The Mother (Limited Edition)

The Hume Highway stretches for more than 800 km from Melbourne to Sydney.

For most people, it's simply a way to get them to their destination; a mostly uninteresting route dotted with low hills, scrubby bushland, and the occasional petrol station and rest stop to break the tedium.

But for one woman, the Hume is a place of death, of sadness, of loss.

And of revenge.

For this woman has a plan; a plan involving hitchhiking - hopping into any and every car that will stop and pick her up. Because she's seeking a man. A man with a tattoo.

The man who brutally murdered her teenage daughter.

Even if it takes her the rest of her life, she aims to find him.

Even if it means pain, loss...

And death.

"The Mother is one helluva read.  Sleek, dark, and impossible to put down.  Reading this one good woman's descent into grief and madness felt like a sledgehammer to the stomach…but I couldn't stop turning the pages.  The Mother did what every great book should do — it made me think."
—Richard Chizmar, Cemetery Dance Magazine

"I love Brett McBean's writing, and The Mother is McBean at the top of his form.  It's a thrilling, scary, and heartbreaking story.  I highly recommend it."
—John R. Little, Bram Stoker-winning author of The Memory Tree, Placeholders, and Miranda

The Mother

Hitchhiking along the Hume Highway, a woman searches for the man who killed her daughter. Her only clue—left in her daughter’s final phone message—is that the man has a tattoo on his left arm saying ‘Die Mother.’

With her daughter dead and with nothing to live for, the mother is on a path of self-destruction. Consumed by guilt and the desire for revenge, her personality and appearance begin to alter. Becoming almost wild, she forgets her real name and where she used to live and work.

Each driver she meets on her dangerous journey could be the killer—and each lift she accepts could be her last.

The Mother is a gritty psychological horror/thriller about loss, violence and identity. Release date: August 2006

"The Mother is a brilliant new offering from McBean that sees him slide among contemporaries such as Jack Ketchum and Richard Laymon. McBean manages to capture something rare in The Mother – a book that is both moving and horrific, demonstrating that good horror can do more than just scare your pants off. The Mother does for hitchhiking what Psycho did for showers and I guarantee you’ll think more than twice before thumbing a ride again."
—Mark Smith-Briggs, Oz Horrorscope

The Last Motel

A husband and wife...
A pair of petty criminals...
A young man...
And a perverse serial killer...

Strangers with seemingly little in common with one another, are inextricably linked through a series of macabre events. In one explosive night, these people’s lives will change forever. Their stories are all different, but their plans are all the same: Stay the night at the Lodgepole Pine Motel and leave the next morning. The only problem is that one night at the Lodgepole Pine Motel can be a lifetime.

“A thrilling read about fate, coincidence and murder. McBean pumps up the tension to unbearable levels, and then lets rip.”
—Tim Lebbon author of Fears Unnamed and Desolation

“Brett McBean is as brash and brutal as a young Jack Ketchum. He visits the dark rooms inside us all. The Last Motel is the first stop on his way to the top.”
—Scott Nicholson author of The Manor and The Farm

"The Last Motel is fun; a thrilling, white-knuckled suspense read. McBean's voice is one that should be heard - a hint of Laymon and Koontz, yet distinctly his own. Genuinely creepy stuff!"
—Brian Keene, Author of The Rising and Terminal

“Brett McBean's The Last Motel is dark and gritty, relentlessly fierce but tempered with keen wit and characters so real you can hear them breathing. The book is a loving, bloody homage to an underappreciated genre and McBean's writing compels you to keep turning pages even as you cringe. A book as hard to put down as Misery -- I couldn't look away even when I wanted to. The Last Motel makes the Bates Motel seem like a trip to Disneyland."
—Tamara Thorne author of Thunder Road

“Brett McBean’s The Last Motel moved me to that level of horror rarely visited. He writes without a safety net and crosses all lines as he illuminates the true essence of fear. Mesmerizing and frightening.”
—John Paul Allen author of Gifted Trust

Concrete Jungle

It's late. A few remaining shoppers head for the multi-story car park after attacking the sales at an adjacent shopping center.

