Haunted houses, mysterious Counts, weeping widows and restless souls, here is the definitive anthology of all that goes bump in the night. Hand-picked by award-winning author Louise Welsh, this beautiful collection of 100 ghost stories will delight, unnerve, and entertain any fiction lover brave enough...Here are gothic classics, modern masters, Booker Prize-winners, ancient folk tales and stylish noirs, proving that every writer has a skeleton or two in their closet.The all-star cast of authors inlude: Hilary Mantel, William Faulkner, Kate Atkinson, Henry James, Kazuo Ishiguro, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Franz Kafka, Ruth Rendell, Edgar Allan Poe, William Trevor, Helen Simpson, Haruki Murakami, Dylan Thomas, Bram Stoker, H.P Lovecraft, Lydia Davis, Sir Walter Scott, Annie Proulx, Chinua Achebe, Angela Carter and Stephen King.

The Cutting Room heralds the arrival of an outstanding, contemporary Glasgow novel. Its charismatic protagonist, Rilke, is eccentric, witty and frequently outrageous. An auctioneer by profession, he is an acknowledged expert in antiques but also considers himself something of an expert in many other fields. When Rilke comes upon a hidden collection of graphically violent erotic photographs, he feels compelled to unearth more about the deceased owner who coveted them. What follows is a compulsive journey of discovery, decadence and deviousness, steered in part by Rilke's gay promiscuity and inquisitive nature. Louise Welsh's writing is stylish and captivating; she combines aspects of a detective story with shades of the gothic in a colourful Glasgow ranging from the genteel suburbs to a transvestite club, auction house to the bookies, pub and porn shop. The result is a page-turning and deliciously original debut. The Cutting Room has won the Crime Writers Association award for....

London, 1593. A city on edge. Under threat from plague and war, strangers are unwelcome, suspicion is wholesale, severed heads grin from the spikes on Tower Bridge. Playwright, poet and spy, Christopher Marlowe walks the city's mean streets with just three days to find the murderous Tamburlaine, a killer escaped from the pages of his most violent play. Tamburlaine Must Die is the searing adventure of a man who dares to defy both God and the state and whose murder remains a taunting mystery to the present day."Brilliant... as a thriller, her book is utterly engrossing... Elizabethan England has never seemed more beguilingly immediate... It would be hard to better the physical descriptions with which the book is laced; brawny milkmaids; stinking fishwives; the sails of the windmills on Highgate Hill; alehouses packed with humpbacked fiddlers and blowzy whores drinking Spanish wine. Every vignette, every minor character, every sight, sound and smell, has the ring of truth." Julla Flynn, Sunday Telegraph; "A tale of vivid homoerotic passion, murderous treachery and strutting intellectual pride." Financial Times; "Tamburlaine Must Die refines Welsh's powerful vision of death in a godless world... This bold, imaginative, vibrant novella resonates on several levels. Its claustrophobic airs of menace and betrayal are those of a thriller. It works as historical fiction and captures the Tudor setting by virtue of Welsh's extraordinary prose." David Isaacson, Daily Telegraph; "The sort of narrative that you can smell on your hands after turning the pages, with proper attention paid to the pleasures and perils of illicit sex and the importance of seeing and savouring all that's on offer before the lights go out for good." Philip Oakes, Literary Review; "A page-turner to the very end." Ron Butlin, Sunday Herald"

As heard on BBC Radio 4 Book at Bedtime It doesn't look like murder in a city full of death. A pandemic called 'The Sweats' is sweeping the globe. London is a city in crisis. Hospitals begin to fill with the dead and dying, but Stevie Flint is convinced that the sudden death of her boyfriend Dr Simon Sharkey was not from natural causes. As roads out of London become gridlocked with people fleeing infection, Stevie's search for Simon's killers takes her in the opposite direction, into the depths of the dying city and a race with death. A Lovely Way to Burn is the first outbreak in the Plague Times trilogy. Chilling, tense and completely compelling, it's Louise Welsh writing at the height of her powers.ReviewI was with Louise Welsh's gutsy gripping heroine Stevie Flint every terrifying step of the way Kirsty Wark, author of The Legacy of Elizabeth Pringle I read it in two sittings, pausing only to sleep and dream about it. Gripping, perfectly paced and beautifully written Erin Kelly, author of The Poison Tree A terrifying