Simon Bestwick books

Simon Bestwick is a British horror and dark fiction author with a large body of work spanning novels, short story collections, novellas, and anthology contributions since 2001.

Anthologies

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Darkness Rising, Volume 1: Night’s Soft Pains 2001 Buy
Beneath The Ground 2002 Buy
Shadow Writers: v. 2 2003 Buy
We Fade To Grey 2008 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One 2009 Buy
Never Again 2010 Buy
The End of the Line 2010 Buy
Estronomicon Halloween Special 2011 2011 N/A
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four 2012 Buy
Tales of the Nun and Dragon 2012 Buy
The Best British Fantasy 2013 2013 Buy
Twisted Histories 2013 Buy
X7: A Seven Deadly Sins Anthology 2013 Buy
Horror Uncut 2014 Buy
Game Over 2015 Buy
2nd Spectral Book of Horror Stories 2015 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve 2020 Buy
Body Shocks 2021 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen 2022 Buy
Fears: Tales of Psychological Horror 2024 Buy
Creepshow: 13 Tales of Terror 2026 Buy

Best Horror of the Year Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume One 2009 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Two 2010 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Nine 2017 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Four 2012 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Five 2013 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Six 2014 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Seven 2015 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Twelve 2020 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eight 2016 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Ten 2018 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Three 2011 Buy
The Best of the Best Horror of the Year: 10 Years of Essential Short Horror Fiction 2018 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year Volume Thirteen 2021 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year: Volume Eleven 2019 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fourteen 2022 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Fifteen 2024 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Sixteen 2024 Buy
The Best Horror of the Year, Volume Seventeen 2025 Buy

Black Road Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Hell’s Ditch 2015 Buy
Devil’s Highway 2016 Buy
Wolf’s Hill 2018 Buy

Black Shuck Shadows Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Tales of New Mexico 2017 Buy
Unquiet Waters 2017 Buy
The Life Cycle 2017 Buy
The Death of Boys 2018 Buy
Broken on the Inside 2018 Buy
The Martledge Variations 2018 Buy
Singing Back the Dark 2018 Buy
The Spirits of Christmas 2019 Buy
Winter Freits 2019 Buy
The Dead 2019 Buy
The Forest of Dead Children 2019 Buy
At Home in the Shadows 2019 Buy
Suffer Little Children 2019 Buy
Shadowcats 2019 Buy
Flowers of War 2019 Buy
Green Fingers 2020 Buy
Uneasy Beginnings 2020 Buy
Three Mothers, One Father 2020 Buy
The Adventures of Mr Polkington 2020 Buy
Voices 2020 Buy
The Watcher in the Woods 2020 Buy
Nine Ghosts 2021 Buy
Waterlore 2023 Buy

Chapter

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Angels of the Silences 2011 Buy

Collections

Title Published Buy on Amazon
A Hazy Shade Of Winter 2004 Buy
Pictures of the Dark 2009 Buy
Let’s Drink To The Dead 2012 Buy
The Condemned 2013 Buy
Judgement Call / Along the Long Road 2018 Buy
And Cannot Come Again 2019 Buy

Dark Minds Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Slaughter Beach 2015 Buy
What They Find in the Woods 2016 Buy
Kids 2016 Buy
Ruin 2016 Buy
Naming the Bones 2017 Buy
Winter Holiday 2018 Buy
A Love Like Blood 2019 Buy

Short Stories/Novellas

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Narrows 2008 Buy
Dermot 2011 Buy
Breakwater 2018 Buy
Roth-Steyr 2020 Buy
Jaeger 2024 Buy

Standalone Novels

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Faceless 2012 Buy
The Feast of All Souls 2016 Buy
A Different Kind of Light 2021 Buy
Devils Of London 2021 Buy
Black Mountain 2021 Buy

The Black Books of Horror Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
The Black Book of Horror 2007 Buy
The Spectral Book of Horror Stories 2014 N/A
The Third Black Book of Horror 2008 Buy
2nd Spectral Book of Horror Stories 2015 N/A
The Fifth Black Book of Horror 2009 Buy
The Eighth Black Book of Horror 2011 Buy
The Ninth Black Book of Horror 2012 Buy
The Tenth Black Book of Horror 2013 Buy

Tomes of the Dead Reading Order

Title Published Buy on Amazon
Death Hulk 2006 Buy
The Words of Their Roaring 2007 Buy
The Devil’s Plague 2007 Buy
Anno Mortis 2008 Buy
I, Zombie 2008 Buy
Way of the Barefoot Zombie 2009 Buy
Tide of Souls 2009 Buy
Tide of Souls: Tombs of the Dead 2009 N/A
Hungry Hearts 2009 Buy
Tomes of the Dead: Hungry Hearts 2009 N/A
Stronghold 2010 Buy
Empire of Salt 2010 Buy
Viking Dead 2011 Buy
Double Dead 2011 N/A
Brain-Eating Britain 2013 Buy
Bad Blood 2012 N/A
The Secret Zombie History of the World 2013 Buy
Dead Stop 2014 Buy
The Lazarus Conundrum 2015 Buy
The Sea Hates a Coward 2015 N/A
Grand Amazon 2016 N/A
The Death and Life of Schneider Wrack 2017 Buy

Simon Bestwick has been a fixture in British horror fiction since 2001, when his first anthology contribution appeared in Darkness Rising. His output is prolific, covering novels, novellas, short story collections, and contributions to well over twenty anthologies. He writes horror that ranges from post-apocalyptic survival to quiet, unsettling ghost stories.

His Black Road trilogy (Hell’s Ditch, Devil’s Highway, Wolf’s Hill) is his most substantial series, set in a devastated Britain where survivors face both human and supernatural threats. Outside of that, his short fiction has been recognized with appearances in Ellen Datlow’s Best Horror of the Year anthologies. Collections like A Hazy Shade of Winter, Pictures of the Dark, and And Cannot Come Again gather his best shorter work across different periods of his career.

Frequently Asked Questions

How many books has Simon Bestwick written?

Simon Bestwick has written 119 books across eleven series.

What was Simon Bestwick's first book?

Simon Bestwick’s first book is Darkness Rising, Volume 1: Night’s Soft Pains, published in 2001.

What is Simon Bestwick best known for?

Bestwick is best known for his Black Road trilogy of post-apocalyptic horror novels and his extensive short fiction, which has appeared in the Best Horror of the Year anthology series and dozens of other collections. He has won the British Fantasy Award for his work.

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