However, they become trapped in the underground bunker when, incredibly, trees start to sprout from beneath the car park, transforming the concrete structure into a ruined, maze-like cavern.

Unable to find a way out it becomes a struggle for survival, for not only does the car park continue to transform back into a jungle, wild animals have begun to appear, governed by hunger under the foliage canopy. Now the humans must fight to survive — not only Mother Nature, but a foe just as deadly … each other.

The Garbage Man

Edmund Mullroy isn’t your typical garbage man.  Sure, he collects the town’s garbage once a week – it’s his legitimate work, his bread and butter.  But Ed has a dirtier, sinister side gig.  For over twenty years he has been collecting – and disposing of – the victims of serial killers.

It’s peace of mind for the killers, and it’s good money for Ed.

Only things don’t always go to plan.

Dark, gritty, and laced with black humor, The Garbage Man takes the reader into a dark and sordid world of blood, violence and serial murder, throwing the reader into the  mayhem of Australia’s recent violent history, from the late eighties to present day.  Through the multiple volumes in the series, McBean will also reveal the secrets and inner demons that haunt Ed Mullroy and his battle to contain them. The Garbage Man is a classic character study of the human condition and dystopian society.

New Dark Voices II

'Sins of the Father'

When Tony Christopher returns home after a few months away, he expects to find his family and friends waiting, his beloved farming town of Gainesville unchanged. What he finds is quiet streets and empty houses. A strange metallic smell in the air. An ominous storm building. And Tony will uncover the shocking truth of the missing townsfolk.

The Familiar Stranger

Seth is a worker angel - one of many whose job it is to clean old souls, those soiled and broken and in need of cleaning in order to be recycled. But when Seth starts to doubt the veracity of his work, starts to wonder if old souls can truly be cleansed of their past evils, he decides to travel down to Earth and see what has become of one of the old souls.

Cassius 'Corey' Willis is living a colourless existence; stuck in a rut, he dreams of living a different life, of being somebody else. But when a mysterious stranger offers him the answer to his dreams, Cassius will learn the truth of his past. A past so stained with violence and bloodlust it refuses to be wiped clean . . . and a secret so horrific that it may shatter his very soul.

"The Familiar Stranger is a concerto for sadist with piercings of black comedy."
—Simon Clark, author of London Under Midnight and Vampyrrhic

"Brett McBean has written another winner, a creepy tale of haunted angels, tortured souls, and a bloodthirsty serial killer. The most original idea I've read in quite some time . . . . I read it in one sitting, 'cause I couldn't stop till I found out what the hell was going on! Mark my words: You won't be able to put it down either."
—James Newman, author of Midnight Rain, The Wicked, and Animosity

Tales of Sin and Madness

In this, his first-ever collection, Aurealis and Ditmar award nominated horror author Brett McBean (The Last Motel, The Familiar Stranger, The Mother) continues his exploration of the dark side of the human character by bringing you fifteen tales of sin and madness. From zombies roaming the Australian outback, to psychopaths roaming New York City, McBean plunges the depths of human depravity, and delves into a sick and sordid world of serial killers, Manson-like cults, even road kill and cheap souls.

So pull up a seat in front of the campfire, grab a marshmallow or two, and come and take a journey into the heart of darkness with one of Australia's leading voices in dark fiction.

Included in this collection are eleven reprints, and four previously unpublished stories, as well as story notes accompanying each tale. Cover art by Deena Warner.

CONTENTS:
The Beautiful Place
Amanda's Gift
Stolen Lives (new)
The New Religion
Genius of a Sick Mind
Hearing the Ocean in a Seashell (new)
A Question of Belief
The Coffin
The Song Remains The Same
Temptation of the Righteous Path (new)
The Garbage Man
Who Wants to be a Survivor
A Light for Rose
The Cycle
The Project (new)

Die Mutter