Book picks similar to
The Muse: A Novel of Unrelenting Terror by Arjay Lewis
horror
crime
thriller
paranormal
What Adam Wants: (a short story)
Michael Hebler - 2016
Days after losing her child while giving birth, Rachel, and her husband, David, are haunted by the incessant cries of a baby. It is their stillborn, Adam, and he wants something from Rachel... something deadly.
The Vanishing Wife
Barry Finlay - 2014
Mason Seaforth, a mild mannered accountant, wakes up the morning of his 20th wedding anniversary to find that his wife, Sami, has disappeared. A search of Sami’s computer uncovers a past she has buried for more than 20 years. Together with their strong-willed friend, Marcie Kane, he leads an investigation that takes them to a casino in Gatineau, Quebec. As the two close-in on Sami’s whereabouts, so do Aaron Marshall and his enforcer, Greg Johnson, AKA “The Force” - deadly serious men willing to kill the entire Seaforth family to protect Sami’s secrets.
Action-packed crime thriller with suspenseful storytelling and a surprising twist.
Mason is thrust into a race against Marshall and Johnson, thrown into a life that is meant for other people. He must put his quiet job on hold and quickly learn how to handle a Glock 17. Each decision he needs to make is deadlier than the last, and a wrong move could result in the death of his family. Written by one of Authors Show’s “50 Great Writers You Should Be Reading” list, in 2012 and winner of a Canada Book Award, comes a masterpiece nominated best e-book in the Thriller/Mystery category.
The Hunters Series: Volumes 1-5
Glenn Trust - 2014
Each bestselling novel takes the reader on a suspenseful and thrilling ride into the world of crime and conspiracy and into the lives of those tasked to bring them to justice - The Hunters. George Mackey, Sharon Price, Andrew Barnes and others make up the team of Hunters, working through their own issues and fighting their personal demons as they take down those who prey on the innocent. This special set of the first three novels in the series is made available on a limited basis.
Salvage
Duncan Ralston - 2015
The remains of a forgotten town rest at the bottom of that dark body of water — along with a host of buried secrets… Thirty years earlier, the town of Peace Falls had been flooded to build a hydroelectric dam, and its ruins remain below the surface of Chapel Lake. The strange disappearance of the town Pastor, along with many of the parishioners, still haunts the citizens of Chapel Lake. But does the church haunt the lake itself? Is Owen really seeing ghosts… or has he descended into the depths of madness? SALVAGE is the debut horror novel of author Duncan Ralston (GRISTLE & BONE). A disturbing story of depression, religious fanaticism, and the afterlife, SALVAGE seeks to illuminate the darkness within us all.
American Goth
Cyn Mackley - 2016
Trinity’s ready to lace up her Doc Marten boots to be a church lady and bake pies for the county fair, but is her hometown ready to welcome her back? With some help from her old friend Deputy Bobby Grace, she tries to solve the mystery of her Grandfather’s death and track down just who has been hell-bent on ruining her reputation. What she finds out could get her killed. You can take the girl out of the country, put red streaks in her hair, and dress her all in black, but you can’t take the country out of the girl. Pitchfork in hand, this American Goth is ready to find a killer, save the farm, win a blue ribbon for jam, and just maybe snag herself a good ole country boy.
Bad Games
Jeff Menapace - 2013
Some fishing, some barbecue, some games...The Fannelli brothers are heading to Crescent Lake too. Some stalking, some kidnapping, some murder, definitely some games...though not necessarily the type of games the Lamberts had in mind. But it doesn't matter. The Lamberts are going to play whether they like it or not.An intense psychological thriller, Bad Games has the dark, mind-bending chills of The Bad Seed combined with the fish-out-of-water dread and suspense of Deliverance. So let Jeff Menapace's highly anticipated suspense thriller keep you up all night as it delves into the mystery of nature versus nurture when comprehending the evil in man, along with the will and determination an innocent family must summon to fight back against horrific odds.
The Night Bird
Brian Freeman - 2017
When a series of bizarre deaths rock San Francisco—as seemingly random women suffer violent psychotic breaks—Frost looks for a connection that leads him to psychiatrist Francesca Stein. Frankie’s controversial therapy helps people erase their most terrifying memories…and all the victims were her patients.As Frost and Frankie carry out their own investigations, the case becomes increasingly personal—and dangerous. Long-submerged secrets surface as someone called the Night Bird taunts the pair with cryptic messages pertaining to the deaths. Soon Frankie is forced to confront strange gaps in her own memory, and Frost faces a killer who knows the detective’s worst fears.As the body count rises and the Night Bird circles ever closer, a dedicated cop and a brilliant doctor race to solve the puzzle before a cunning killer claims another victim.
