A Choir of Ill Children (27 page)

T
OM
P
ICCIRILLI
is the author of eleven novels, including
The Night Class,
A Lower Deep,
and
Hexes
. His two collections of short fiction (
Deep Into That Darkness Peering
and
Mean Sheep
) gather only a fraction of his published short work, which spans multiple genres and demonstrates his wide-ranging abilities. He has been a World Fantasy Award finalist and a three-time Bram Stoker Award winner. Visit Tom’s official website, Epitaphs, at
www.tompiccirilli.com
.

OTHER BOOKS BY TOM PICCIRILLI

NOVELS:

Coffin Blues

Grave Men

A Lower Deep

The Night Class

The Deceased

Hexes

Sorrow’s Crown

The Dead Past

Shards

Dark Father

COLLECTIONS:

Mean Sheep

This Cape Is Red Because I’ve Been Bleeding (Poetry)

A Student of Hell (Poetry)

Deep Into That Darkness Peering

The Dog Syndrome & Other Sick Puppies

Pentacle

NONFICTION:

Welcome to Hell

Praise for Tom Piccirilli and

“In this compelling Southern Gothic, Piccirilli . . . presents a searing portrait of twisted souls trapped in a wasteland. Piccirilli masterfully increases the tension . . . [and] . . . the novel will appeal both to genre fans and to readers of Flannery O’Connor and even of William Faulkner. James Lee Burke and Harry Crews devotees should also take note.” —
Publishers Weekly

“Lyrical, ghastly, first-class horror.” —
Kirkus Reviews

“Extraordinary imagery, and Piccirilli has a gift for pitch-black humor that makes much of this novel outrageously funny, until laughter finally drowns amid murderous phantasms.” —
Locus

“Piccirilli has created a world that is disturbing and compelling.” —
Rocky Mountain News

“
A Choir of Ill Children
is a full-on Southern Gothic . . . a surreal mélange of witchcraft, deformity and ghosts. Piccirilli explores[s] his ongoing theme of memory and knowledge as damning elements . . . adding a further level of surreal absurdity to the proceedings, until you’re not quite sure which way is up.” —
Fangoria

“Piccirilli delivers a marvelous fable about family, responsibility, and owning up to your nightmares.” —
SF Site

“In
A Choir of Ill Children
Piccirilli explores monsters of flesh and mind, intermingling abominations with unlikely saviors in a narrative puzzle as intellectually challenging as it is slap-your-knee entertaining. Piccirilli creates a geography of pain and wonder, tenderness and savageness. There is as much poet as popular entertainer in Piccirilli’s approach.” —
Cemetery Dance

“Tom Piccirilli writes with a razor for his pen.
A Choir of Ill Children
is both deeply disturbing and completely compelling.” —Christopher Golden, author of
The Boys Are Back in Town
and
The Ferryman

“This is a Gothic tale of sustained invention, told in colorful prose. I loved the characters, the prose (which alternates, deliberately, between jazzy and/or bluesy tones and a clipped sort of Faulknerian picture-making), the imagery, the incidents, and the smart balance between the humorous and the horrific.” —Michael Bishop, author of
Philip K. Dick Is Dead, Alas
and
Brighten to Incandescence

“A resonant title for a resonant, powerful, lyrical and disturbing piece of work. I enjoyed
A Choir of Ill Children
enormously.” —Simon Clark, author of
Stranger
and
Darker

“Whether writing horror, mysteries or thrillers, Tom Piccirilli delivers the goods. His characters have heart, smarts and guts. They come to life in fine stories you’ll not soon forget. I’m a big fan.” —Richard Laymon, author of
Night in the Lonesome October
and
The Cellar

“Tom Piccirilli’s work is full of wit and inventiveness—sharp as a sword, tart as apple vinegar. I look forward to all his work.” —Joe R. Lansdale, author of
The Bottoms
and
Captains Outrageous

“Tom Piccirilli is one of my favorites of the new generation of horror authors—vivid, involving and downright scary.” —Graham Masterton, author of
The Manitou
and
A Terrible Beauty

“Tom Piccirilli is one of the best stylists working today—not simply in the horror genre but in fiction in general. His characters are quirky and fascinating, and his imagination is a scary, amazing thing.” —T. M. Wright, author of
A Manhattan Ghost Story
and
Cold House

“
A Choir of Ill Children
is spellbinding. Piccirilli writes like lightning, illuminating a dark landscape of wonders.” —Douglas Clegg, author of
The Hour Before Dark
and
The Infinite

“In
A Choir of Ill Children
, Tom Piccirilli takes us for a walk on the real wild side . . . an eerie, turbulent book that pushes at the boundaries of reality and horror fiction alike. This has the same paranoid energy as Philip K. Dick at his best.” —Ed Gorman, author of
The Day the Music Died
and
The Dark Fantastic

“This book is brilliant. Surprises abound on every page, and every one of its characters is unforgettable and sublimely imagined.” —
Flesh & Blood Magazine

