Book picks similar to
Village of Fear by Martin Jenson


horror
folk-horror
paperbacks-from-hell
pulp

Creature of Lake Shadow


Michael R. Cole - 2019
    Quick. Clean. Efficient. It was none of those. With police searching for them across the state, a band of criminals hide out in a desolate cabin on the frozen shore of Lake Shadow. Isolated, shrouded in thick forest, and haunted by a mysterious history, they thought it was the perfect place to hide. Tensions mount as they hear strange noises outside. Slain animals are found in the snow. Before long, they realize something is watching them. Something hungry, violent, and not of this world. In their attempt to escape, they found the Creature of Lake Shadow.

The Spirit Wood


Robert Masello - 1987
    It was the call of his own blood . . .  When Peter Constantine inherited a vast, remote estate, his life began to change.  Free at last from money worries, Peter and his wife, Meg, could relax—and Peter could explore his new, mysterious home. From the thick woods, the winding trails, the bizarre, sensual sculpture, came a pulsing, ancient call that stirred his very soul. Then he heard the music and saw the beautiful woman who beckoned him into the wood . . . into an ancient ritual, a blood curse, a world of violent, unbridled lust. Now his wife no longer knows him. Now Peter is transformed . . . into a pagan creature, driven by the suffocating need of animal desire . . . until pleasure is not enough, and no evil is forbidden, in . . . The Spirit Wood.

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!

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 Writhing: A Horror Novel


Abe Moss - 2019
    Sometimes it's better not to. Sometimes the truth is downright haunting. Alex watches from her bedroom window as the small, secluded town of Amberton sleeps: a bright, pleasant town with a dark, disturbing secret. Helen, her foster mother, is gone all hours of the night with no explanation. The neighbors, always friendly, always smiling, are also always watching. They know something Alex doesn’t. Something she shouldn’t… When three outsiders become ensnared in the town’s dark conspiracies, Alex witnesses for herself the nightmare hiding in plain sight. Together, haunted by their own pasts, these outsiders threaten to unstitch the town at its rotten seams, uncovering the gruesome truth writhing beneath the surface.

The Cartoonist


Sean Costello - 1990
    So you go on a road trip together, have a few drinks, a final fling before the long academic haul ahead. Young and bright, you feel the future surge beneath you like a sleek stallion, under your full control.But a series of small lapses ends in tragedy and now you're faced with a terrible decision: Do you take responsibility for what you've done and risk losing everything? Or flee into the night unseen, with only God and conscience as your jury?Sixteen years ago, Scott Bowman faced this decision...Now a successful psychiatrist with a loving family, Scott endures a judgement far more harrowing than any god or man could conceive. An ancient derelict appears in his practice, an apparently senile old man with a remarkable artistic talent. Otherwise disconnected from the world around him, this strange little man quickly demonstrates an ability to foretell events through his drawings.But before long Scott is left to wonder: is this eldritch prophet predicting events? Or shaping them?PRAISE FOR THE CARTOONIST"In THE CARTOONIST, Sean Costello creates a fast-moving read that mounts in tension while mixing horror with psychological anguish." —J. B. Macabre"Sean Costello's The Cartoonist is a wonderful blend of horror, psychology, and the power of suggestion that leaves you guessing right up to the very end!" —The New Jersey Grapevine

Borderland


S.K. Epperson - 1992
    For more than 100 years, its citizens have worked far outside the laws of man and nature, hunting down strangers, stealing their money and their lives. But the time has come at last for every one of them to pay for their unspeakable crimes. . . .

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
    

Tag - You're Dead


Douglas Skelton - 2017
    But it’s not because he misses Sam’s prize-winning steak pies… A dangerous man has arrived in Glasgow. He’s no small-town crook, and he’s leaving a trail of disturbing clues across the city, starting with the missing cousin of Queste’s new lover. Amidst a twisted game of cat and mouse, suspicious coppers and a seemingly random burglary at the judge’s house, Queste has to keep his wits about him. Or he might just find himself on the butcher’s block.

Hall of Mirrors: Tales of Horror and the Grotesque. Volume 2


Mike Bennett
    Return to the ruined pier at the farthest, darkest edge of the Internet and accompany Mike Bennett back into the Hall of Mirrors.This time around we have hell and damnation in 'Salvation'; a petty criminal in a tight spot in 'Give Me a Hundred'; something in the woods in 'The Green Man'; a revolting comedy featuring two men and a dog in 'Dessert'; a cockroach problem in 'The Exterminators; humiliation and horror in 'Wet Velvet'; and a ship bound for bloodshed in 'Night Crossing'.So, dust off your ticket stub and roll up once again for Hall of Mirrors Volume 2 – More Tales of Horror and the Grotesque.

The Fog


Dennis Etchison - 1980
    And deadly. A writhing icy mist pulsing with terror. It is too late to escape. Even now the people of Antonio Bay are cut off, engulfed. Along darkened streets, death searches them out. There is no sanctuary for the living. Those who are doomed will die horribly. Those who spared will suffer the endless fear of a soul-chilling night when the dead, finally, return for revenge.

In This Skin


Simon Clark - 2004
    From Vaudeville, through the big bands and up to the hottest rock acts, the Luxor had them all. It's closed now, a boarded-up relic, standing alone in a run down industrial part of town. But the old dance hall isn't empty. A hideous presence lives there, a monstrous evil that has the ability to invade people's fantasies and nightmares . . . and bring them to life. Three strangers will soon learn the extent of the dance hall's power. As their lives become more and more entangled in its inescapable web, they will come to see that what haunts the Luxor is far worse than any ghost.

The Witches


Peter Curtis - 1960
    But dreams can change into nightmares...When one of her students accuses his friend Ethel's grandmother of abusing her, Miss Mayfield cannot let it go. But Ethel won't say anything, despite the evidence of Miss Mayfield's own eyes. But as she attempts to get to the truth of the matter, she stumbles on something far more sinister. Walwyk seems to be in the grip of a centuries-old evil, and anybody who questions events in the village does not last long.Death stalks more than one victim, and Miss Mayfield begins to realise that if she's not careful, she will be the next to die...

The Basement


Bari Wood - 1995
    She's content with pretty much everything in her life--except with her basement. Even after a renovation, Myra can't go down there without a sense of dread. Her fear deepens when she learns that a body was buried there--the body of Goody Redman, a woman hanged for witchcraft 300 years before.