journey into the possible, this is dystopia for today. Feral, frightening and fascinating, A Lovely Way to Burn gripped and chilled me in equal measure Val McDermid The first in a trilogy, and it should be huge Bookseller I've felt for a while that we are in the mood for an intelligent slice of London-based dystopia, and I think Louise Welsh has cracked it with A Lovely Way to Burn ... it kept me up all night nervously turning the pages Cathy Rentzenbrink, Bookseller Welsh constructs an intelligent mystery within the pages of A Lovely Way to Burn ... It's close enough to what we know to be utterly terrifying and that was part of its hold on me. Welsh has taken our everyday lives, given them a twist, and put them in the background of an intriguing, addictive novel Girlreporter The book isn't out until the 20th March but a mixture of Welsh's writing style and the subject matter made it impossible to resist Crimepieces This is can't put down good Candis You know you're in for a seriously chilling read in this apocalyptic thriller when three very unlikely killers - an MP, a hedge fund manager and a vicar - go on a murderous rampage in the sweltering capital Marie Claire Louise Welsh writes elegantly and has visualised London in extremis with immense and detailed clarity. It is all very exciting, and there are two more volumes to come Literary Review Welsh skilfully presents London, initially as it is now, but rapidly descending into a plague-gripped dystopia ... I appreciate a book that affects me ... the relentlessly taut suspense of A Lovely Way to Burn still lingers on my psyche. Such an apocalyptic crisis does not seem improbable and here's hoping freakishly foul weather and tube trikes are not an omen of things to come Stylist A taut thriller so involving that I missed my bus stop! Woman & Home This is a novel rich in the kind of iridescent word painting that has long been Welsh's speciality, and the vulnerable, often maladroit Stevie is a wonderful protagonist ... readers will be impatient for the second in the trilogy Independent The London of the novel at once recalls sci-fi dystopia, Dante's Inferno and accounts of the 1665 great plague ... Welsh's plot is ably handled ... She has in Stevie ... an engaging, stroppy heroine for the trilogy this novel launches Sunday Times The writer [Louise Welsh] reminds me of most is Ian McEwan: both specialise in secrets, rather chilly sexuality, sudden reversals of fortune, and uneasy intimations of doom ... A Lovely Way to Burn is superb popular fiction - a box-set waiting to happen. Roll on part two Independent on Sunday There are no daughters, no sisters, no mothers in this darkening world; as the city turns to chaos, men roam the streets and women become invisible. This comment on what catastrophe may actually do to society makes Welsh's take on the dystopia less conservative and Wells-like, recalling instead writers such as Doris Lessing or Margaret Atwood. The pace and thriller-style of the narrative pitch her tale towards the commercial end of the market but her lone female in a world dominated by men gives it the subversive edge of a more literary work Scotland on Sunday Welsh weaves thoughtful, emotional themes into a thriller plot - and does it very well ... A Lovely Way to Burn is the first in a promised trilogy, and if Welsh can keep up the quality of writing and create an effective arc, future writers of apocalypse may indeed turn to her to see how it's done Killing Time Crime We've come to expect lots of good things from Welsh, including a brilliant sense of location. She doesn't disappoint with her images of London breaking down. As ever, the writing is fluid, the dynamic taut and through the control of such small telling moments, Welsh deftly breathes life into her characters. Only an accomplished writer knows exactly when to let the reader fill in the gaps. Stevie is a gusty, gripping protagonist, beautifully drawn ... Welsh has taken our everyday lives, given them a twist, and no supernatural manifestation of our darkest hours is any match for what real human beings can do to each other when mankind loses its humanity. This is just first part of a trilogy. Scary, shocking and touching by turns, this apocalyptic thriller will enthral. I haven't been so buried in a book in a while Irish Independent The descriptions of London and society unravelling into chaos are utterly compelling and scarily realistic ... Great if you like tense thrillers - and as it's the first in a series called The Plague Times Trilogy, it bodes well for the next two Heat If you're looking for a novel that communicates thrills and paranoia to the extent that you forget anywhere else you're meant to be until you