The Author

Thomas Tessier

Thomas Tessier (1947–2026) was born in Waterbury, Connecticut, and studied at University College Dublin, Ireland. He lived in Dublin and London for thirteen years, during which three books of his poems were published and three of his plays were professionally staged. For several years, he wrote a monthly music column for Vogue magazine (UK).

He turned to fiction with The Fates (1978) and The Nightwalker (1979), the start of a run of novels of terror and suspense that included Phantom, Shockwaves, Finishing Touches, Rapture, Secret Strangers, Fog Heart, and Wicked Things. Rapture was adapted into a film starring Karen Allen. Fog Heart received the International Horror Guild Award for Best Novel and was cited by Publishers Weekly as one of the best books of the year.

His short fiction appeared in more than three dozen anthologies and magazines, including Prime Evil, Borderlands, Dark Terrors, Metahorror, The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror, Best New Horror, and Cemetery Dance. His first collection, Ghost Music and Other Tales, received an International Horror Guild Award. In 2019, a comprehensive collection of short fiction was released — World of Hurt, published by Macabre Ink / Crossroad Press. The Washington Post recognized this release as the horror fiction book of the year.

Three of his novels — Rapture, The Nightwalker, and Finishing Touches — are back in print from Valancourt Books, and his early poetry, long out of circulation, can now be read on this site.

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