The Return


Bentley Little - 2002
    Of course nobody really believes it. It’s just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists ­ until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child’s toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man’s face found hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real.

Zero Lives Remaining


Adam Cesare - 2016
    And the afterlife is good. The best thing ever to have happened to him. But when the conscious electric current formerly known as Robby Asaro makes a decision to protect one of his favorite patrons, Tiffany Park, from a bully, he sets loose a series of violent supernatural events that can’t be stopped.Trapped inside the arcade as the kill count rises, Tiffany and a group of gamers must band together to escape from what used to be their favorite place on Earth…and the ghost of Robby Asaro.From the author of Tribesmen, Video Night, and The Summer Job, Zero Lives Remaining is a masterful mix of horror and suspense, dread and wonder, a timeless ghost story that solidifies Adam Cesare’s reputation as one of the best up-and-coming storytellers around. This is Adam Cesare firing on all cylinders—and he’s just getting started.

Saurian


William Schoell - 1988
    Something calls Tom back to the ruins of his boyhood home, to the scene of the devastation that almost destroyed him.

Button Bright


Michael Kurland - 1990
    But Button was only dimly aware of the sounds. Her consciousness had shrunk down to focus on the body that was blocking her hole— —and the warm, thick liquid that was dripping onto her hand.” Button is an 11 year old, bubbly and intelligent girl who is haunted in her dreams by a tapping sound… Living with her mother and father in Cottsborough, Vermont, Button had been trained to hide and not ever answer to her secret name, ‘Rachel’. One day, two men arrive at Button’s family home searching for her by this secret name. Refusing to give Button up, things turn violent and the men shoot her father dead. Through a narrow crack in the floor boards, Button bears witness to the murder. Eluding the two men who tried to catch her, Button uses her wits to navigate herself from Vermont to Boston and then to New York. Button has a plan to find her uncle Dromkin. When her search seems hopeless, Button is taken in by a resident of her uncle’s apartment building, Phil, who claims he can help. But when they find Dromkin sprawled on the floor with his throat cut, Button is convinced she is somehow the cause of these family murders... Will Phil be able to keep her identity hidden long enough for her to find out the truth? Praise for Michael Kurland: "A perfect tale of childhood terror." - Tom Kasey Michael Kurland grew up in New York City, attended Columbia University, spent four years in the Army, much of it in Europe, and now lives in California with his partner, novelist Linda Robertson, a dog, a cat, and an occasional visiting family of raccoons. He has been a teacher of obscure subjects to disinterested children, the editor of a magazine even more idiosyncratic than himself, a seeker of absent persons, a magical explainer, and guest lecturer at numerous unrelated events. Kurland has written a dozen or so science fiction novels, a brace of mysteries, and several books that fit into that tenuous genre known as “mainstream.” He has been nominated for an Edgar (twice) and for the American Book Award. His books have been translated into eleven other languages. His other novel with Venture Press is Psi Hunt.

After the Bomb


Gloria D. Miklowitz - 1985
    His father, away from home during the blast, may be dead. Philip's mother, usually competent and crisp, is desperately injured and needs immediate medical help. His brother Matt, whose charm and intelligence have always overshadowed Philip's own awkwardness, is sick and weak. And Matt's girl friend Cara, whom Philip secretly adores, is terrified.If any of them are to live through the next few hours, Philip has to take charge. He must find them food, and water, and first aid in a contaminated, burning city. And Philip has to face what no human being ever faced before-life, after the bomb.

The Klarkash-Ton Cycle: Clark Ashton Smith's Cthulhu Mythos Fiction


Clark Ashton Smith - 2008
    Includes The Ghoul, Hunters from Beyond, Ubbo-Sathla, Vulthoom, The Infernal Star, and others. Selected and introduced by Robert M. Price. This book is part of an expanding collection of Cthulhu Mythos horror fiction and related topics. Call of Cthulhu fiction focuses on single entities, concepts, or authors significant to readers and fans of H.P. Lovecraft.

