Book picks similar to
Evil Lurking Within by Matt Shaw


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Identity


Ted Dekker - 2012
    Who am I? My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen and I'm about to die. I'm buried in a coffin under tons of concrete. No one knows where I am. My heart sounds like a monster with clobber feet, running straight toward me. I'm lying on my back, soaked with sweat from the hair on my head to the soles of my feet. My hands and feet won't stop shaking.Some will say that I m not really here. Some will say I'm delusional. Some will say that I don t even exist. But who are they? I'm the one buried in a grave. My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen. I'm about to die.So who are you?In a return to the kind of storytelling that made Black, Showdown and Three unforgettable, New York Times bestselling author Ted Dekker drags that question into the light with this modern day parable about how we see ourselves. Humming with intensity and blindsided twists, Eyes Wide Open is raw adrenaline from the first page to the last pure escapism packed with inescapable truth. Not all is as it seems. Or is it? Strap yourself in for the ride of your life. Literally.

Portraits of the Dead


John Nicholl - 2016
    . .Emma didn't know how long he hid in the large Victorian wardrobe to the side of her single bed. She didn't know how long he peered between the two heavy oak doors, and watched as she slowly drifted into fitful sleep. She didn't know what time he pushed the doors open and crept toward her in the darkness of the night.Now, Detective Inspector Gravel finds himself faced with a difficult case when this local nineteen-year-old university student is abducted and imprisoned by a sadistic serial killer, who has already tortured and killed at least five young women. And time is running out to save her . . .

Love Me to Death


Steve Jackson - 2002
    With twisted pleasure, he showed her two dead female bodies on the floor and a third, live one--naked, gagged and bound, and spread-eagled on a mattress. "Anybody Stupid Enough To Believe Me Deserves To Get Screwed!" Neal who called himself "Wild Bill Cody," was seductive and skillful at separating love-struck women from their money, and ultimately, their lives. 43-year-old divorcee Rebecca Holberton let Neal move into her townhouse and "loaned" him $70,000. On June 30, 1998, he repaid her by crushing her skull with an ax and wrapping her in plastic. On Friday, July 3, he brought another girlfriend, Candace Walters, 48, to the townhouse, clubbing her to death and desecrating the body. On Sunday, yet another acquaintance, Suzanne Scott, 21, watched helplessly as Angela Fite was murdered by Neal, who then sodomized and raped his bound captive. "Here's What Happens When You Mess With Me!" Apprehended by police, Neal, who proclaimed himself better than Ted Bundy, insisted on representing himself at the trial. Though the evidence against him was overwhelming, it was the testimony of Suzanne, who had survived Neal's unspeakable torture, that finally put this monster on Colorado's death row. Includes 16 Pages Of Shocking Photos

The Unwelcomed Child


V.C. Andrews - 2014
    It was me. I was born without a soul. . . .Elle Edwards grew up believing that because of her mothers sinful ways she was born without a soul; thats why she was abandoned and left in the care of Grandmother Myra and Grandfather Prescott, who try to ensure her evil will not infect them; by raising her in a virtual prison. Because her days are occupied with homeschooling, strict religious studies, and vigorous housekeeping in their upstate New York home, Elle knows practically nothing of the outside world, even as she emerges as a young woman with impressive artistic talent. But when she makes a secret, forbidden connection to vacationers at the nearby lake; a handsome boy and his precocious twin sister Elle. Will discovering the truths about her past send her future plummeting to hell?

The Man Who Killed Boys: The John Wayne Gacy, Jr. Story


Clifford L. Linedecker - 1980
    sexually tortured and murdered 33 boys. His friends and neighbors in his unassuming Illinois community never suspected a thing. Gacy was a Jekyll-and-Hyde figure, leading an outwardly normal life, but secretly brutalizing dozens of young men in a hidden lair, and concealing their bodies under the floorboards of his suburban home.Through extensive personal interviews with those who knew Gacy, veteran true-crime scribe Clifford L. Linedecker takes us on a shocking ride through Gacy's life, delving deep into the man's troubled past, recounting his appalling series of murders, and recreating the drama of his trial-- which resulted in his execution by lethal injection in 1994. Gruesome and horrifying, The Man Who Killed Boys reveals stark terror set amid the daily lives of an ordinary community.Documented with an 8-page photo archive

Night Chill


Jeff Gunhus - 2013
    Jack Tremont moves his family to the quiet mountains of Western Maryland hoping to leave behind a troubled past and restart his life. Instead, he finds himself caught up in a nightmare when his daughter Sarah is targeted by Nate Huckley, a mysterious and horrifying stranger driven by a dark power that will stop at nothing to possess Sarah. When Sarah goes missing, suspicion falls on Jack and he must uncover the secrets of the small mountain town of Prescott City and face the evil secret hidden there. As he digs further, he learns the conspiracy reaches more deeply than he could have imagined. Finally, he will have to face the question, What is a father willing to do to save his child? The answer? Anything. Anything at all.

