One of the influential names in the late 1970s–early 1990s American horror literature boom, by 1991 McCammon had three New York Times bestsellers (The Wolf's Hour, Stinger, and Swan Song) and around 5 million books in print.
After clashing with an editor at a new publisher over the direction for his historical fiction novel Speaks the Nightbird, he retired from writing.
[6] Publishers Weekly called it a "compulsively readable yarn," and said, "McCammon's loyal fans will find his resurfacing reason to rejoice."
[3] After years out-of-print, Baal, Bethany's Sin, The Night Boat, and They Thirst were re-released by Subterranean Press as limited edition novels.
In a 2013 interview, McCammon acknowledged that some readers would like to have a complete collection of his work, and said "reading back over those books I find they’re not as poorly written as I recall them to be.