Usher's Passing

Usher's Passing
by Robert McCammon

Cover Artwork by Mark Maddox

Interior Artwork by Vincent Sammy

About the Book:
"You can't turn your back on the Usher heritage, no matter how hard you try..."

Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe's classic story "Fall of the House of Usher," Robert R. McCammon makes a dazzling leap of imagination in this enormously entertaining and truly frightening novel. Usher's Passing asks what if the Usher story hadn't ended with the deaths of Roderick and Madeline over a century ago? What if they'd had a brother to carry the family name—and infamous legacy—into the future?

Set in North Carolina in the present, Usher's Passing begins weaving its spell with the arrival of Rix Usher at the deathbed of his father. The powerful patriarch must hand over the family scepter to one of his three children. An antiwar activist, Rix wants no part of the $10 billion Usher Armaments business. His sister's drug habit and brother's gambling and drinking hardly recommend either for a position of such extraordinary wealth and influence. But whoever is chosen stands to inherit not only the lucrative business of destruction... not only the vast, opulent estate that legend says is haunted by nightmarish creatures... but all the horrifying secrets of the Usher family's mad heritage.

In Usher's Passing, each of five generations has a tale to tell, and their stories move across time to lead Rix Usher into the haunted heart of Usherland, where he must face both who he is—and what he is...

A Note from the Author about the book's origins:
What would happen if one of the world's most powerful families was also one of literature's most infamous?

When I was a child, one of my favorite tales was Edgar Allan Poe's "Fall of the House of Usher." I could see Roderick roaming the gloomy halls of the ancestral mansion, could see his sister Madeline rising from the family vault, could see the fissure that finally cracked the house as it collapsed beneath stormy waters.

But what if the story didn't end there?

What if Roderick and Madeline had a brother who carried the Usher name into the future? What if the generations of Ushers created a business empire that not only changed American society but could destory civilzation as well?

And what if the present-day Usher descendant realizes that five generations of his family have concealed a secret so terrible that it long ago drove Roderick Usher to insanity, and so terrible that it now threatens to drag him down into the dark cauldron of the Usher heritage?

In Usher's Passing, each generation has a tale to tell, and their stories move across time to lead Rix Usher into the haunted heart of Usherland, where he must face both who he is—and what he is.

Usher's Passing grew out of love for both the craft of horror fiction and its master, Edgar Allan Poe. I hope you too are drawn into the complex web of events Poe began.

Signed & Slipcased Hardcover Limited Edition:
• Limited to just 750 signed and numbered copies housed in a custom-made slipcase
• Personally signed by the author on a unique signature page
• Printed on 60# acid-free paper
• Bound in full-cloth with colored head and tail bands
• Featuring hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine
• Printed and bound with full-color endpapers
• Smyth sewn to create a more durable binding
• Wrapped in a full-color dust jacket
• Limited ONE TIME printing of this special edition
• Retail price just $75

Signed & Traycased Hardcover Lettered Edition:
• Limited to just 52 signed and lettered copies housed in a custom-made traycase
• Personally signed by the author on a unique signature page
• Printed on 60# acid-free paper
• Bound in leather with colored head and tail bands
• Featuring hot foil stamping on the front boards and spine
• Printed and bound with full-color endpapers
• Smyth sewn to create a more durable binding
• Wrapped in a DIFFERENT full-color dust jacket than the Limited Edition
• Limited ONE TIME printing of this special edition
• Retail price just $250

Reviews to come...

Robert McCammon is the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-one novels, as well as several novellas and short story collections.  He is the winner of five Bram Stoker Awards and a World Fantasy Award. He is best known for Swan Song (1987), The Wolf's Hour (1989), and Boy's Life (1991). More recently, McCammon has published The Five, which Stephen King called his best novel ever, and The Border, and is writing the Matthew Corbett series, a nine-book series of historical thrillers that USA Network has called "the Early American James Bond." McCammon lives in Birmingham, Alabama.

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