Book picks similar to
Detour to Dusk by Linell Jeppsen


vampires
paranormal
ebook
action-adventure

Scarab


Stavros Halvatzis - 2011
    Older than the pyramids, older than Atlantis, it has the power to change the world. Powerful men will do anything to posses it. There just one thing standing in their way – the living Sphinx itself.From the Author"Scarab is a fast-paced entertaining read on a fascinating subject--quantum mechanics, with a dash of fanciful archeological intrigue, suspense, and some graphic content. I've always been fascinated by the idea of playfully mixing genres to sprinkle a sense of freshness and excitement in the stories we tell, and this has certainly been my intention here."

The Immortal Rules


Julie Kagawa - 2012
    By day, she and her crew scavenge for food. By night, any one of them could be eaten. Some days, all that drives Allie is her hatred of them—the vampires who keep humans as blood cattle. Until the night Allie herself dies and becomes one of the monsters.Forced to flee her city, Allie must pass for human as she joins a ragged group of pilgrims seeking a legend—a place that might have a cure for the disease that killed off most of civilization and created the rabids, the bloodthirsty creatures who threaten human and vampire alike. And soon Allie will have to decide what and who is worth dying for… again.Enter Julie Kagawa's dark and twisted world as an unforgettable journey begins.

Pete, Drinker of Blood


Scott S. Phillips - 2012
    He’s also a vampire. He lives alone and avoids the other vampires in L.A., but Pete’s simple life goes haywire when he falls for Angie, the cute bartender at a Sunset Strip dive -- and when sinister vampire lord Carson Fitzgerald returns to claim his children, Pete learns that nothing's ever easy for a creature of the night.

Fear University


Meg Collett - 2015
     My mother abandoned me when I was ten years old because I have a freakish mutant disease that makes me incapable of feeling pain. I bounced from one foster family to another because too many people like to test my medical condition in a game of “Try To Make Ollie Scream.” At sixteen, I killed a man for taking that game too far. Two years later, I’m still on the run in Kodiak, Alaska. Here, I’m the most dangerous person around, until I come face to face with a creature that should only exist in folklore. The monster is an aswang, and I, with my medical anomaly, am uniquely qualified to hunt the beast that haunts the night. At least, that’s what the two scarred, mostly crazy ’swang hunters tell me when they kidnap me and take me to Fear University, a school where young students learn to hunt and kill aswangs. I arrive at the university a prisoner, but I stay because I finally find my freedom. For once in my life, I belong. I’m needed. I make a home for myself inside the university masquerading as an old Alaskan prison. Something close to happiness warms my icy heart when I’m with my scarred, still mostly crazy tutor, Luke Aultstriver. For a murdering runaway like me, Fear University is a haven where I can put my skills to good use hunting monsters in the night. But when certain truths come to light and even more lies are exposed, I fear that I, Ollie Andrews, am the worst kind of monster of all. And, maybe, they should be hunting me. This book is recommended for mature readers due to sexual content, violence, and language.

The Gunslinger


Stephen King - 1982
    He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which frighteningly mirrors our own, Roland pursues The Man in Black, encounters an alluring woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the Kid from Earth called Jake. Both grippingly realistic and eerily dreamlike, The Gunslinger leaves readers eagerly awaiting the next chapter.

Etiquette & Espionage


Gail Carriger - 2013
    It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners--and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminnick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality. But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage--in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Wake of Vultures


Lila Bowen - 2015
    She's a half-breed who dresses like a boy, raised by folks who don't call her a slave but use her like one. She knows of nothing else. That is, until the day a stranger attacks her. When nothing, not even a sickle to the eye can stop him, Nettie stabs him through the heart with a chunk of wood and he turns to black sand.And just like that, Nettie can see.But her newfound sight is a blessing and a curse. Even if she doesn't understand what's under her own skin, she can sense what everyone else is hiding—at least physically. The world is full of evil, and now she knows the source of all the sand in the desert. Haunted by the spirits, Nettie has no choice but to set out on a quest that might lead her to find her true kin . . . if the monsters along the way don't kill her first.

The Overmountain Men


Cameron Judd - 1991
    On the land that has become his home, a mountain paradise the Cherokee call Tanisi, Joshua must face his destiny of being a leader in the bitter fight for land and power between the Cherokee, settlers and British royalty, or he will lose the only place he can call his own. In an age of revolution in the deep wilderness of the rugged frontier Joshua must test his loyality, strength and will to survive. THE OVERMOUNTAIN MEN is just the first chapter in an epic saga of love, hate and war form one of the leading authors of frontier fiction, Cameron Judd. They are the men and women who forged a nation, conquered nature and found freedom...THE OVERMOUNTAIN MEN.

A Single Deadly Truth


John Urban - 2010
    (And that doesn't even count the shark.)" Author Frank Cook.Urban sets the story on the waters of Cape Cod and Buzzards Bay and gives the reader a rewarding blend of adventure, seaside escapism, and maritime history. Fans of Clive Cussler, Peter Benchley, and Randy Wayne White will find a new hero in Steve Decatur.

