Ronald Kelly has 11 audiobooks on Listento.it, narrated by 7 narrators, with an average listener rating of 5★ across 3 ratings. The most-rated is Undertaker's Moon.
Undertaker's Moon
Summary
A graveyard feast beneath the summer moon.... The rural town of Old Hickory. Tennessee was a quiet, picturesque community...until the O'Sheas came to town. Becoming the new proprietors of the town's only funeral parlor, with the help of their charming patriarch, Square McManus, the Irish family was wholeheartedly accepted by the local town folk. The thing began to happen. Strange things...horrible, unspeakable things...in the dead of night. The sighting of wolfish beasts congregating around an open grave in the town cemetery. Frightening changes in several of Old Hickory's less desirable residents. And the brutal murder and devourment of a varsity football player in the wooded wilderness outside of town. Soon, what was once concealed in shadow and secrecy was now starkly revealed, in all its ravenous fury, by the silvery light of the full moon. As the residents of Old Hickory, as well as the local police, begin to fall victim to an unknown evil, four individuals - the town nerd, a high school jock, a widowed gunsith, and a mysterious transient from a distant shore - find themselves facing what could possibly be a hellish lycanthrope from ancient Ireland...the legendary Arget Bethir...the Silver Beast.
©1991, 2011 Ronald Kelly (P)2018 David N. Wilson
Fear
Summary
It was a legend in Fear County. A hideous, flesh-eating creature - part snake, part earthbound demon - that feasted on the blood of innocent children in the cold black heart of the Tennessee backwoods. But 10-year-old Jeb Sweeny knows the horrible stories are true. His best friend Mandy just disappeared. He also knows that no one has ever had the courage to go after the monster and put an end to its raging, bestial hunger. Until now. But evil is well-guarded. And for young Jeb Sweeny, who is about to cross over into the forbidden land of Fear County and the lair of the unknown, passage through the gates of hell comes with a terrible price: everlasting fear.
©1994 Ronald Kelly (P)2020 David N. Wilson
Dark Dixie
Summary
Previously available on audio cassette from Darkscribe Press, this collection was nominated for a Grammy Award in 1992. Dark Dixie collects the following works of southern horror by author Ronald Kelly. This audiobook includes all the stories from the original audio and several more: Introduction by Ronald Kelly (2010) "Yea, Though I Drive" was previously published in Cold Blood (1991) "Miss Abigail's Delicate Condition" was previously published in Noctulpa (1988) "The Cistern" was previously published in Cemetery Dance (1990) "Papa's Exile" was previously published in Deathrealm (1988) "The Hatchling" was previously published in Tri-State Fantasist (1989) "Uncle Cyrus" was previously published in Noctulpa (1988) "Forever Angels" was previously published in Cemetery Dance (1988) Black Harvest was previously published in After Hours (1989)
©2010 Ronald Kelly (P)2012 David N. Wilson
The Dark'Un
Summary
It was passed down from generation to generation. The legend of The Dark'Un, the strange beast that roamed Pale Dove Mountain. The dark monster that no one had ever seen - at least not and lived to tell about it - except, so it was said, old Fletcher Brice who lived at the foot of the mountain. No one really believed in The Dark'Un. It was just a story to make a child's flesh crawl. Until Old Man Brice died. Now, the people of Tucker's Mill, Tennessee, would be forced to believe.
©1991 Ronald Kelly (P)2013 David N. Wilson
Twelve Gauge
Summary
Black Christmas The citizens of Cedar Bluff, Tennessee, have never recovered from the Christmas Massacre of 1978 - that tragic day when Richard McFarland, armed with a shotgun, abandoned his wife and son and selected a local church as the stage for a bloody, murderous rampage. McFarland paid for his crimes in the electric chair. Yet, not even death will stop him from finishing what he started. Bloody Legacy After 14 years, Sonny's father is back. He'd been away so long that Sonny hardly remembered him. But Richard McFarland remembered his only son. And now, he will teach him how to kill. Sonny is about to become a deadly force that will be unleashed on the unsuspecting citizens of Cedar Bluff. For, when the time is right, he will return to the small, quiet town, bringing death and destruction on an even more terrifying Christmas Day! This audiobook also includes the bonus short story "Killing Time".
