to write more “traditional” tales, and I have written a number of them. The Dana Roberts stories are among the more traditional.

The Case of the Lighthouse Shambler
(excerpt)

I guess you could say it’s a kind of an organization, but we think of it as a club, but it’s not just a men’s club. Women come too. Or at least a couple do. And then, of course, there’s Dana Roberts. She was our guest.

The club is simple. We meet once a month to chat and have drinks, eat a little bit of food. Sometimes we invite a guest. We always make an effort to have someone interesting, and not just someone to fill the slot. We’d rather not have a guest than have someone come in and tell us how to dry lumber or make strawberry jam.

Fact is, we vote on who our speaker is. When Dana Roberts came up, I didn’t actually plan to vote for her. I didn’t want a supernatural investigator there, as I find that kind of stuff silly and unbelievable, and mostly just annoying.

Introduction by Kasey Lansdale
(excerpt)

Anyone who has spent any time with me knows that the Jana character is very similar to my personality in real life. I was grateful that Christopher Golden took a chance on a story that was a little offbeat, and in edits once, he said he’d debated about having us kill Jana, though I’m glad he held off, giving us the freedom to see what her next adventure might be.

Dad really wanted me to be involved with the Dana Roberts series specifically, because he felt that this tone of more natural ghost storytelling was closer to the things I was interested in, and enjoyed writing, and I loved that these two women were the strong lead characters, just doing what they do. Nowadays, more and more you get female led stories, movies, songs, etc. But it’s still not even, and the respect level overall is still not the same in many cases for females. It’s better though, there’s no doubt about that.

Blind Love
(excerpt)

I don’t believe in love at first sight. Lust at first sight, maybe, but love? Not so much. That strikes me as a crock, and because of that, I can’t believe I let my friend Erin convince me to go to an Eye Gazing Party with her, a kind of modern day hippie’s answer to Speed Dating.

What you do is you go into a room with all these other sad, dateless men and women, a timer is set, and you sit down at a table and gaze into each other’s eyes for two minutes without speaking. When you’ve done that with everyone in the room, you’re supposed to choose the person you felt a burning eye connection with, go sit with them for a second round, and this time you can talk, having hopefully made a soulful bond by previous eyeball connection.

I, on the other hand, feared the first two minutes might only involve observing distracting mucus and a bulbous, red sty.

The Case of the Wailing Ghosts
(excerpt)

It ran on all fours.

It was fast.

I was proving pretty swift myself.

I ran like the goddamn wind, and it ran faster, and when I reached the end of the long walkway, as I leaped into the big, protective, pentagram Dana had drawn, I felt it touching me as it rose on its hind legs and its shadow fell over me and made me weak. I tumbled into the pentagram just as Dana Roberts raised the shotgun she was holding and fired.

That seems like the heroic moment in a story or film when the terror is vanquished, but I have to tell you, it wasn’t all that heroic.

Let’s back up.