Author Philip Fracassi joins the Capes and Tights Podcast for Episode 229 on June 11, 2025. To prepare for the conversation, we have compiled seven books by Fracassi you should read.
Philip Fracassi is the author of the novels Don’t Let Them Get You Down, A Child Alone with Strangers, Gothic, Boys in the Valley and The Third Rule of Time Travel. He is also the author of several novellas, including Sacculina, Shiloh, Commodore and D7. His upcoming books include the novels Sarafina and The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre.
Other work includes the story collections No One Is Safe!, Beneath a Pale Sky, and Behold the Void. He is also the author of a children’s book, The Boy with the Blue Rose Heart, and a book of poetry, Tomorrow’s Gone.
The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre hits bookstores everywhere on September 30, 2025 from Tor Nightfire.
A Child Alone with Strangers
When young Henry Thorne is kidnapped and held prisoner in a remote farmhouse surrounded by miles of forest, he finds himself connecting with a strange force living in the woods—using that bond to wreak havoc against his captors. Unknown to the boy, however, is that this ancient being has its own reasons for wanting the interlopers gone—there is something hidden beneath the house, tucked away in the dark, damp root cellar…waiting for its return.
Boys in the Valley
St. Vincent’s Orphanage for Boys.
Early twentieth century, in a remote valley in Pennsylvania.
Here, under the watchful eyes of several priests, thirty boys work, learn, and worship. Peter Barlow, orphaned as a child by a gruesome murder, has made a new life here. As he approaches adulthood, he has friends, a future…a family.
Then, late one stormy night, a group of men arrive at their door, one of whom is badly wounded, occult symbols carved into his flesh. His death releases an ancient evil that spreads like sickness, infecting St. Vincent’s and the children within. Soon, boys begin acting differently, forming groups. Taking sides.
Others turn up dead.
Now Peter and those dear to him must choose sides of their own, each of them knowing their lives — and perhaps their eternal souls — are at risk.
The Third Rule of Time Travel
Scientist Beth Darlow has discovered the unimaginable. She’s built a machine that allows human consciousness to travel through time–to any point in the traveler’s lifetime–and relive moments of their life. An impossible breakthrough, but it’s not perfect: the traveler has no way to interact with the past. They can only observe.
After Beth’s husband, Colson, the co-creator of the machine, dies in a tragic car accident, Beth is left to raise Isabella–their only daughter–and continue the work they started. Mired in grief and threatened by her ruthless CEO, Beth pushes herself to the limit to prove the value of her technology.
Then the impossible happens. Simply viewing personal history should not alter the present, but with each new observation she makes, her own timeline begins to warp.
As her reality constantly shifts, Beth must solve the puzzles of her past, even if it means forsaking her future.
Sacculina
When Jim’s big brother Jack is released from prison, the brothers-along with their broken father and Jack’s menacing best friend-decide to charter an ocean fishing boat to celebrate Jack’s new freedom. Once the small crew is far out to sea, however, a mutant species rises from the deep abyssal darkness to terrorize the vessel and its occupants. As the horror of their situation becomes clear, the small group must find a way to fend off the attack and somehow, someway, return to safety; but as the strange parasitic creatures overrun them, they must use more extreme-and deadly-measures to survive.
D7
A haunted jukebox at an out-of-the-way dive bar not only lures patrons, but then doesn’t allow them to leave.
Beneath a Pale Sky
Beneath a Pale Sky collects eight stories of horror, including two original novellettes, that will take you from the high-security ward of a mental hospital to the top of a Ferris Wheel on an ocean pier. These stories will bury you in the rubble of an earthquake, pull back the veil on a soul’s journey into the afterlife, and turn a small midwestern town into the secret domain of cross-dimensional gods.
Combining old-school horror with the modern weird, Philip Fracassi will take you places you’ve never been before, and show you sights you won’t soon forget.The supernatural intrudes upon a wedding; a pier becomes the site of tragedy; a collapsed building is only the start of the nightmare for those trapped in the ruins; a scientist who makes the discovery of a lifetime, only to find out that what he’s unearthed has dire consequences not only for himself, but for all of mankind.
The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre
Rose DuBois is not your average final girl.
Rose is in her late 70s, living out her golden years at the Autumn Springs Retirement Home.
When one of her friends dies alone in her apartment, Rose isn’t too concerned. Accidents happen, especially at this age!
Then another resident drops dead. And another. With bodies stacking up, Rose can’t help but wonder: are these accidents? Old age? Or something far more sinister?
Together with her best friend Miller, Rose begins to investigate. The further she digs, the more convinced she becomes: there’s a killer on the loose at Autumn Springs, and if she isn’t careful, Rose may be their next victim.
