My debut short story collection, The Secret of Ventriloquism, was just selected as the Best Fiction Book of 2016 by Rue Morgue Magazine!

It also recently picked up a Golden Ghoul Award for Best Fiction (Foreign) of 2016.

Thrilled!

“The Secret of Ventriloquism is horror with a capital H. Some of Padgett's lines raised the hair on my neck. In a year of exceptional weird fiction, this [book] is a mattock handle wrapped in barbed wire heavy hitter.”
—Laird Barron, author of Swift to Chase

“Padgett proves with his stunning debut collection to be a worthy successor to Thomas Ligotti. There's no gristle, no bone, no dilly-dallying here: only pure meat whose terrors seamlessly grow into the metaphysical. This volume is jam-packed with the stuff that nightmares are made of.”
—Dejan Ognjanović, Rue Morgue Magazine

"...Greater Ventriloquism is the fictional philosophy cutting through all of the stories in this collection, giving them a much appreciated spine of intent and eerie energy. When we understand that we are no better than dummies--when we see the strings that move us and hear the voice that animates us--we become the uncanny object, as opposed to the dummy. Our own embodiment thus becomes a vessel for great horrors."
--Adam Mills, Weird Fiction Review

“[A] dread-soaked volume — stocked with tales of decay, death and dummies...”
—Michael Calia, The Wall Street Journal, "6 New Literary Horror Collections for the Spooky Season"

"...Jon Padgett [is] one of the best writers you might not have heard of yet..."
—Kayleigh Marie Edwards, Ginger Nuts of Horror

“The sense of dread the reader is set with from the opening guided meditation lingers throughout and while the details issued throughout the stories help to unravel the mysteries within each in some way, they offer nought in the way of comfort... for those who enjoy fiction of a weird nature with a capital ‘w’ The Secret of Ventriloquism should not be missed.”
—Kev Harrison, This Is Horror

With themes reminiscent of Shirley Jackson, Thomas Ligotti, and Bruno Shulz, but with a strikingly unique vision, Jon Padgett's The Secret of Ventriloquism heralds the arrival of a significant new literary talent. Padgett’s work explores the mystery of human suffering, the agony of personal existence, and the ghastly means by which someone might achieve salvation from both. A bullied child who seeks vengeance within a bed’s hollow box spring; a lucid dreamer haunted by an impossible house; a dummy that reveals its own anatomy in 20 simple steps; a stuttering librarian who holds the key to a mill town's unspeakable secrets; a commuter whose worldview is shattered by two words printed on a cardboard sign; an aspiring ventriloquist who spends a little too much time looking at himself in a mirror. And the presence that speaks through them all.

Ordering info:

Kindle Edition

Trade Paperback, 2nd Edition


Audiobook should be available via Amazon, Audible and iTunes later this week. Stay tuned!