Welcome to a place where wholesome farms hide family secrets, pastoral terrain serves as a sinister setting, and a cast of unusual and otherworldly characters play out a wide range of haunting tales.

This is the imaginative world of Country Stories of Ghosts and Bad Men, a collection of short pieces penned by author Todd Curtis Narron, spanning the rural South, from the devastation of the Civil War to the bustling province of the 1980s.

Here, you'll meet a father whose grief over his fallen son drives him to incredible depths, you'll experience the painful inequality suffered by particular social classes during the 1940s, and you'll discover the unsettling truth behind a man who can, quite literally, scare you to death.

Combining enthralling horror with captivating local folklore, this selection of tales explores the darkness that can be found throughout rustic, quiet territory, from the amusingly absurd to the deeply disturbing.

Featuring unusual situations, eccentric characters, and shocking twists and turns, Country Stories of Ghosts and Bad Men spans more than one-hundred years of history, with tales that have a single theme in common-the vanishing American farm, and the disappearance of the country way of life.