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3.5 

Dead Leaves

By Kealan Patrick Burke
Dead Leaves by Kealan Patrick Burke digital book - Fable

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Publisher Description

Strange text messages portend a strange kind of apocalypse...Two brothers find themselves drawn to the only house in the neighborhood not decorated for Halloween…A man returns to his hometown to bury his overbearing mother, and finds more than memories awaiting him in the shadows of his childhood home…A young girl walks a lonely country road, recalling a rhyme that brings with it memories of death…A teenager hoping for romance gets more than he bargained for when the object of his desire introduces him to the object of hers…An aging millionaire awakes buried in a cheap coffin with only a lamp and a bell for company…The son of a woman accused of being a witch accepts the villagers' peace offering at her funeral, but all is not quite as it seems…A woman with a violent past realizes that this year's Halloween party may be coming for her…and a lonely trick-or-treater awakes in a house rumored to be a place of death.

From Bram Stoker Award-winning author Kealan Patrick Burke comes the second in his series of seasonal collections.

Featuring a brand new story "The Toll", a new introduction, and rounded out by the author's recommended Halloween reading and watching lists, DEAD LEAVES makes for the perfect autumnal read.

216 Reviews

3.5
“After reading Dead of Winter and absolutely loving it, I knew I had to pick up Kealan Patrick Burke’s Halloween collection and it did not disappoint! This anthology is packed with spooky stories centered around the Halloween season, and it’s such a fun (and chilling) read. Kealan is an incredible horror writer. His way with words, descriptions, and atmosphere is unmatched, and his stories are always more than just quick scares. They delve into themes like despair, grief, loneliness, and longing, giving them so much depth and emotion. Some of my favorite stories in this collection were "Someone to Carve the Pumpkins," "How the Night Receives Them," "The Tradition," and "The One Night of the Year." Each one was haunting, beautifully written, and so memorable. I also really enjoyed "The Toll," which had a fun, humorous twist. There was one story I didn’t fully connect with, but honestly, the rest of the collection more than made up for it. Kealan Patrick Burke is a master of horror, and I’ll happily read anything he writes. If you love spooky, atmospheric tales with real heart, Dead Leaves is a must-read!”

About Kealan Patrick Burke

Born and raised in a small harbor town in the south of Ireland, Kealan Patrick Burke knew from a very early age that he was going to be a horror writer. The combination of an ancient locale, a horror-loving mother, and a family full of storytellers, made it inevitable that he would end up telling stories for a living. Since those formative years, he has written five novels, over a hundred short stories, six collections, and edited four acclaimed anthologies. In 2004, he was honored with the Bram Stoker Award for his novella The Turtle Boy.

Kealan has worked as a waiter, a drama teacher, a mapmaker, a security guard, an assembly-line worker at Apple Computers, a salesman (for a day), a bartender, landscape gardener, vocalist in a grunge band, curriculum content editor, fiction editor at Gothic.net, and, most recently, a fraud investigator.

When not writing, Kealan designs book covers  through his company Elderlemon Design.

A movie based on his short story "Peekers" is currently in development as a major motion picture.

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