Get ready for Laird Barron at his weirdest, nastiest, and most horrific.

Barron returns to Bad Hand Books with an all-new novella in his famed Antiquity setting. (Pretty) Red Nails features familiar hero Isaiah Coleridge—but he’s not at all as we remember him.

This is Coleridge with a dark-fantasy twist.

A tall, rangy mercenary armed with a deadly iron spear, Coleridge travels the benighted land astride a nameless piebald stallion while the grinning moon watches from above like a patient carrion bird.

Alongside Lionel Robard and a battle-scarred war dog, Minerva, Coleridge faces off against a mad wizard and the horrifying Pale Ones on a quest to find the fabled city of Ur.

For love. For lust. For pretty red nails.

Comes with bookplate signed by the author.

Cover art by Samuel Araya.

ANTICIPATED TO SHIP Q3 2025