• Km V:X THE DARKEST PART WOODS OF THE RAMSET CAMPBELL "lie provides the reader with Insights and chills onl) a master ol dark Fantasy could achieve" Clive Barkei 0-765-30766-9 ;5 ($34.95 can) THE DA ST PART OF THL WOO DS Ramsey Campbell is the world's most honored living horror writer, with more than twenty World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Bram Stoker, and other awards to his credit. Hailed as one of the most literate and literary writersofourtime,ingenreand out, Campbell hasbeen acclaimed as a "master ofdark fantasy" by Clive Barker, one of today's "finest writers of supernatural horror & and psychological suspense" by the Charleston Post Courier, the "master ofa skewed and exquisitely terrify- ingstyle"by LibraryJournal,"oneoftheworld'sforemost horror writers" by the San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle, '3 and a "master ofmood" by Publishers Weekly. In The Darkest Part of the Woods, Campbell intro- duces readers to the Price family, whose lives have for decades been snarled with the fate ofthe ancient forest ofGoodmanswood. Here, Dr. Lennox Price discovered a rs hallucinogenic moss that quickly became the focus ofa cult—and though the moss and the trees on which it grew are long gone, it seems as if the whole forest can now affect the minds ofvisitors. AfterLennoxiskilled tryingtoreturntohisbeloved wood, his widow seems to see and hear him in the trees—or is it a dark version of the Green Man that caresses her with leafy hands? Lennox's grandson heeds a call to lie in his lover's arms in the very heart of the forest—and cannot help but wonder what the fruit of that love will be. And Heather, Lennox's daughter, who turned her back on her father's myr< s and sought sanctuary in the world of facts an Goodmanswood sum- > mons her as well. . . . II, ^ "^ •... ,>'j ^v THE DARKEST PART THE O F WOODS BY RAMSEY CAMPBELL from Tom DohertyAssociates Ancient Images Cold Print The Count ofEleven Dark Companions The Darkest Part oftheWoods The DollWhoAte His Mother The FaceThat Must Die Fine Frights (editor) The Hungry Moon Incarnate Influence The Last VoiceThey Hear The Long Lost Midnight Sun The Nameless Nazareth Hill Obsession The One Safe Place Pact ofthe Fathers The Parasite Silent Children Waking Nightmares DARKEST PART O TH F E WOODS RAMSEY CAMPBELL ATOM DOHF.KTY ASSO( NewYork Thisisaworkoffiction. Allthecharactersandeventsportrayedinthisnovelareeither fictitiousorareusedfictitiously. THEDARKESTPARTOFTHEWOODS Copyright©2002byRamseyCampbell Allrightsreserved, includingtherighttoreproducethisbookorportionsthereof, inanyform. Thisbookisprintedonacid-freepaper. ATorBook PublishedbyTomDohertyAssociates, LLC 175 FifthAvenue NewYork, NY 10010 www.tor.com Tor®isaregisteredtrademarkofTomDohertyAssociates, LLC. LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Campbell, Ramsey, 1946— — Thedarkestpartofthewoods/ RamseyCampbell. 1sted. p. cm. "ATomDohertyAssociatesbook." ISBN0-765-30766-9 — — 1. Forestsandfore—stry Fiction. 2. Mus—hrooms,—Hallucinogenic Fic—tion. 3. Paternal deprivation Fiction. 4. Fathers— Death Fiction. 5. Widows Fiction. 6. Cults Fiction. I. Tide. PR—6053.A4855D355 2003 823*.914 dc2i 2003055983 Originallypublishedin GreatBritainbyPSPublishing, Ltd., Harrogate FirstU. S. Edition: October2003 PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica 0987654321 ForAngus, another reason to open a bottle