“Piccirilli’s brand of horror fiction is always something deep, daring, and stunningly original—with story concepts that few other authors would attempt.
A Choir of Ill Children
is brilliantly grotesque, beautifully written and yet shockingly morbid, pulsing with blood that seems a little too real for fiction. This is not just another genre novel, it’s a macabre work of art.” —Edward Lee, author of
City Infernal
and
Monstrosity

“Tom Piccirilli never backs away from a disturbing or disgusting scene in the dubious interest of self-censorship, but neither does he seem to relish it as some perverted writers do (guilty, guilty, guilty). He faces it and follows it through to the consequences, and that requires bravery.” —Poppy Z. Brite, author of
Lost Souls
and
Exquisite Corpse

“Piccirilli has crafted what must be his strangest and yet most compelling novel. Whoever said that jet-black humor and horror make perfect bedfellows could use
A Choir of Ill Children
as a definitive case in point: I didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or try to find Jesus!” —Tim Lebbon, author of
The Nature of Balance
and
Face

“
A Choir of Ill Children
is effing brilliant—Carson McCullers by way of William S. Burroughs . . . or Ellen Gilchrist on really, really bad acid. It’s the kind of novel that makes me shake my head in envy and awe. In lesser hands this story could have been just a morbid freak show, but in Tom Piccirilli’s, it’s a powerful meditation on isolation, pointless anger, and familial obligation that ranks right up there with
Geek Love
and
Tattoo Girl
.” —Gary Braunbeck, author of
From Silent Graves
and
Things Left Behind

“Tom Piccirilli’s
A Choir of Ill Children
is rich with poetry, his characters are vivid and sharp, and his writing peels away layers of everyday reality. Like all the best authors, he leads readers into the strange and dark places inside themselves.” —Gerard Houarner, author of
The Beast That Was Max
and
Road to Hell

“Piccirilli courageously walks a dangerous line, telling his story in a fast-paced stream of consciousness narrative that drops the reader into fascinating circumstances with the very first sentence.
A Choir of Ill Children
does not disappoint. You won’t be able to stop reading.” —David B. Silva, author of
Through Shattered Glass

“The hypnotic power of Piccirilli’s writing draws you into a world you might otherwise run from. It’s easy to believe that this man won a Bram Stoker Award for his poetry because his narrative is infused with a lyrical voice. I can’t imagine who else’s mind
A Choir of Ill Children
might have sprung from.” —Robert Randisi, author of
Blood on the Arch
and
Curtains of Blood

“Better start revising your favorite author list—Piccirilli deserves to be at the top.” —
Book Lovers

“[Piccirilli] invests his work with potent atmosphere and realistic characterization while maintaining an economy of words and seamless plot cohesion. His horror fiction is mysterious, and his mysteries border on the horrific, and no matter what genre he employs the plots hold true, developing organically from the actions and reactions of the players.” —
Gothic.net

“Piccirilli is a master of the snap shot, of the slice of life—he plunges you headlong into various worlds, makes his points, then ushers you out, leaving you to reflect on what you’ve experienced.” —
Hellnotes

“Tom Piccirilli’s little town of Kingdom Come is filled with granny witches, child killers, swamp demons, hot honeys, private eyes, wild bikers and all manner of geeks and freaks. Riotous, surprising and marvelously gruesome,
A Choir of Ill Children
is a plate of Southern comfort food that’s at once hard-boiled and deep-fried, with lots of squishy, greasy sides.” —Stewart O’Nan

“
A Choir of Ill Children
is everything a great horror should be—beautifully written, ingeniously plotted, richly atmospheric, and single-mindedly devoted to delivering an uncompromisingly nightmarish vision. This amazing book also exemplifies the too-often-ignored truth that the most riotous humor flourishes in the blackest earth. For the die-hard epicure of horror fiction as a form of both artistic and personal expression, Piccirilli is an oasis of shadows in a glaring desert of banality. He’s one of the few living authors who can mingle with the masters of the genre.” —Thomas Ligotti

“Written with a poet’s eye for detail and ear for language, succinct and eloquent and as fast-paced as a good thriller, grimly comic and luminously lyrical,
A Choir of Ill Children
is a feast of Southern Gothic. Tom Piccirilli is a true and wondrous original.”

—Ramsey Campbell

A CHOIR OF ILL CHILDREN

A Bantam Book

PUBLISHING HISTORY

Night Shade Books hardcover edition published June 2003

Bantam Spectra mass market edition / June 2004

Published by

Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

All rights reserved

Copyright © 2003 by Tom Piccirilli

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law. For information address: Bantam Books, New York, New York.

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www.bantamdell.com

Bantam Books and the rooster colophon, and Spectra and the portrayal of a boxed “s,” are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.

eISBN 0-553-90040-4

Published simultaneously in Canada

v1.0

A Choir of Ill Children

Tom Piccirilli

Bantam Dell

OEB

2004-04-23

Fiction

Picc_0553900404

US English

Copyright © 2003 by Tom Piccirilli