Book picks similar to
A Light in the Window by Margaret Lynn
gothic
pbooks-fiction
pulp
thriller-and-crime
Fright Night
John Skipp - 1985
He knows he will be the vampire's next victim. But no one will believe him: not the police, not his girlfriend Amy, not even the school weirdo, Evil Ed. Charley's last chance is to enlist the help of Peter Vincent, Vampire Killer, star of a hundred horror movies and host of TV's Fright Night.Nobody thinks he's telling the truth—until Evil Ed becomes a vampire and Amy is dragged into his next-door neighbour's evil, foul-smelling house of death!
Black Light
Elizabeth Hand - 1999
In fact, the whole idyllic hamlet of Kamensic, New York, is ready to party, for legendary avant-garde film director--and Lit's godfather--Alex Kern is coming back to reopen his fabulous mansion, Bolerium. But it won't be just any party. It'll be the event of all time.The whole town is invited, young and old, famous and obscure. But other, more disturbing guests are arriving, too--seen at the edges of the forest, at the margins of the night. Kern's connections extend far beyond Hollywood, beyond even the modern age . . . and in Bolerium's echoing halls a fearsome confrontation is gathering, between ancient powers of the darkness and those sworn to stop them at any cost, no matter what--or who--the sacrifice...even an innocent girl.
Bedelia
Vera Caspary - 1945
But is Bedelia too good to be true? A mysterious new neighbor turns out to be a detective on the trail of a “kitten with claws of steel”—a picture-perfect wife with a string of dead husbands in her wake.Caspary builds this tale to a peak of psychological suspense as her characters are trapped together by a blizzard. The true Bedelia, the woman who chose murder over a life on the street, reveals how she turns male fantasies of superiority into a deadly con.Femmes Fatales restores to print the best of women’s writing in the classic pulp genres of the mid-20th century. From mystery to hard-boiled noir to taboo lesbian romance, these rediscovered queens of pulp offer subversive perspectives on a turbulent era. Enjoy the series: Bedelia; The Blackbirder; Bunny Lake Is Missing; By Cecile; The G-String Murders; The Girls in 3-B; In a Lonely Place; Laura; Mother Finds a Body; Now, Voyager; Skyscraper; Stranger on Lesbos; Women's Barracks.
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.
Benighted
J.B. Priestley - 1927
They take refuge in an ancient, crumbling mansion inhabited by the strange and sinister Femm family and their brutish servant Morgan. Determined to make the best of the circumstances, the benighted travellers drink, talk, and play games to pass the time while the storm rages outside. But as the night progresses and tensions rise, dangerous and unexpected secrets emerge. On the house's top floor are two locked doors; behind one of them lies the mysterious, unseen Sir Roderick Femm, and behind the other lurks an unspeakable terror. Which is more deadly: the apocalyptic storm outside the house or the unknown horrors that await within? And will any of them survive the night?
Night of the Living Dead
John Russo - 1974
Filling the air with chilling howls, the dead are rising from their graves, bent on feeding on the flesh and blood of the living. They seek out human life. And these monstrous corpses will let nothing stand in their way as they hunt down the living to satisfy their own evil desires.
Nightmare Alley
William Lindsay Gresham - 1946
Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him.And since Stan is clever and ambitious and not without a useful streak of ruthlessness, soon enough he’s going places. Onstage he plays the mentalist with a cute assistant (before long his harried wife), then he graduates to full-blown spiritualist, catering to the needs of the rich and gullible in their well-upholstered homes. It looks like the world is Stan’s for the taking. At least for now.
Sepulchre
James Herbert - 1987
In that house there is a psychic called Kline who is part of its secret. The Keeper is guardian of the house, of the psychic, and of the secret. But now an outsider must protect them from a terrible danger. Halloran will combat men who thrive on physical corruptions; he will find love of a perverse nature; he will confront his soul's own darkness. And eventually he will discover the horrific and awesome secret of the Sepulchre.
Spider Light
Sarah Rayne - 2006
But once you have seen those things, you can never afterwards forget them..."Antonia Weston has come to the sleepy market town of Amberwood in search of peace and anonymity after a shattering and all-too-public tragedy in her life. But shortly after her arrival, a series of disturbing incidents occur -- incidents that eerily echo a past she is trying to forget. As Antonia struggles to re-build her life, she becomes increasingly fascinated by the macabre history surrounding her: the disused watermill, Twygrist, with its brooding darkness, and the now-vanished Latchkill Asylum. Memories of Latchkill still linger: memories of how, when the autumn dusk -- the 'spider-light' -- fell, no one would dare walk past its gates. Because a hundred years ago, people lost their identities inside Latchkill's walls. People such as the innocent Maud Lincoln, jolted out of that innocence by a brutal plot.But Antonia's fascination with the linked histories of Latchkill and Twygrist has alerted someone from her own past. Someone who knows all about Twygrist's darkness. Someone prepared to use that knowledge in the most horrific way...
Second Sight
David L. Williams - 1977
David Williams’s novel is a thrilling read, part love story, part mystery—a tale of time travel (or is it madness?) that keeps the reader guessing until the very end. Now back in print, this exquisitely written book is not to be missed.
Bad Ronald
John Holbrook Vance - 1973
Perhaps that was the trouble--no one really took a good look at Ronald. Except for his devoted mother, who saw only the son she wanted to see. Who, then, is Ronald? Ronald is that faceless unknown who waits - to take, to grab what he needs, to become the ultimate invader.
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.
Night Thunder
Ruby Jean Jensen - 1995
Four days later, his mother is dead, and a strange cult of religious wanderers have been brutally murdered by the terrified local farmers. In 1995, a gnarled sycamore tree planted over their graves is uprooted by bulldozers--and evil arises.
The Color of Evil
David G. HartwellFritz Leiber - 1987
In addition to nineteen superb stories of dark fantasy and horror, The Color of Evil includes a long, insightful introduction, which delineates the evolution of horror fiction, and, for each writer, notes which say something about the literature and the author's place in it.
Nightshade & Damnations
Gerald Kersh - 1968
J. Gahagan] · ss Courier Spr ’38 77 · The Ape and the Mystery [“The Mysterious Mona Lisa Smile”] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Jun 26 ’48 89 · The King Who Collected Clocks [“Royal Impostor”] · nv The Saturday Evening Post May 3 ’47 117 · Bone for Debunkers [“The Karmesin Affair”; Karmesin] · ss The Saturday Evening Post Dec 15 ’62 133 · A Lucky Day for the Boar · ss Playboy Oct ’62 143 · Voices in the Dust of Annan · ss The Saturday Evening Post Sep 13 ’47 161 · Whatever Happened to Corporal Cuckoo? · nv The Brighton Monster, London: Heinemann, 1953; Star Science Fiction Stories #3, ed. Frederik Pohl, Ballantine, 1954