Diary of a Haunting


M. Verano - 2015
    Worse yet, the drafty old mansion they’ve rented is infested with flies, spiders, and other pests Paige doesn’t want to think about.She chalks it up to her rural surroundings, but it’s harder to ignore the strange things happening around the house, from one can of ravioli becoming a dozen, to unreadable words appearing in the walls. Soon Paige’s little brother begins roaming the house at all hours of the night, and there’s something not right about the downstairs neighbor, who knows a lot more than he’s letting on. Things only get creepier when she learns about the sinister cult that conducted experimental rituals in the house almost a hundred years earlier.The more Paige investigates, and the deeper she digs, the clearer it all becomes: whatever is in the house, whatever is causing all the strange occurrences, has no intention of backing down without a fight.Found in the aftermath, Diary of a Haunting collects the journal entries, letters, and photographs Paige left behind.

Descendants


Stephen R. King - 2016
    King’s mysterious and thriller packed story vaults. Open up your imagination and let the vivid writing and frightening tales awaken your mind. Scream late into the night with more great horror for all your senses. Evil comes in many forms. Travel through the desert, speak with others from another world, and smell the roses in these incredible journeys and wild realities. WARNING: Not the famous Stephen King from Maine.

The Undertaker's Cabinet


David Haynes - 2014
    But there's something about Jacobs' killer smile that doesn't feel quite right. In fact it feels wrong, horribly wrong.There may be another way to save the business… Sell the exquisite antique cabinet that's been waiting in the cellar for another chance to do what it was created for. Bobby soon realises that's a bad thing, a very bad thing indeed...

Anansi Island


Christian Cantrell - 2010
    But throughout the island's history, its isolation also made it the perfect place to hide things the world was never meant to see.As Laurel finds herself entangled in the island's newest and most bizarre chapter, she must not only solve its mysteries, but also survive long enough to pass them on.This short story (about 7,500 words) mixes science fiction and horror with endearing and enigmatic characters who can only solve the mysteries of Anansi Island by facing their worst fears.

Jeremy: Evil Has One Name - A Horror Novella


Matt Hickman - 2015
    Jeremy does. Jeremy is a normal young boy. His father is a successful business man, and often spoils the boy with lavish, expensive rewards to compensate for their lack of quality time together. His mother is a socialite who feeds off her husband's healthy income; she spends more time at the salon than with her son, and considers Jeremy to be nothing but a hindrance. He has two best friends; Cole and Samuel. The boys have been close since primary school. The boys rarely get in trouble and perform well academically. They are generally respected by their superiors and their peers. When the boys start secondary school, a run in with one of the bullies results in a freak accident, one that puts Jeremy in a coma and leaves him fighting for his life. When he awakes and finds himself in rehabilitation, he soon begins to learn that something much more sinister has been awoken within.

The Face of Fear


Brian Coffey - 1977
    With a beautiful, terrified woman. On the 40th floor of a deserted office building. By the psyshopath they call "The Butcher."DON'T LOOK DOWNBecause you're an ex-mountain climber. Because a fall from Everest left you with a bad leg... and a paralyzing fear of heights.DON'T LOOK DOWNBecause he has slaughtered the guards and short-circuited the elevators. Because the stairways are blocked, and for you and the woman with you, there's only one escape route.DON'T LOOK DOWNBecause 600 feet of empty space are looking back at you."A real breath-taker... should hold you glued to its pages till the wee small hours." --West Coast Review of Books

Video Kill


Joanne Fluke - 1989
    They call it Video Kill, a shocker about a psycho who videotapes beautiful actresses as he murders them. But when the killings really happen, Erik and Tony must race to keep the video killer from finding more victims!

The Killing Moon


V.J. Chambers - 2013
    But she does.Six months ago, werewolf tracker Dana Gray barely escaped from Cole Randall, the wolf serial killer who kept her in his basement torturing her. Toying with her. He almost killed her, but he couldn't. He let her live.Now, she finds herself obsessed with Cole. His voice haunts her, hypnotic and liquid, flowing through her, both horrifying and arousing. She can't shut him up.At her job, she struggles with a bewildering case in which rehabilitated werewolves are going astray and killing again. From his maximum security cell, Cole claims he has all the answers. But he'll only talk to Dana.Maybe Cole knows something. Maybe he doesn't. Dana doesn't know. She only knows she's grateful for the excuse to go to him. And once she hears his voice again, she'll do anything to see him, whether it helps the case or not.

20th Century Ghosts


Joe Hill - 2005
    She kisses like a movie star and knows everything about every film ever made. She's also dead and waiting in the Rosebud Theater for Alec Sheldon one afternoon in 1945.... Arthur Roth is a lonely kid with big ideas and a gift for attracting abuse. It isn't easy to make friends when you're the only inflatable boy in town.... Francis is unhappy. Francis was human once, but that was then. Now he's an eight-foot-tall locust and everyone in Calliphora will tremble when they hear him sing....John Finney is locked in a basement that's stained with the blood of half a dozen other murdered children. In the cellar with him is an antique telephone, long since disconnected, but which rings at night with calls from the dead....The past isn't dead. It isn't even past...