Book picks similar to
The Face of Evil by Christopher Nicole


horror
paperbacks-from-hell
pulp
weird-fiction

Blood Roots


Richie Tankersley Cusick - 1992
    As Olivia grew into a young woman, her mother’s erratic behavior turned to madness, with fits of rage and despair over her childhood home, the grand plantation Devereaux House, which Olivia never knew. During her mother’s dark rages, Olivia dreamed of going to her family home and reclaiming her legacy.After her mother’s death, Olivia yearns to find her roots and meet the grandmother she never knew. Keeping her identity a secret, she travels to Devereaux House, where she is hired as a member of the household staff. At last, the doors to Devereaux House are opened. But Olivia can sense that something is not right, and soon she is drawn into a world of dark secrets, and a poisoned legacy of lust and desecration.

Echo Killers: A Dickie Floyd Detective Novel


Danny R. Smith - 2021
    A vehicle carrying seven soldiers was swept away in a flash flood. Four were killed, three were never found. Los Angeles, 2018. A runaway boy claims to have witnessed a murder. The story seems farfetched, but Floyd takes the case. Unsure, he turns to his old partner for a second opinion.But Dickie has problems of his own. He has been assigned a new partner, a good cop but one with a checkered past. It’s the last thing Dickie needs, regardless of how sexy she happens to be. When the two are sent to investigate a murder in Compton, Dickie recognizes the similarities to Floyd’s new case.Army investigators descend on South Los Angeles in search of AWOL soldiers, while Dickie and Floyd close in on the killers. Are their paths set to collide? In an exciting, action-packed police drama replete with perilous twists and snaky turns, this murder mystery will drag you beyond the yellow tape and into the minds and souls of killers and those who hunt them."A fast-paced novel filled with colorful characters and dialogue reminiscent of vintage Elmore Leonard. Brimming with true-to-life details that can only come from the pen of an experienced homicide investigator, Echo Killers has an authenticity which is rare among murder mysteries." - Phil Jonas"To say that I thoroughly enjoyed the book would be an understatement. Like his previous novels, this book was riveting for me. Hence the reason that I was determined to finish it in one sitting. It had me on the edge of my seat a couple of times so I just had to keep turning pages." - Moon Mullen"I am also a Michael Connelly fan and read all of his books. Connelly has a book out called Dark Sacred Night, which is currently number 2 in the best-selling list. Echo Killers is far superior." - Bud Johnson"Although I love the dynamics of the Dickie Floyd duo, I really liked the introduction of Dickie’s newest partner, Josie, who possesses both brains and beauty. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Dickie Floyd Detective Novel series, and I must admit this one is my favorite so far." - Michele C.

The Silent Ones #3


James Hunt - 2018
    Former Seattle Detective Chase Grant always gets his man, but when a case from his past forces him to confront some of the darkest moments of his life, he will be pushed to the brink of the law where right and wrong blur together.

Coastal Tuna (Coastal Adventure Series Number 4)


Don Rich - 2020
    Marlin sees this as a perfect opportunity for the fishing foundation to educate people across the country about the importance of protecting another fishery. He also knows that Mallard Cove Marina on Virginia's Eastern Shore will make the perfect new home for the show, and that its resident charter boats and crews will be part of a great new cast. While he is prepared to deal with the big egos of some of the old cast members, he hadn't figured on having a shadowy saboteur that wanted the show cancelled, and is willing to do whatever it takes to get it cancelled...permanently. Nor is he ready for the old cast members that will also stop at nothing to get re-hired and bring the show back south.So, follow the Mallard Cove gang as they deal with those old cast members, and they race to put a stop to the sabotage before someone else gets killed or the show becomes history!

Pishacha


Neil D'Silva - 2016
    Yet, inside, he has a tender heart that still pines for the lover of his previous human birth. More than a century later, when he discovers that his lover has been reborn in a rich Mumbai household, and is now a beautiful woman, his heart begins to beat again with a happy rhythm. There are monumental obstacles in his path though, the least of which is the fact that she loves another man. But, the biggest challenge is that she is human and he is demon. To make her his, he will have to become human again; and to accomplish that, he will have to fight holy men and witch-mothers and giants, and challenge the gods themselves. From the best-selling author of Maya’s New Husband, comes a tragic tale of forbidden love — Pishacha.