Deadly Deadly


M. Vigna - 2013
    Due to a technical glitch you must include the author name to search this book. Title only will not bring it up.<br><br>Deadly Deadly is an exciting, larger than life epic that takes place during the growth of our nation westward that details the hardship encountered on a very special trail drive in the 1800s. Don’t let the cover fool you; this is a story for the more mature reader. This exciting novel tells a truly original story among a backdrop of harsh and extreme conditions. Crafted with an enormous passion, this amazing story pits an eclectic cast of characters against the unforgiving elements and the evils of men. A one-of-a-kind story, readers cannot afford to pass up.<br><br> Get lost in this western epic of adversity, despair, and triumph. This story revolves around the deep bond that is established after a young man, alone in the world, discovers a newborn Texas Longhorn bull and rescues him from deaths grip. The bull calf eventually captures his heart and an inseparable bond is formed. As the bull matures, due to his lethal seven-foot horn spread, he eventually becomes know as Deadly. Their unique relationship also grows into a working partnership and together they become an indomitable force, which will be a blessing for a beautiful ranch owner who ultimately depends on them as her only hope for survival after she hires them to drive her extremely valuable and “new” to the America, Herefords, from California to Texas. With the fate of her ranch in their hands, they set forth on a dangerous journey full of extreme wilderness, nature’s wrath, injuries, and illness in order to get these prized cattle to their distant destination.<br><br> With a Texan Longhorn bull as one of its main characters and events unfolding at a thrilling pace, Deadly Deadly stands out against the homogenous backdrop of today’s fiction with a character-driven story that is as gripping as it is heartfelt, and sure to hook readers within the first few pages. Whether it’s the loveable characters, unique relationships, budding romance, or facing challenging hazards both natural and manmade, this novel possesses something for everyone. This engrossing narrative uses a mesmerizing story to pepper in useful survival skills and actual training techniques used with herd animals.

The Scarlet Dagger


Krystle Jones - 2011
    The ASIN is B005Z26DWM.***The strength of Sloane’s heart is about to be put to the ultimate test.After the Eclipse – the night vampires began openly slaughtering human victims – everything changed. Out of fear, the government salvaged what remained of the human population and enclosed them in massive, security-laden cities called White Sectors, while marking the vampire infested territory as Red Sectors.When seventeen-year-old Sloane McAllister’s twin brother disappears, she seems to be the only one who thinks he isn’t dead, and vows to stop at nothing to find him. Gathering her courage, she braves the Red Sector to search for clues to his whereabouts. By chance, she encounters Aden, a handsome, charismatic vampire with a hidden agenda. He turns Sloane against her will, and whisks her away to his underground city. Enemies quickly become friends as Sloane struggles against her attraction to Aden, and resists her growing loyalties to the creatures that ruined her life. But the vampires themselves are the least of her problems. The city is harboring a devastating secret, one that could change the tide of the war and threaten to destroy everything Sloane has come to believe in.

Nocturnal


Scott Sigler - 2012
    Homicide detective Bryan Clauser is losing his mind. How else to explain the dreams he keeps having—dreams that mirror, with impossible accuracy, the gruesome serial murders taking place all over San Francisco? How else to explain the feelings these dreams provoke in him—not disgust, not horror, but excitement?  As Bryan and his longtime partner, Lawrence “Pookie” Chang, investigate the murders, they learn that things are even stranger than they at first seem. For the victims are all enemies of a seemingly ordinary young boy—a boy who is gripped by the same dreams that haunt Bryan.  Meanwhile, a shadowy vigilante, seemingly armed with superhuman powers, is out there killing the killers.  And Bryan and Pookie’s superiors—from the mayor on down—seem strangely eager to keep the detectives from discovering the truth.Doubting his own sanity and stripped of his badge, Bryan begins to suspect that he’s stumbled into the crosshairs of a shadow war that has gripped his city for more than a century—a war waged by a race of killers living in San Francisco’s unknown, underground ruins, emerging at night to feed on those who will not be missed. And as Bryan learns the truth about his own intimate connections to the killings, he discovers that those who matter most to him are in mortal danger…and that he may be the only man gifted—or cursed—with the power to do battle with the nocturnals. Featuring a dazzlingly plotted mystery and a terrifying descent into a nightmarish underworld—along with some of the most incredible action scenes ever put to paper, and an explosive, gut-wrenching conclusion you won’t soon forget—Nocturnal is the most spectacular outing to date from one of the genre’s brightest stars.

