The Castle of Los Angeles, originally published by Gray Friar Press, reprinted in all e-book formats by Cemetery Dance.
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Introduction by Gary A. Braunbeck. From Gary’s extraordinary introduction: “The Castle of Los Angeles is, quite simply, a superlative piece of storytelling, one that will echo in your mind long after the lights have gone out…” And from Dennis Etchison: “She makes the familiar new, the commonplace fresh and more interesting than I had thought it was, and nourishing in unexpected ways. That she may not yet recognize this aspect of her work is no surprise, since it is the result of a creative process she performs as a matter of course. But she deserves my special thanks for digesting our particular world and giving it back to me in another form, colored by an intelligence that is, whether she knows it or not, as unique as a fingerprint.”
The Castle of Los Angeles won the 2010 Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in a First Novel.
The Castle of Los Angeles was nominated for “Best Small Press Chill” by the 4th Annual Dark Scribe Awards.
The Castle of Los Angeles was named one of the Top 10 books of 2010 by Creature Feature Tomb of Horror, Famous Monsters’ Peter Schwotzer, and Monster Librarian’s David Agranoff.
Named as one of BookBub’s “11 Award-Winning Horror Novels to Read for Halloween“.
The Castle of Los Angeles was named one of “5 Books By Women Writers That Horror Readers Might Not Know (But Should)” by Monster Librarian (“a treasure for lovers of quiet horror”).
From Creature Feature Tomb of Horror: “Lisa Morton ratchets up the terror without resorting to graphic gore, instead instilling a sense of creeping horror that seizes the reader like a cold, dead hand. The Castle of Los Angeles is one of the best horror novels of 2010…”
At FeoAmante.com, Mark Worthen said: “I found Castle hard to put down…Morton’s characters are real, unforgettable people who haunt your imagination the same way her other creations haunt the Castle, and her writing is straightforward, always advancing the story, never impeding it…It’s an excellent piece of fiction, to be placed alongside other masterworks of the ghost story. I recommend it for anyone’s collection.”
Famous Monsters says: “Haunted places and ghost stories are some of my most favorite reads and Castle of Los Angeles ranks up with there with some of my all time favorites like Ghost Story and The Shining. If you are looking for a well written, page turner of a ghost story you would be hard pressed to find anything published in the last few years as good as this.”
Dark Scribe Magazine on Castle: “With the precision of master dark scribes boasting far more titles in their back catalogs, Morton deftly crafts a genuinely spine-tingling spooker, an homage to the haunted house tale that shrewdly never falls prey to the clichéd trappings of this familiar sub-genre….The Castle of Los Angeles is a sterling example of a classic framework successfully updated, bringing it forward from the relegation of throwback into the realm of relevance. With flawed, interesting characters and a multi-layered narrative that will keep even the most jaded dark fiction reader from seeing around every corner, Morton’s debut easily stands out as one of the best new books of the year.”
At Chizine.com, W. D. Gagliani says: “…The Castle of Los Angeles is, like a contemporary play, an effective use of great storytelling to entertain us while telling us something we didn’t know about ourselves.”
From David Agranoff at Monster Librarian: “The Castle of Los Angeles is her first novel, and I think Morton is due for another well deserved Stoker award nomination…Bravo Lisa Morton, I’d like to start the standing ovation right now. The Castle of Los Angeles is a wonderful short horror novel.”
And Rhonda Wilson, also at Monster Librarian, says: “Last year, one of my favorite reads was Morton’s Stoker-winning novella, The Lucid Dreaming. This year, The Castle of Los Angeles may very well be one of my favorites. This novel has a little bit of everything and is written beautifully…The strong casting and realistically creepy haunting scenes sprinkled throughout make this a powerful novel.”
From a review by James Beach at Dark Discoveries: “The characterization is strong and Lisa keeps the chapters short and tight to keep the suspense going…A strong first novel by a writer to watch.”
Horror Drive-In says it “…shines in numerous ways…a good debut novel…enough twists to keep you guessing until the end.”
Watch the book trailer at YouTube.
