Blue World

A World Fantasy Award Finalist: Masterful and macabre short fiction from the New York Times–bestselling author of Swan Song.

Father John has lived his whole life without knowing a woman's touch. Hard at first, his self-denial grew easier over time, as he learned to master his urges with a regimen of prayer, cold showers, and jigsaw puzzles. That changed the day that Debra Rocks entered his confessional. A rough-talking adult film actress, she has come to ask him to pray for a murdered costar. Her cinnamon perfume infects Father John, and after she departs he becomes obsessed. Around the corner from his church is a neon-lit alley of sin. He goes there hoping to save her life before he damns himself.That is “Blue World,” the novella that anchors this collection of thirteen chilling stories by World Fantasy and Bram Stoker award–winning author Robert R. McCammon. Although monsters, demons, and murderers fill these pages, in McCammon's world the most terrifying landscape of all is the barren wasteland of a lost man's soul.

“No one can paint word pictures as vividly as Robert McCammon.” —Sandra Brown

“McCammon is a blistering writer.” —Ocala Star-Banner