Out now from Broken Eye Books

 
“Mike Allen has long been a force in fantasy and horror. With Trail of Shadows, he’s once again hit it out of the park. Beautiful prose and a haunting story combine to create a tale that will draw you in and refuse to let you go. Folk horror at its best.” —Gwendolyn Kiste

“Trail of Shadows is a panic-laced, spider-paced, fanged beast of a horror novel, a coming-of-age in a world of monsters. Realities bleed into each other like a Dali painting as familiar landscapes yawn open into the surreal. You don’t need psychoactive substances to go tripping balls in Mike Allen’s Appalachia. All you have to do is read this book.”
—C. S. E. Cooney

“Horror fans will find some decidedly creepy scenes.” —Publishers Weekly

Two-time World Fantasy Award finalist Mike Allen spins a tale of spirit creatures, serial killers, and supernatural horrors.

Nathan’s freshman year in college delivers alternative rock, relationship adventures — and a plague of waking nightmares. He flees campus for the Appalachian Trail, hoping to leave his personal demons behind. But a scream for help from a boy made of shadows rips his reality to pieces.

The rescue of the boy ends in a blood-soaked struggle that teaches Nathan monsters are real, and that he is one of them. Forgotten powers and hungers from his childhood manifest in claws that can tear apart flesh and spirit.

​But wonders soon bring terrors as the revelation of Nathan’s true nature exposes his existence to enemies he never knew he had. As he desperately seeks the ancestor who can unlock the secrets of his heritage, a shape-shifting mass murderer stalks close behind. And even worse things await him in the shadows of the spirit realm.

(Ruadán Books, 2025)

The Red Empress is the only home Erzelle has known since the day her family was lured aboard and murdered, victims of a grisly ritual meant to make the elite immortal. Erzelle plays her harp for the diners inside this ghoul-infested riverboat, knowing her own death looms, escaping through the music that’s all she has left of her parents.

Her nightmare’s upended in the space of a day by the arrival of Olyssa, a fellow musician, but so much more.

Erzelle is swept up in Olyssa’s quest to find her ensorcelled sister Lilla, a journey across a mutated landscape that leads them to an enemy responsible for the deaths of millions. To stop the slaughter of countless more, the pair has no choice but to draw on the deadly magic that reshaped the world … a power that’s as dangerous to its wielders as it is to its foes, one that’s killing Erzelle even as she fights to control it.

“A true departure from Mike Allen – Two unusual female heroes, a deceptively musical quest, and some very black magic indeed, should make this a prize for the multitude of fans who relish strong Grand Guignol with their sword and sorcery.” — Tanith Lee

“This isn’t your Disney-lite zombie apocalypse. The Black Fire Concerto takes horror to Lovecraftian levels, accompanied by spectral harps of burning nightmare fire and sniper-rifle flutes. You really don’t want to interrupt this concert.” — A.E. Marling

“A dark, luscious feast of a book … Allen has created a fantastic world of fantasy and horror like a Bosch painting, like a Shostakovitch symphony — something out of a beautiful nightmare.” — R.S. Belcher

“Exploding with magic, music, and violence, this short novel has the magical feel of an old school suspenseful fantasy adventure as filtered through the eyes of H.R. Giger.”
— Little Red Reviewer

“The magical apocalypse envisioned in The Black Fire Concerto is unlike anything I’ve ever read. … Mike Allen’s imagery is incredible. He creates great machines fueled by rotting corpses, the friendly fox-like Vulpines, and villains that will give you nightmares and make you feel sympathetic at the same time. A blend of fantasy and horror, The Black Fire Concerto will leave you begging for more.”
— Books Without Any Pictures

“Mike Allen’s The Black Fire Concerto is one of those novels that lives in the liminal space between genres: it is part body horror, part dark fantasy, part folk horror, with a bit of possible post-Apocalyptic Earth thrown in, along with, at unexpected moments, the kind of whimsy you’d expect from a Disney late 60s-early 70s animated movie … I loved this book, and I’m really hoping there’s more to come in this world.”
— Anthony R. Cardno

Forthcoming from Ruadán Books