Alex Hamilton's contributions to the famous Pan Books of Horror Stories series quickly secured his reputation as one of the best and most original writers of macabre tales of his generation. Beam of Malice (1966), his first collection, features many of his finest and most unsettling tales and showcases his unique and unusual imagination. In these stories, Hamilton does not rely on ghosts, the supernatural, or the standard machinery of gothic fiction in order to induce his chills. Instead, his horrors spring from the familiar, with ordinary people finding their lives suddenly and inexplicably invaded by bizarre, disturbing, and sometimes deadly occurrences.

Beam of Malice was acclaimed by critics when originally published, earning comparisons with the short stories of Saki and John Collier, and has been championed more recently by Ramsey Campbell, who writes that Alex Hamilton 'is one of the absolute masters of the sunlit nightmare, the tale of insidious disquiet and relentless unease. He's a true original, and it's past time that he took his place in the pantheon of the elegantly macabre.' This edition contains fifteen stories, including 'The Attic Express', which has been recognized as a classic of the genre, as well as a new introduction by the author.