finish, look no further. I should add a caveat thought: you'll never again listen to a news item about a drug resistant 'super bug' without shivering, and that's even before Book 2 hits the bookshops. So, are you feeling brave? Bookbag Gripping new dystopian thriller ... Welsh has already proven her prowess as a controlling mistress of creepily suspenseful fiction with acclaimed chillers such as The Cutting Room and The Girl on the Stairs. This is an ambitious departure, being the first in a proposed Plague Times trilogy. It succeeds on several counts. It is a propulsive read, written in lean sentences and snappy cliffhanging chapters ... Most impressive of all is the Scottish writer's evocation of a London that, with a Dickensian swagger, emerges as a pulsating untameable beast in its own right Metro A chilling chronicle of an unravelling society and a true testament to an author at the height of her powers. Next instalments can't come soon enough Upcoming4me A brilliantly imaginative thriller with a compelling heroine and well-paced plot that keeps the tension high Hello A Lovely Way To Burn once more proves that there are few writers who can unsettle as Louise Welsh does Scotswhayhae This is the first in a trilogy from the award-winning short-story and thriller writer; a scary vision of London falling apart that's addictively readable Saga Chilling Heat[A] pacy murder mystery ... [Louise Welsh's] plague is plausible and chilling. In a city of desperate people, even the most benign places become fraught with danger, and every step of Stevie's amateur investigation is palpably tense List [Louise] Welsh develops a fantastically written mystery which keeps you hanging on to every word. She creates excelling imagery of the struggle Stevie faces ... A must read, which will leave you dreaming - or having nightmares - of apocalyptic London for weeks Irish Examiner A thrillingly dystopian mystery ... It's a fine setup, and Stevie is a strong character, a forthright blend of sales sass and reporter brass. Welsh is particularly good at describing the institutional and social disorder that accompanies the outbreak of the sweats Guardian Suspenseful and intelligent dystopian fiction. Welsh writes snappily and with filmic precision ... Her setting, vivid and initially familiar, grows increasingly alien as the crisis worsens. Welsh knows exactly how to build tension and momentum as her lone hero presses on with her quest. She also knows how to create a memorably sinister world in which nothing and no one is solid, and the shreds of comfort that remain are intangible or inanimate Sunday Business Post Louise Welsh delivers an absolute cracker of a crime thriller set against the backdrop of a country in the grip of a frightening plague ... Welsh's picture of a rapidly-disintegrating society stands comparison of some of the best in this field, including John Wyndham's timeless classic, The Day of the Triffids, and the fact that A Lovely Way to Burn is the first in a trilogy set in the Plague Times is, for me and other disaster fans, very good news indeed crimereview.co.uk Louise Welsh rarely repeats herself, a quality to celebrate in a crime novelist. A Lovely Way to Burn is a dystopian thriller set in an all-too-plausible version of contemporary London. Welsh puts her own distinctive mark on it ... this intelligent thriller creates an alarmingly convincing picture of London on the brink of disintegration; it reminds us how fragile we are Andrew Taylor, The Spectator Welsh plays brilliantly on our worst fears, and the pace never lets up. Seriously scary The Times About the AuthorLouise Welsh is the author of five highly acclaimed novels including The Cutting Room and, most recently, The Girl on the Stairs. She has been the recipient of several awards. A Lovely Way to Burn is the first novel in the Plague Times trilogy. Visit Louise's website for more information: www.louisewelsh.com

Knee-deep in the mud of an ancient burial ground, a winter storm raging around him, and at least one person intent on his death: how did Murray Watson end up here?His quiet life researching the lives of writers in university libraries seems a world apart, and yet it is because of the mysterious poet Archie Lunan, dead for thirty years, that Murray now finds himself scrabbling in the dirt on the remote island of Lismore.Loaded with Welsh's trademark wit, insight and gothic charisma, this adventure novel weaves the lives of Murray and Archie together in a tale of literature, obsession and dark magic.'What sticks in the memory are the moments of flashing wit and brilliant prose that illuminate the darkness and light the way. Naming the Bones is that good.' Sydney Morning Herald