Book picks similar to
Keeper of the Children by William H. Hallahan


horror
paperbacks-from-hell
fiction
danse-macabre

Toy Cemetery


William W. Johnstone - 1987
    Rooms and rooms of them. Dolls. Toy soldiers. Clowns. When he was a kid, his Aunt Cary's toy collection should have been a child's paradise. But instead he had been terrified by their staring eyes and limp arms.Twenty years had passed since Jay Clute set foot in Victory, Missouri. Twenty years of trying to forget that night--that hellish night of unimaginable horror. Now, his Aunt Cary was dead, and it's all been left to him--the house, the furniture, every last piece of her collection. And nothing had changed. Not the painted-on dolly smiles or the garish clown colors--or the tiny hands that were dripping with bright red blood...

Cellars


John Shirley - 1982
    Monsters made of blood arise from drains, an invisible hellhound devours human flesh, feral children stalk the shadowy streets and make murder a terrifying game. Occult investigator Carl Lanyard risks his life, his love, and his sanity as he battles the unspeakable forces of darkness. A modern classic by a master of the macabre in a new revised edition.

Orca


Arthur Herzog III - 1975
    He hunts in packs, like a wolf. Incredibly, he is the only animal other than man who kills for revenge. He has one mate, and if she is harmed by man, he will hunt down that person with a relentless, terrible vengeance--across seas, across time, across all obstacles.

The Manitou


Graham Masterton - 1975
    Karen Tandy was a sweet and unassuming girl until she discovers the mysterious lump growing underneath her skin. As the doctors and specialists are puzzling over the growth, Karen's personality is beginning to drastically change. The doctors decide there is only one thing to do, cut out the lump. But then it moved. Now a chain reaction has begun and everyone who comes in contact with Karen Tandy understands the very depths of terror. Her body and soul are being taken over by a black spirit over four centuries old. He is the remembrance of the evils the white man has bestowed on the Indian people and the vengeance that has waited four hundred years to surface. He is the Manitou.

The Hour of the Oxrun Dead


Charles L. Grant - 1977
    At night Natalie heard eerie sounds out in the fog, among the tombstones, unnatural sounds made by unearthly things. Natalie's husband had been born in Oxrun Station. He loved the town, and served it well - and in return it killed him. Ben's death had left Natalie isolated in a strange town she could not call her own. How strange and how deadly Oxrun Station could be, Natalie Windsor was about to learn. Once each year an ancient ritual was recreated, an ancient pact reinvoked - and Natalie Windsor was this year's sacrifice.

Spawn


Shaun Hutson - 1983
    An ex-mental patient, working as a hospital porter is reminded of his accidental killing of his baby brother years before, and he and an escaped convict, both disturbed, unleash a terror beyond belief.

The Nightwalker


Thomas Tessier - 1979
    He couldn't explain the morbid impulse that gripped him. Then it happened again when a playful race with a passing jogger spawned an animalistic urge. Now only the gruesome thrill of the hunt could satisfy his terrible hunger.

Somebody Come and Play


Clare McNally - 1987
    except in the rambling mansion where Myrtle Hollenbeck paced up and down like a mad woman, waiting for the return of her children.But Myrtle's waiting is soon over: one night she is found hanging from her daughter's skipping rope. Everyone believes Myrtle's death to be a case of routine suicide; everyone, that is, apart from Cassie Larchmont, the ten-year-old child who witnessed Myrtle's death, and Robert Landers, an investigating police officer who hears from Cassie how a dark shadow stood by Myrtle's side that fearful night.At the same time, Nicole Morgan comes into Cassie's life. Dark-haired, malevolent, dressed in quaint old-fashioned clothes popular decades before, Nicole seems bent on luring the other children into Myrtle's haunted mansion. The fabulous playroom they discover conceals untold horrors, while outside the terror that has lain quietly on the lake bed for thirty years rises slowly towards them. Only Landers can save them before that evil kills them all...

The Pack


David Fisher - 1976
    Ravenous hunger and violent rage have brought them together under a cunning, ferocious leader.Man has betrayed his best friend - now the dogs will have their day. It's a bitter winter, and the dogs of summer have grown hungry... and vicious!This new Paperbacks From Hell edition of David Fisher's The Pack (1976) features a new introduction by Will Errickson and the original cover painting by Lydia Rosier.

666


Jay Anson - 1980
    666 takes the reader into the world of evil that lies unsuspected behind the door of an ordinary-looking house: a house that reappears from time to time near any city, waiting invitingly, innocently, for someone to rent it, a house in which a dreadful, bloody, orgiastic crime recurs again and again, bringing its victims screaming to the very brink of hell—and into the hands of the devil himself.

Demons By Daylight


Ramsey Campbell - 1973
    • Potential [Severn Valley] - (1973)• The End of a Summer's Day - (1973)• At First Sight - (1973)• The Franklyn Paragraphs [Severn Valley] - (1973)• The Interloper - (1973)• The Sentinels - (1973)• The Guy - (1973)• The Old Horns - (1973)• The Lost - (1973)• The Stocking - (1968)• The Second Staircase - (1973)• Concussion - (1973)• The Enchanted Fruit - (1973)• Made in Goatswood [Severn Valley] - (1973)

The Kill Riff


David J. Schow - 1988
    Kristen, his beloved daughter, dying, pounded bloody and broken by feet and fists. Kristen, dead-as dead as Lucas' most hidden desires.In Lucas Ellington's eyes, the mindless crowd of rock n' rollers is blameless. His child was murdered by Whip Hand, the Ultimate Party Band. The main event.Whip Hand dissolved soon after the arena disaster but the musicians are still alive out there, still alive and kicking.Not for long. Lucas has sacrified one set of dreams; he will not surrender another. Instead of Kristen, he cradles revenge to his breast.His ultimate target: Gabriel Stannard. Whip Hand's lead singer.

Dead White


Alan Ryan - 1983
    The people of Deacons Kill have seen terrible storms before, and they settle down uneasily to wait it out. But this one is different. As the drifts creep higher, a train appears out of the storm, arriving on rusty abandoned tracks–an antique circus train bringing clowns...and shadows...and death

The Cellar


Richard Laymon - 1980
    Armed with video camcorders, these poor souls enter the forbidden house, never to return. The deeper they go into the house, the darker their nightmares become. Don't even think about going into the cellar.

The Black Castle


Les Daniels - 1978
    One is seen as evil because he is a vampire, while the other is perceived as good because he is a man of God. But the vampire only does what he has to do to survive while the churchman, an Inquisitor, inflicts pain for the power it confers upon him. Which is the greater evil? And who will win the soul (and body) of a pretty witch.