The Haunting of Rose Mansion


Clarice Black - 2017
    But strange events at the house have her worried for the safety of her charges. Steeped in horrific history Rose Mansion isn't a welcome place. Floorboards creak, doors open and close, and strange sounds resonate at night. Nothing unusual for such an old house. Surely? But Ashley feels there is something else. Something dark. Something sinister. As matters begin to escalate, she begins to doubt her own sanity...

Buried in the Basement


Brian Harmon - 2011
    

The Hell Candidate


Thomas Luke - 1980
    "Thomas Luke" is a pen name of Graham Masterton, prolific author of such books as "The Manitou." "They said Hunter Peale didn't have a hope in hell of getting elected. They were wrong... He was a kindly, moderate man - with a less than moderate chance of winning. Then it all began to change... What power did Peale now have that brought men to their knees in abnormal pain - and made women writhe with unholy pleasure? The answer froze the spirit like a chill, rancid breath from the foul grave-stench mouth of Hell - for Peale had entered into a monstrous pact with none other than the Prince of Darkness himself..."

The Consortium: Crime fiction from the heart of Wales (The Welsh crime mysteries Book 2)


Nicola Clifford - 2021
    

Man Found Dead in Park


Margaret Coel - 2017
    I love Margaret Coel’s writing because there’s never a misplaced step. She balances two opposing cultures with little room for compromise, which is good because this chick works without a safety net. It’s human nature, or certainly the nature of writers, to analyze another’s work when reading it, in an attempt to take the story apart like an acrobatic trick—kick off your shoes and try it out. Every once in a while you second guess them and follow them out onto that tightrope just to find where they might’ve slipped up, but Margaret never does and just when you think she has she’ll turn and wink, so keep reading. Like Catherine McLeod, the reporter protagonist of Man Found Dead in Park, Margaret embraces both the mainstream and native cultures, all the while maintaining the aspect of her writing that transcends the genre with a deep understanding of human nature. When a man is found dead in an Indian section of Denver where no one is talking, McLeod finds herself in conflict with Mexican drug cartels and an investigation that leads north into Wyoming's Wind River Reservation and what turns out to be her roots. Transformative for both McLeod and the reader, the width and breath of the story is easy to miss, because Coel’s writing has a heady narrative that holds a sense of wonder and romance—a place that a lot of other writers fear to tread. I sometimes wonder if she knows how good she is, but I think probably not. The humility of a few artists is what keeps them grounded, and even when she’s out there flying high, I’m pretty sure she has her head up but is feeling every twitch of the story through the soles of her feet. Navigating with the finesse of a Flying Wallenda, Coel never misses a thing, because the devil is in the details, and like her character, Detective Nick Bustamante, Margaret knows that these indiscernible little slights of hand are the thing that makes for great drama under the Big Top. So join Margaret Coel out onto that high wire where she works without a safety net. Just when you think you’ve got it all figured out there will be moments of insecurity, thoughts that will disconcert, and you might be tempted to look down, but don’t. If things get too hairy just reach out and take this daredevil performer’s hand, and she’ll grin that signature smile and make sure you make it back to safety. --Craig Johnson

Toplin


Michael McDowell - 1985
    With every revelation of the narrator's bizarre lifestyle and unusual acquaintances, the reader is less sure of what can be believed, until the line between actuality and fantasy disappears completely. McDowell has crafted an explicit and unusual nightmarish vision of contemporary urban life that embraces the range of social and sexual maladjustment. The narrator's calm, understated recitation of the unsavory events only heightens the horror; the fine illustrations match the surrealistic mood perfectly. An offbeat, puzzling, and disturbing work that should interest even the most jaded fans of horror fiction.

