A NOVELLA by Helen Grant
CATEGORY  Dark Speculative Fiction
PUBLICATION DATE  June 2026
COVER ART  John Coulthart
PAGES  101

EDITION
Signed Hardcover, limited to 200 numbered copies signed by the author — ISBN 978-1-80394-575-0  [£20]

ABOUT THE BOOK

"Transplants the atmosphere of a Grimm fairy tale to a small town in Scotland, simultaneously evoking the antiquarian terrors of M. R. James and the golden era of dark fantasy."

—Maria J Pérez Cuervo, founder/editor of HELLEBORE.

“Helen Grant takes us on a chilling journey into the darkest of fairy tale origins against the backdrop of a modern-day Scottish village. The finely-drawn portraits of the locals and the mounting unease kept me turning pages—I finished it in a single sitting!”

—Lynda E. Rucker (Now It’s Dark, You’ll Know When You Get There)

Rowan Byrne hasn’t stolen anything for ages—not since she started to straighten her life out after a personal tragedy. But the volume she’s just picked up in the new bookshop in town seems to want her to steal it. The text is very persuasive. There’s a book for everyone in Legends—a book that will encourage their worst impulses. Steal. Fear. Burn. Kill. It’s not long before Rowan’s small town, isolated from the outside world, is descending into mayhem. Assailed by her own demons, Rowan could try to cut and run. Or she could make a stand, and try to save the community she loves . . .

AUTHOR BIO

Helen Grant writes Gothic novels, the latest of which is Jump Cut (2023), and short supernatural fiction. Her new short story collection Atmospheric Disturbances was published late in 2024 by Dublin’s Swan River Press. Joyce Carol Oates has described her as ‘a brilliant chronicler of the uncanny as only those who dwell in places of dripping, graylit beauty can be.’ Helen lives in Perthshire, Scotland, and when not writing she likes to explore abandoned country houses and swim in freezing lochs.