Twist of Faith
Ellen J. GreenEllen J. Green - 2018
The photo shows a shuttered, ramshackle house on top of a steep hill. On the back, a puzzling inscription: Destiny calls us.Ava is certain that it’s a clue to her elusive past. Twenty-three years ago, she’d been found wrapped in a yellow blanket in the narthex of the Holy Saviour Catholic Church—and rescued—or so she’d been told. Her mother claimed there was no more to the story, so the questions of her abandonment were left unanswered. For Ava, now is the time to find the roots of her mother’s lies. It begins with the house itself—once the scene of a brutal double murder.When Ava enlists the help of the two people closest to her, a police detective and her best friend, she fears that investigating her past could be a fatal mistake. Someone is following them there. And what’s been buried in Ava’s nightmares isn’t just a crime. It’s a holy conspiracy.
Berkley Street
Ron Ripley - 2016
After a prolonged legal battle with his aunt and uncle, Shane has possession of the family home where his parents disappeared over 20 years ago. The house, a monstrous castle filled with ghosts and secrets, is more alive than its inhabitants.When his aunt and uncle come to town, then vanish, Shane's life takes a turn for the worse. Detective Marie Lafontaine immediately labels Shane as the prime suspect. And in a race against time, Shane desperately searches for clues about his parents.But there's something lurking beyond the walls and beneath the surface. Something sinister that has haunted him ever since he saw its face in the pond behind the house. And it isn’t happy that Shane is back.It isn’t happy at all.
Every Dead Thing
John Connolly - 1999
Tortured by the unsolved slayings of his wife and young daughter, he is a man consumed by guilt, regret, and the desire for revenge. When his former partner asks him to track down a missing girl, Parker finds himself drawn into a world beyond his imagining: a world where thirty-year-old killings remain shrouded in fear and lies, a world where the ghosts of the dead torment the living, a world haunted by the murderer responsible for the deaths in his family—a serial killer who uses the human body to create works of art and takes faces as his prize. But the search awakens buried instincts in Parker: instincts for survival, for compassion, for love, and, ultimately, for killing.Aided by a beautiful young psychologist and a pair of bickering career criminals, Parker becomes the bait in a trap set in the humid bayous of Louisiana, a trap that threatens the lives of everyone in its reach. Driven by visions of the dead and the voice of an old black psychic who met a terrible end, Parker must seek a final, brutal confrontation with a murderer who has moved beyond all notions of humanity, who has set out to create a hell on earth: the serial killer known only as the Traveling Man.In the tradition of classic American detective fiction, Every Dead Thing is a tense, richly plotted thriller, filled with memorable characters and gripping action. It is also a profoundly moving novel, concerned with the nature of loyalty, love, and forgiveness. Lyrical and terrifying, it is an ambitious debut, triumphantly realized.
The Girls Are All So Nice Here
Laurie Elizabeth Flynn - 2021
But then an invitation to her ten-year reunion arrives in the mail, along with an anonymous note that reads, “We need to talk about what we did that night.” It seems that the secrets of Ambrosia’s past—and the people she thought she’d left there—aren’t as buried as she believed. Amb can’t stop fixating on what she did or who she did it with: larger-than-life Sloane “Sully” Sullivan, Amb’s former best friend, who could make anyone do anything. At the reunion, Amb and Sully receive increasingly menacing messages, and it becomes clear that they’re being pursued by someone who wants more than just the truth of what happened that first semester. This person wants revenge for what they did and the damage they caused—the extent of which Amb is only now fully understanding. And it was all because of the game they played to get a boy who belonged to someone else and the girl who paid the price. Alternating between the reunion and Amb’s freshman year, The Girls Are All So Nice Here is a “chilling and twisty thriller” (Book Riot) about the brutal lengths girls can go to get what they think they’re owed, and what happens when the games we play in college become matters of life and death.
Thea
Steven Jenkins - 2016
But monsters come in many forms. Teenage boys, drug addiction, underage sex - single mother Sarah battles to keep these demons from her daughters.As the long nights of worry start to feed Sarah's paranoia, she must take desperate measures to save her family.Although sometimes, the only way to kill a monster......is to become one."The epitome of chilling vampire noir. Cements Jenkins' pre-eminence in the realm of terror."NATHAN JONES - Author of THE NOWHERE
Untraceable
Shelli R. Johannes - 2011
When her dad goes missing on a routine patrol, Grace refuses to believe he’s dead and fights the town authorities, tribal officials, and nature to find him.One day, while out tracking clues, Grace is rescued from danger by Mo, a hot guy with an intoxicating accent and a secret. As her feelings between him and her ex-boyfriend get muddled, Grace travels deep into the wilderness to escape and find her father. Along the way, Grace learns terrible secrets that sever relationships and lives. Soon she’s enmeshed in a web of conspiracy, deception, and murder. And it’s going to take a lot more than a compass and a motorcycle (named Lucifer) for this kick-butting heroine to save everything she loves.
Daughters of the Lake
Wendy Webb - 2018
Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. No one can identify the woman. Except for Kate. She’s seen her before. In her dreams…One hundred years ago, a love story ended in tragedy, its mysteries left unsolved. It’s time for the lake to give up its secrets. As each mystery unravels, it pulls Kate deeper into the eddy of a haunting folktale that has been handed down in whispers over generations. Now, it’s Kate’s turn to listen.As the drowned woman reaches out from the grave, Kate reaches back. They must come together, if only in dreams, to right the sinister wrongs of the past.