At the Foot of the Story Tree was written to fill a gap in the critical literature that deals with modern horror fiction. Despite the fact that books have been written on the life and work of Stephen King, and that writers as diverse as Dean Koontz, Anne Rice, Clive Barker and Ramsey Campbell have become the subjects of biographies and critical monographs, this is a book-length study of the fiction of Peter Straub.

At the Foot of the Story Tree is a work of criticism that examines the entire body of Peter Straub's fiction, from his mainstream novel, Marriages, through his supernatural thriller, Mr. X, and from the shorter fiction collected in Houses Without Doors through such stories as 'Mr. Clubb and Mr. Cuff.' Book by book, story by story, the text untangles the complexities of Straub's fiction, isolating and illuminating its central concerns.