Blood Games


Richard Laymon - 1992
    — They meet for one week every year, five young women, best friends since college, in search of fun and thrills. Each year they choose a different place for their reunion. This year it's Helen's choice, and she chose the Totem Pole Lodge. Bad choice. The Totem Pole Lodge is a deserted resort hotel deep in the woods with a gory, shocking past Helen has a macabre streak and she can't wait to tell her friends all about what happened at the lodge and why it's now abandoned. But Helen and the others are in for a nasty surprise. The resort isn't quite as deserted as they think. And not all the gruesome events at the Totem Pole Lodge are in its past. The worst are still to come....

The Everlasting Covenant


Robyn Carr - 1987
    The setting is fifteenth-century England, during a time of confusion and bloodshed. As the Wars of commence, the York versus Lancaster battle for the throne overturns family fortunes, divides once-close friends, and stifles budding romance between those who think to rise above the turmoil.Lovely Anne Gifford, ignored by her family and destined for the convent, shares a secret, passionate love with Dylan deFrayne, youngest son in a family with whom the Giffords have engaged in fierce rivalry for decades. Their blossoming love seems doomed. The couple's troubles are compounded by the times, as war aggravates the families' differences and the feud escalates with this excuse for violence. On the eve of their planned elopement, the battles begin, drawing Dylan far from Anne's side.Though Anne has pledged herself to Dylan far all time, she must marry another to save herself and the child that she and Dylan, unbeknownst to anyone else, including Dylan, have conceived in the desperation of their love. With a new monarch in place, Dylan is exiled to France. Yet the love that Anne and Dylan feel is just beginning. Love takes them on a tortuous path through long separations and attendant troubles, enduring through intervening marriages and deaths, and finally leading them to reunion and the mending of their families' feuds. As the Wars of the Roses end and Henry Tudor is crowned king, Anne and Dylan find the happiness they have long deserved.In this saga, spanning twenty-five years, Robyn Carr once again transports her readers to another, nobler time -- a time of chivalry and honor and love that survives against overwhelming odds.

Michael's Wife


Marlys Millhiser - 1972
    Only a slip of paper with the words "Captain Michael Devereaux, Luke Air Force Base" found in her clothing connects her with reality -- a reality that becomes terrifying when she meets the captain, who angrily tells her that she is his wife, Laurel, who deserted him and their newborn son two years before. Taken to the isolated Devereaux estate outside Phoenix, she gradually becomes convinced both that she may indeed be Michael's wife and that whatever horror she fled in the desert continues to threaten her life. The hostility of her newfound relatives, their refusal to believe her story of amnesia, and growing evidence of a very real and present jeopardy drive her in a desperate search for her past -- a past she fears will prove even more unbearable than the menace of the present.

The Swordsman


Zack Archer - 2018
    The mythical warrior Beowulf. A harem of hot warrior women and monster girls. Joining forces to take down the bad guys in modern-day Los Angeles. Wait. What? Adam Fraser's coming home from an unsuccessful movie pitch when he nearly collides with Beowulf and a duo of powerful warrior women who’ve been catapulted forward in time by an evil alchemist named Mossheart. Realizing that each can help the other, they set off on an epic journey across Hollywood to track down the alchemist before he accomplishes his ultimate goal: the resurrection of the monster Grendel. What could go wrong? Lots. Tons. A crapload of things could and do go wrong, but along the way, Adam builds his harem, grows in strength and skills, gathers material for an incredible movie, and discovers how to defeat villains and become an expert um…swordsman. Warning: would it surprise you to learn that this book’s intended for those over the age of 18 who like fresh takes on old stories, sexy monster women, shapeshifters, adrenaline-fueled action, cool snarky characters, and lots of haremy (yes, that’s a real word) adult situations? Probably not, so if you like those things, and I’m guessing you do, come and get swung with The Swordsman!