The Horror on the Links


Seabury Quinn - 2017
    P. Lovecraft, Robert E. Howard, August Derleth, and Clark Ashton Smith, all regular contributors to the pulp magazine Weird Tales during the first half of the twentieth century, are recognizable even to casual readers of the bizarre and fantastic. And yet despite being more popular than them all during the golden era of genre pulp fiction, there is another author whose name and work have fallen into obscurity: Seabury Quinn.Quinn’s short stories were featured in well more than half of Weird Tales’s original publication run. His most famous character, the supernatural French detective Dr. Jules de Grandin, investigated cases involving monsters, devil worshippers, serial killers, and spirits from beyond the grave, often set in the small town of Harrisonville, New Jersey. In de Grandin there are familiar shades of both Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes and Agatha Christie’s Hercule Poirot, and alongside his assistant, Dr. Samuel Trowbridge, de Grandin’s knack for solving mysteries—and his outbursts of peculiar French-isms (grand Dieu!)—captivated readers for nearly three decades.Collected for the first time in trade editions, The Complete Tales of Jules de Grandin, edited by George Vanderburgh, presents all ninety-three published works featuring the supernatural detective. Presented in chronological order over five volumes, and including all thirty-two original Weird Tales covers illustrated for de Grandin stories, this is the definitive collection of an iconic pulp hero.The first volume, The Horror on the Links, includes all of the Jules de Grandin stories from “The Horror on the Links” (1925) to “The Chapel of Mystic Horror” (1928), as well as an introduction by Robert Weinberg.

The Woodwitch


Stephen Gregory - 1988
    But he also has a dark side. When his girlfriend Jennifer laughs at his impotence, he lashes out in a violent rage, knocking her unconscious. At the suggestion of his employer, Andrew heads to an isolated cottage in the dark Welsh countryside to take a break and get a grip on himself. In the woods, he discovers the grotesque stinkhorn mushroom, whose phallic shape seems to rise in obscene mockery of his own shortcomings. But the stinkhorn gives him an idea, a way to win Jennifer back. As the seeds of obsession take root in Andrew’s mind, he embarks on a nightmarish quest, with unexpected and horrifying results. Stephen Gregory earned worldwide acclaim with his first novel, The Cormorant (1986), which won the Somerset Maugham Award and was adapted for a BBC film. In The Woodwitch (1988), his second novel, Gregory once again proves himself a master of disturbing and unsettling horror.

Willard


Stephen Gilbert - 1968
    Instead, he befriends the rats, learning to train and communicate with them. Before long he has the idea of using the rats for revenge against a world in which he has been a failure. His target is his hateful boss, Mr. Jones, who treats him with supreme disrespect and plans to fire him and replace him with someone less expensive. The narrator records his plans in chilling detail as his campaign for vengeance progresses from vandalism to robbery to the most horrific of murders...

Hole: A Ghost Story


Joseph Duncan
    Summer's last hurrah. For nine-year-old Eddie Gilmarten and his mother, who have fled to his aunt's home in the Shawnee Hills of Southern Illinois, Aunt Gene's isolated rural property is the perfect place to escape an alcoholic father. There are caves to explore and sprawling wooded hills to play upon, but all is not fine in this idyllic country setting. Eddie and his Ma aren't the only souls who have sought sanctuary on his aunt's sprawling property, although they might be the only innocents who have done so. There is a dark entity at large, one that might or might not be a figment of Eddie's fertile imagination, and a man of secrets with a twisted mind and a terrible appetite for innocence. Yet, even in the midst of pain there is hope, and valor may sometimes be found in the hearts of the wicked. For Frank O'Keefe-- the bank robber known as "the Fox"-- Eddie and his mother might not just be his only chance for survival... They might also be the only chance for his soul's redemption. Indian Summer is the latest novel by the indie best selling author of The Oldest Living Vampire Tells All and Mort. This novel contains adult situations, language and violence. It may not be suitable for younger readers. Approx. 80,000 words. Released June 2011 by Cobra Ebooks.