©2014 Ronald Kelly (P)2020 David N. Wilson
Season's Creepings
Summary
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree.... What lurks among thy branches.... Christmas can be the most wonderful time of the year. Candy canes and hot cocoa. Snowmen and sleigh rides. The love and hope that the Nativity brings. Cold milk and warm cookies for Santa. Family, friends, and the cheerful laughter of children. But, beneath the festive wrapping paper and the gleam and glitter of the lights and tinsel, things less jubilant may lie in wait. The holiday season can bring love, peace, and benevolence...but it may also spawn a darkness lurking amid the shadowy boughs of the Christmas tree, ornaments that should have never seen the light of day, let along hung on festive branches, and bones that jingle and dance, in search of Santa's crimson suit...and the flesh that resides within. In this collection of harrowing holiday tales, Ronald Kelly leaves 10 frightful and horrific gifts in the Christmas stockings that hang from the mantle of your cheerful fireplace. Ghastly and gruesome presents that slowly unwrap and burst into life while you are tucked, snug and warm, in your bed and take on nightmarish form in the icy winter hours of Christmas Eve, turning comfort and joy into terror and dread. Stories included in this collection: "Jingle Bones" "The Skating Pond" "Depravity Road" "Heirlooms" "The Winds Within" "Then Came a Woodsman" "As for Me, My Little Brain" "Beneath the Branches" "Papa’s Exile" "The Peddler’s Journey"
©2020 Ronald Kelly (P)2021 David N. Wilson
Hell Hollow
Summary
From out of a shadowy backwoods hollow echoes a dark threat from the past, nearly a century lost and forgotten. The rural town of Harmony, Tennessee, possessed a disturbing secret; a secret so ancient that most of its residents were completely unaware of it. Even the last survivors of a vigilante raid long ago have filed the tragic events of that autumn night away, totally unaware of the evil that remains, dormant, but forever patient, among the tall pines and thick-leaved kudzu of a place known only as Hell Hollow. There it would have remained, unrevealed, if not for a handful of unknowing participants. Four kids, bored for excitement during one of the hottest summers on record; a killer on the run, dodging his latest atrocity; and a rape victim on a deadly mission - scarred in both body and mind all have a hand in bringing forth an unspeakable evil from the dark woods of Hell Hollow. He is a skeletal figure in top hat and tails, brandishing a handful of magical cards and a patented elixir that was brewed in the very depths of Purgatory.
©2010 Ronald Kelly (P)2014 David N. Wilson
Flesh Welder
Summary
Chaos reigns supreme. Social and economic upheaval, rampant terrorism, and nuclear annihilation have turned the earth into a vast wasteland. And, in Texas, the gates of Hell have been cracked open, unleashing its evil and fury upon the undeserving. The inhabitants of Ruin Town find themselves unwilling pawns, trapped between warring forces, desperately attempting to survive. Even when the bombing and gunfire cease, they can find no refuge, no relief, for afterwards, Satan himself descends mercilessly upon them… in the form of General Payne and his band of sadistic mercenaries. It is then that the suffering truly begins. Murder, rape, racial intolerance, mutilation… all are heaped upon those who dwell in Ruin Town, if only to feed the General’s insatiable lust for power and sadistic pleasure. Afterward, the broken and dying seek out the only one who can deliver them from the horror that their world has become. The one who can miraculously meld flesh to flesh, and bone to bone. He is the healer supreme, the medico grande… the Flesh-Welder.
