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


horror
paperbacks-from-hell
fiction
danse-macabre

Slither


John Halkin - 1980
    Out of the murky sewers they suddenly attacked —snapping, biting, ripping at his flesh. After the first sensationalism had died down, the newspapers lost interest ... the experts dismissed them as no more dangerous than ferrets ... people started to forget.But Matt knew different. All the time they were growing in size and numbers — and they preyed on living flesh!For when they returned — slithering out of village ponds, swimming pools, even bath pipes — the fate of the British population was sealed.And there was no more horrifying way to die ....

Lupe


Gene Thompson - 1977
    In San Francisco, Emily Blake and her husband David, a dermatologist, by an old Victorian in Pacific Heights and hope to start a family. Emily's happy plans are threatened when David begins an affair with a beautiful patient named Jennie. A visit to a mysterious young boy in the Mission District named Lupe starts a chain of events in motion that result in Jennie's death -- by spontaneous combustion -- a murder trial, a media circus, and demon possession.

Let's Go Play at the Adams'


Mendal W. Johnson - 1974
    In the orderly, pleasant world Barbara inhabited, nice children -- and they were nice children — didn't hold an adult captive.But what Barbara didn't count on was the heady effect their new-found freedom would have on the children. Their wealthy parents were away in Europe, and in this rural area of Maryland, the next house was easily a quarter of a mile away. The power of adults was in their hands, and they were tempted by it. They tasted it and toyed with it -- their only aim was to test its limits. Each child was consumed by his own individual lust and caught up with the others in sadistic manipulation and passion, until finally, step by step, their grim game strips away the layers of childishness to reveal the vicious psyche, conceived in evil and educated in society's sophisticated violence, that lies always within civilized men.More than a terrifying horror story, Let's Go Play at the Adams' is a compelling psychological exercise of brooding insights and deadly implications.

Night Stone


Rick Hautala - 1986
    She couldn't believe they were really moving in. If it weren't for the wooden doll she had found in the closet of her new bedroom, she would have been miserable. But the strange hand-carved figure fascinated her, and she sensed with a child's instinct that she had to hide it from her parents...Hidden EvilIt was a house of darkness and shadows, but with her secret doll, Beth wasn't afraid. Not even when she heard the scratching and whispering at night. Not even when the tall massive stones of her dreams began to ooze with blood. For as she stared into the eyes of the wooden doll, she heard it call to her and felt the force of its evil power. And she knew that it was about to tell her what she had to do...

The House of Doors


Brian Lumley - 1990
    Trapped inside is a group of scientists, spies, and innocent bystanders. Part maze, part torture chamber, part laboratory, the House of Doors is a test. If its captives survive, the Thone will withdraw from Earth and leave us in peace. Survival seems impossible. At every turn of the labyrinth the prisoners encounter alien world and terrifying monsters ripped from their own subconscious fears. Only by defeating the demons within can these men and women escape the House of Doors and save the Earth.

Cutting Edge


Dennis EtchisonCharles L. Grant - 1986
    Pugmire and Jessica Amanda SalmonsonMuzak for Torso Murders by Marc LaidlawGoodbye, Dark Love by Roberta LannesOut There by Charles L. GrantLittle Cruelties by Steve Rasnic TemThe Man with the Hoe by George Clayton JohnsonThey're Coming for You by Les DanielsVampire by Richard Christian MathesonLapses by Chelsea Quinn YarbroThe Final Stone by William F. NolanIrrelativity by Nicholas RoyleThe Hands by Ramsey CampbellThe Bell by Ray RussellLost Souls by Clive BarkerReaper by Robert BlochThe Transfer by Edward BryantPain by Whitley Strieber

Ghost Train


Stephen Laws - 1985
    Commuter Mark Davies has been attacked and thrown from the train. Now he must team up with Ghost Train obsessed, ex-policeman Les Chadderton, before the predator disembarks for wider pastures.

The Wolfen


Whitley Strieber - 1978
    The savage killing of two New York City policemen leads two detectives, a man and a woman bound together by a strange, tough passion, to hunt down the wolfen, called werewolves in former days.

Night Train


Thomas F. Monteleone - 1984
    Now the final nightmare must explode. Now the killing frenzy must begin...

Nightscape


Stephen R. George - 1992
    That's when they came. The people who wanted to take him away...change him. Make him like them. They were more horrible than words could describe. And there was nothing he could do to stop them.Bonnie Laine watched her son in terror. Every day he changed a little, grew weaker, paler. Each night he woke up screaming "Don't let it get me!" And somehow she knew the horror was just beginning. Soon it would grow far beyond a little boy's nightmares.Shep Thomas had dedicated his life to destroying the creatures that killed his brother. And Evan was going to lead him right to their hiding place, the place they called the creche. And even though they were far fro human, he was going to send them straight to Hell!

Painted Devils: Strange Stories


Robert Aickman - 1979
    And we too become victims of the unknown forces he conjures. Against a wide variety of settings, Aickman's chilling stories unravel with the psychological subtlety and uncanny vision of a true master of the genre.

Son of the Endless Night


John Farris - 1985
    Ancient and implacable -- armed with sensuality, delusion and horrible death -- it will join itself to human weakness in an unholy alliance.Not since The Exorcist has there been such a powerful novel of demonic possession as Son of the Endless Night.

Caviar


Theodore Sturgeon - 1955
    Contents:1 · Bright Segment · nv * 28 · Microcosmic God · nv Astounding Apr ’41 59 · Ghost of a Chance [“The Green-Eyed Monster”] · ss Unknown Jun ’43 77 · Prodigy · ss Astounding Apr ’49 89 · Medusa · nv Astounding Feb ’42 112 · Blabbermouth · nv Amazing Feb ’47 138 · Shadow, Shadow, on the Wall · ss Imagination Feb ’51 149 · Twink · ss Galaxy Aug ’55

Nightlife


Brian Hodge - 1991
    Justin Gray, a former small-time drug dealer in St. Louis, has arrived in Tampa, FL, to start a new life. But on his first night in town his buddy Erik takes him to a disco, where he tries a mild dose of skullflush. Another of Erik's friends takes a larger dose and is tranformed into a ravenous beast who practically devours four people on the dance floor and then commits suicide. Local dealer Tony Mendoza begins a search for Justin, the only witness who knows what really happened in the disco that night. Mendoza himself is sought by the Yanomamo warrior Kerebawa, who travels to America to retrieve skullflush and avenge its theft before it is sniffed by too much of Tampa's "nightlife."

Julia


Peter Straub - 1975
    Then a pretty blonde child runs into view, bringing with her an inexplicable suggestion of evil.Once Julia Lofting had a husband and a daughter. But everything has changed since she bolted from her marriage, in flight from the unbearable truth of her daughter's death. For Julia, there is no escape. Another child awaits, another mother suffers, and a circle of the damned gathers around her. The haunting has begun . . .