In the Shadow of Babylon


John Schwartz - 2011
    The demands of our modern multitasking lives often distract us from applying these proven life lessons that create a more satisfying, happy and fulfilled life. It is an intriguing myth with a powerful philosophical core that speaks to the importance of ... creating ones own destiny through visualization ... living in the present moment ... controlling emotions and eliminating grief and sadness. Baghdad is in chaos. Sunni and Shia, free from the dictator Hussein, revive their religious hatred. Then, without warning, the children of Iraq rise up in protest against the killings. In the Shadow of Babylon is a powerful story from the past and how its message changes the present. During the reign of the last ruler of Babylon, Saddam Hussein, a crypt lined with engraved gold panels protecting an ancient scroll (pre-dating Hamrabi by thousands of years) is discovered--it is the oldest writing in the world. After the liberation of Iraq Alexandria Darshi, an Iraqi doctoral student and Bryan Feroz, a handsome professor of Middle Eastern studies at the University of Chicago, translate the autobiographical scroll of a warrior poet named Ayuba. When it is read during two worldwide television documentaries, moderate Arabs embrace the ancient warrior's secular voice. Threatened by the message, radical Islamists set out to kill the messenger. Ayuba, orphaned at age nine, wanders for two years in a barren desert inhabited by violent tribes. He is brutally enslaved by a band of reed gatherers. His rescue and adoption by a prominent tribal leader sets him on a course of adventure, war and fame. The courage, kindness and passion of a man who existed in 11,000 BCE touches the hearts of thousands of modern-day Iraqi children. Moved by Ayuba's wisdom and leadership they stand in peaceful protest against the raging jihadists. Many are slaughtered but, in the end, their example inspires the women of Iraq to join them in a nationwide demonstration of unity. In the Shadow of Babylon follows an ancient warrior/poet's dramatic life via a high-tension timeline that is both exciting and inspiring, and at times humorous and heartbreaking.

Jenny Pox


J.L. Bryan - 2010
    A lifetime of avoiding any physical contact with others has made her isolated and painfully lonely in her small rural town.Then she meets the one boy she can touch. Jenny feels herself falling for Seth...but if she's going to be with him, Jenny must learn to use the deadly pox inside her to confront his ruthless and manipulative girlfriend Ashleigh, who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all.* * *Not recommended for readers under eighteen.BONUS: Includes an excerpt of Glimpse by Stacey Wallace Benefiel.

The Devil and Preston Black


Jason Jack Miller - 2011
    These visionary paranormal urban fantasy novels contain elements of horror, dark fantasy, and magical realism, rooted in mythology and folklore.Preston Black has a nasty habit of falling in love with the wrong type of woman. But girls who don't play nice are the least of his problems. This handsome bar band guitarist isn't washed-up, but he's about to be. He's broke, he's tired of playing covers and he's obsessed with the Curse of 27.He's about to add 'deal with the devil' to his list.Lucky for Preston, he has help. Like the angelic beauty who picks him up when he's down. And the university professor who helps him sort through old Appalachian hexes and curses to find the song that may be his only shot at redemption. And when things get real bad, he has the ghost of John Lennon to remind him that "nothing is real."Let Raw Dog Screaming Press author Jason Jack Miller take you to a place where love is forever even when death isn't, where magic doesn't have to be seen to be believed, where a song might be the only thing that saves your soul.The MURDER BALLADS AND WHISKEY Series is a unique, literary, blend of dark fiction, paranormal urban fantasy and horror. It's Appalachian Gothic, Alt.Magical.Realism, Hillbilly Horror. It's AMERICAN GODS meets JUSTIFIED. TRUE BLOOD with witches. It's Johnny Cash with a fistful of copperheads singing the devil right back to hell. This is your ticket into a world where love can save your soul, where a song can change your destiny, and where evil still hides in the dark corners of the night."With this new book, Jason Jack Miller has single-handedly cornered the market on Appalachian Noir fiction, and deservedly so. The Devil and Preston Black is a page-turner laced with an audiophile's longing for the days when music was genuine, and the storytelling reminded me of a strange array of similar stories -- High Fidelity, Crossroads, Justified... -- yet it stood out from the pack as fresh, thanks to Miller's authentic Appalachian voice. Any lover of guitar music or the history of the blues will instantly see themselves reflected in the story, filtered through a noir fuzz pedal, amped up with the electricity of dark fantasy. Miller's flair for words is evident even in the title alone: I can't think of a more appropriate name than "Preston Black"! With just the right touch of magical realism, this hip take on the 'deal with the devil' story conjures up a tale that's vastly enthralling and compulsively readable. Highly recommended." Five time Bram Stoker Award winner Michael A. Arnzen."Miller infuses his tale of longing and self-discovery with so many subtle and overt (in a good way) nods to music and its creators that his passion for music is quite evident. Even if you don't know all of the references, you know the type of music gods he's referring to. He also has created such a believable character in Preston Black that you care about the many ups and downs Miller puts him through. The finale, which I won't give away here, literally sent goosebumps down my arms. I can't remember the last time that happened while reading a book. All in all, a great read from an author with a mature voice. I look forward to reading more by Jason Jack Miller." Glen Krisch's novels include The Nightmare Within, Where Darkness Dwells, and Nothing Lasting.