©2010 Ronald Kelly (P)2010 CrossRoad Press
Twilight Hankerings
Summary
From the author: "Webster's Dictionary defines the word appetite as: a) any of the instinctive desires necessary to keep up organic life; specifically: the desire to eat, or b) an inherent craving; an insatiable appetite for nourishment. Of course, there are other terms for appetite as well. Craving, coveting, hunger, lust, gluttony, ravenousness, want, yearning, and passion, just to name a few. South of the Mason-Dixon Line, we call it a "hankering". Southern folks possess a hankering for a lot of things: gravy and biscuits, sweet tea, pecan pie and homemade ice cream. If you're hanging at the honky-tonk and downing your 12th beer, you might get a powerful hankering for a hellacious fight or some late-night loving (although most Southern wives refuse to accommodate their men in that area if they stagger home all liquored up). When thinking of appetite, two supernatural beings come instantly to the minds of horror fiction readers: vampires and werewolves. I've explored both in larger bodies of work - my novels, Blood Kin and Undertaker's Moon (Moon of the Werewolf) - and, in a more limited way, several short stories. Those tales of the blood-sucking undead and the beastly lycanthrope are featured here in this collection. Since it is also dedicated to "things that go bite in the night" these stories also explore other creatures with equally voracious appetites, from man-eating caterpillars to backwoods succubi to monstrous things that lie patiently in wait by the side of the road. So, if you hear something scratching at your front door or lurking in the shadows of your darkened bedroom following the reading of this collection, don't blame me. It's just the dark things that run rampant between dusk and dawn, looking for a little midnight snack."
©2012 Ronald Kelly (P)2013 David N. Wilson
The Halloween Store and Other Tales of All Hallows' Eve
Summary
When you first enter The Halloween Store, things seem normal. Fun and frightful decorations, ghastly costumes and masks of the season, and bags of candy galore. Then, as you travel farther into its shadowy depths, things begin to change. The air smells of damp autumn leaves and candle-scorched pumpkin. The shelves of All Hallows’ Eve fare grow darker and more disturbing. Strange and unsettling things of Halloweens past and present lurk amid the cobwebs and dust.... Four trick-or-treaters purchase vintage costumes from a strip-mall shop, only to discover that they must sign a mysterious disclaimer for the Halloween celebration to come.... After a man’s missing daughter is found – near death and physically altered – he must once again face a horrifying monster from his own childhood.... A teenage girl hitches a ride after a Halloween rock and roll concert, only to learn that her favorite singing idol has made a pact with the Devil himself.... Three kids receive unusual treats during a Halloween stop at their favorite teacher’s house.... During a random visit to his hometown, a businessman treats a young boy to the joy and excitement of a Halloween festival, only to find that things are not what they first appeared to be.... A rash of ghoulish jack-o’-lanterns leads a small-town sheriff to the doorstep of one of the most notorious serial killers of all time.... An advertisement in the back of an old comic book prompts two friends to place an order that they soon come to regret.... Seven horrific tales and two nostalgic essays…hand-picked for your Trick-or-Treat bag. There is no telling what terrifying treats and petrifying prizes may await you!
©2020 Ronald Kelly (P)2020 David N. Wilson
Midnight in the Graveyard
Summary
Midnight. Some call it the witching hour. Others call it the devil’s hour. Here in the graveyard, midnight is a very special time. It is a time when ghostly spirits are at their strongest, when the veil between our world and theirs is at its thinnest. Legend has it, that while most of the world is asleep, the lack of prayers allow the spirits to communicate under the cover of darkness, among the headstones, their whispers rustling in the leaves of the old oak trees. But if you’re here in the graveyard, you can tell yourself it’s just the wind, that the moonlight is playing tricks on your eyes, that it’s only the swirling mist you see. But when you hear the graveyard gate clang shut, the dead have something to say. Here are their stories …
©2019 Thomas F. Monteleone, Kealan Patrick Burke, John Everson, Chad Lutzke, William Meikle, Catherine Cavendish, Kathryn Meyer Griffith, Ronald Kelly, Kenneth McKinley, Jason Parent, and various authors (P)2020 Spoken Realms