William Lindsay Gresham

Stan Carlisle is working as a carny and sets himself above the freak-show geeks. Onstage, he plays a mentalist and caters to the rich and gullible. It looks like the world is Stan's for the taking. At least for now.

Nightmare Alley

John Balek

I was recommended to read this during October and it definitely enhanced the read. This is such a great thriller that perfectly encapsulates the fall from grace, debauchery, and haunting imagery. Gresham's writing is some of the best I've read in recent memory and is truly the shining aspect of this novel. This is such an underrated classic that should get more attention.

A cool, cruel, rediscovered classic of American noir, soon to be a major motion picture directed by Guillermo del Toro. 'Read and shudder. And relish' Guardian 'A creepy, all-too-harrowing masterpiece' Washington Post Stanton Carlisle, employed as a carny at a travelling circus watches their freak-show geek - an abject alcoholic, the object of the voyeuristic crowd's gleeful disgust and derision - and wonders how a man could fall so low. There's no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him. Unlike the tragic figure he sees before him, Stan is young, clever and ambitious and quick to learn from the other carnival acts. Initially teaming up with a beautiful but vulnerable woman as part of a double act in which he mesmerises her, Stan soon leaves his circus days behind him, becoming a successful spiritualist who exploits the weak and the wealthy. But even the very best con-men can meet their match.... With a new introduction from James Smythe, Nightmare Alley is a forgotten classic of Depression-era America: a brilliant, horrifying, compulsive journey into the true darkness of the human mind.

Nightmare Alley

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