You Come When I Call You


Douglas Clegg - 2000
    In Los Angeles, a woman is tormented by visions from a chilling past, and a man steps into a house of torture. On the steps of a church, a young woman has been sacrificed in a ritual of darkness. In New York, a cab driver dreams of demons while awake.And a man who calls himself the Desolation Angel has returned to draw his old friends back to their hometown -- a town where, two decades earlier, three boys committed the most brutal of rituals, an act of such intense savagery that it has ripped apart their minds. And where, in a cavern in a place called No Man's Land, something has been waiting a long time for those who stole something more precious than life itself.An epic tale of horror, spanning twenty years in the lives of four friends -- witnesses to unearthly terror.

The Home


Scott Nicholson - 2005
    But second chances aren’t easy for Freeman, the victim of painful childhood experiments that gave him the ability to read other people’s minds.At Wendover, Freeman and the other children are subjected to more secret experiments, organized by a shadowy organization called The Trust. But the experiments do more than open up clairvoyant powers--the electromagnetic fields used in the experiments are summoning the ghosts of the patients who died at Wendover back when it was a psychiatric ward.Now a new scientist has been brought into the project, an unstable and cruel pioneer in ESP studies who performed most of his work on a very special subject: his son, Freeman Mills.

Vampire Kisses 1: The Beginning


Ellen Schreiber - 2011
    Dangerous first love. This is where it all begins...The mansion on top of Benson Hill has stood empty for years. But one day it seems to be occupied, and its mysterious, handsome inhabitant Alexander Sterling becomes the source of much talk around town. Raven, a vampire-obsessed Goth-girl who has always considered herself an outsider in 'Dullsville', is determined to uncover the truth surrounding the secretive Alexander. As she gets to know him, and their spark intensifies, Raven finds herself in some unanticipated situations. Vampire Kisses: The Beginning captures the thrill of a most unusual romance.Also available by Ellen Schreiber:Vampire Kisses 2: Kissing CoffinsVampire Kisses 3: VampirevilleVampire Kisses 4: Dance with a VampireVampire Kisses 5: The Coffin ClubVampire Kisses 6: Royal BloodVampire Kisses 7: Love BitesOnce in a Full Moon

Eloisa's Adventure


Rebecca King - 2015
    Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events leave her stranded in the middle of nowhere instead. Help comes in the unlikely form of a huge gothic castle, and her rather reluctant host, Simeon Calversham, Lord Pendlebury. However, it quickly transpires that Mitchelham Castle is not the place of safety she had hoped it would be. Eloisa is quickly plunged into a desperate battle for survival in the long, draughty corridors, where more than the ghosts go bump in the night. Simeon finds himself feeling more for his guest than any respectable host should, but is determined to protect her, whatever the cost to his sanity. It quickly becomes impossible to ignore the raging desire that surges between them but, with the dangers looming ever closer, Simeon is faced with a desperate battle to keep them both alive while trying to unmask the cold-blooded killer who stalks the house. Will the castle’s sinister secrets prevent any chance of a happy ending? Or will he be forced to let her go just to keep her alive? If he does, could he ever hope to win her back again?

The Thing From the Lake


Eleanor M. Ingram - 1921
    Immediately however, an unseen mysterious woman begins giving him warnings during nocturnal visits to leave the house at once. Soon he begins hearing strange ominous sounds emanating from the tiny lake at the back of the house coupled with a permeation of sickly odors. An evil presence then begins to visit him during the witching hours of the late night, challenging him to a battle of wits from which there can be only one victor. Is his mysterious female visitor there to help and encourage him to flee from the house, or is she working in tandem with The Thing From the Lake? A gripping, occasionally frightening tale, Ms. Ingram wastes no time in grabbing the reader into the story and manages to weave a tale that will leave the reader guessing at every turn of events. (Summary by Roger Melin)(from Librivox)