Book picks similar to
Taken by Adam Light


horror
short-stories
fiction
thriller

Control


Matt Shaw
    All they know is they're to have their actions monitored 24 hours a day and compete in a series of tasks with the knowledge that - at the end of the show - one of them will walk away with one hundred thousand pounds. But all is not as it seems and the truth - and danger - becomes apparent as soon as the doors lock them in on their first night and the first of the twelve is murdered...With no way out and The Controller instructing them to kill each other until only one stands - the housemates have no choice but to play the game in Matt Shaw's new psychological horror.Who will be victorious?

Serial


Jack Kilborn - 2009
    #2: Don't pick up hitchhikers, because the traveler you pick up could be raving nutcase.So what if, on some dark, isolated road, Crazy #1 offered a ride to Crazy #2...

The Benson


Karina Halle - 2011
    It occurs between books #2 (Red Fox) and #3 (Dead Sky Morning) and is the perfect primer for anyone interested in the EIT series.

School Reunion


Sam West - 2016
    The only problem is, the first time she hears about this invitation is when she wakes up cuffed to metal chair in a room she doesn’t recognise with five other strangers…Except perhaps they’re not so strange after all as it turns out they all have one thing in common: They all upset Jasper Black in school. Jasper Black, aka ‘Carrot Top’ hates each and every one of his old school ‘chums’. They made his life misery in school, and now it’s his turn to make them cry. This is his moment of glory, and he has a captive audience.Jasper Black believes in karma. And Jasper Black wants to play some party games…This is an extreme horror novella. It contains strong scenes of sex and violence.

To Read or Not to Read


Vincent Hobbes - 2011
    It was first published in 'The Endlands' (Jan. 2011) Gunter von Strauss owns a small bookstore. He carries something for everyone’s taste. He also carefully inspects each book, making sure they are safe to read. Who knew that choosing the wrong book could carry such a consequence.

Buy a Bullet


Gregg Andrew Hurwitz - 2016
    This is the story of Smoak's first outing as the Nowhere Man, where after completing a mission in Northern California, he happens to spot a young woman at a coffee shop. Brutalized and under the control of a very powerful, unscrupulous man, her life is in danger if she doesn't escape. And the only person that can help her do that is a man with the background and skills of the Nowhere Man.

The Clearing of Travis Coble


Jonathan Janz - 2013
    At least that’s what a jury decided twenty years ago. But like Lizzie Borden, Travis Coble was branded guilty by an angry public and consigned to a life of suspicious whispers and sidelong stares. Now, Professor Dick Myers wants to clear Travis’s name once and for all. An interview with the reclusive mountain man would not only bring Myers fame—it could save his job.But Myers will find more than a good story in Coble’s isolated shack in the Smoky Mountains. He will find the truth about what happened twenty years ago...and the true meaning of horror.A new work of terror from the author of the worldwide bestseller Old Order.

Blackwater Lake


Maggie James - 2015
    His father, Joseph Stanyer, has been struggling to cope with his wife Evie, whose dementia is rapidly worsening. When their bodies are found close to Blackwater Lake, a local beauty spot, the inquest rules the deaths as a murder-suicide. A conclusion that's supported by the note Joseph leaves for his son. Grief-stricken, Matthew begins to clear his parents' house of decades of compulsive hoarding, only to discover the dark enigmas hidden within its walls. Ones that lead Matthew to ask: why did his father choose Blackwater Lake to end his life? What other secrets do its waters conceal?A short (25,000-words) novella, Blackwater Lake examines one man's determination to uncover his family's troubled past.

Beneath the Willow


Gemma Farrow - 2013
    He'll do anything for her...at least he believes that. But all it takes is one shattering moment to change a belief; a few nights is more than enough to kill the belief. The world Thomas knows changes one night when he gets a phone call. It's Keziah. She's hurt. She's scared. She needs him. He gets Keziah home, but the horror has just begun. From that moment a darkling world embraces him. Keziah believes she has been bitten by a vampire. Thomas doesn't believe it. At first. But when one belief dies, it's because a new one is forming. As he fights to discount her story, Thomas tries to nurse her back to health, but it isn't working. He can no longer ignore the truth. She isn't solely Keziah anymore. Heartbroken, maddened, and hollow, Thomas has to make a difficult choice. Accept what his girlfriend has become or turn against her. Both choices demand a high price, but which is Thomas willing to pay?

Short Stories From 1929


M.L. Gardner - 2011
    And, as Maura scanned her own memories, it was a time that not a single other generation would ever fully understand. It was their time."Short Stories from 1929 is the first set of short stories woven from the threads of the novel, 1929. More than forty years after the Great Crash, Maura gathers friends and family for an evening of storytelling. From the tales she crafts a book for Jonathan, who has suffered a stroke and is now bedridden. Loved ones narrate accounts from long ago, moments mentioned but never fully explained in the novel, 1929 by M.L. Gardner. The Night of the Big Wind in IrelandThe Voyage to America The Last Christmas.

What Neither Star Nor Sun Shall Waken


Ryan Notch - 2013
    Where he will almost certainly be alone in the dark.Almost.

The Doll


J.C. Martin - 2011
    On a trip to the island, Joyce Parker's daughter falls in love with a beautiful but sinister doll. Soon after, she starts developing strange mannerisms that concerns Joyce. Her research into the doll's past reveals a dark history, and the curse of a lonely child spirit.

Madhouse


Miguel Estrada - 2017
     Faced with his parents’s divorce, eleven-year-old Lucas runs away from his house with the hope that his family will get back together to find him. On his way walking through the empty streets, he is picked up by a mysterious woman who offers to take care of him and provide him with a loving family. The boy then wakes up in shackles, confined to a bed in a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere and will have to face his deepest fears in order to survive in his new home. Join Lucas in a desperate attempt to get back to his family in Madhouse, the first published book from horror-thriller author Miguel Estrada.

Warped


Jeff Menapace - 2014
    Never-before-published!"Jeremy's Loss""Get off My Ass" Previously Exclusive!"Job Interview" Previously Exclusive!"Sugar Daddy""Sugar Daddy 2: Family Matters""Fish and Biscuits in a Barrel" Available only in WARPED"Five Card--Draw!" Available only in WARPED"Business is Business, James" Available only in WARPED"Princess"

Women and Other Monsters


Bernard Schaffer - 2011
    These are just some of the stories included in Bernard Schaffer's first collection, Women and Other Monsters. ***Vampires are assholes. They're not sparkly, reticent killers yearning for true love. They aren't gothic romantics who read poetry. They aren't even mysterious Romanians who turn into bats and terrorize the countryside. Really, they're just douche bags. - Room ServiceThus begins "Room Service," a dark comedy about a loser named Robbie who lives with his mom and dates a stripper. One night his girlfriend does a "private" with a suspiciously pasty customer and is never heard from again. As soon as Robbie figures out his girl was served up as a vampire Slurpee, he's out to exact revenge. Not that he has any clue how do it. But when you have nothing to lose and a bloodsucking freak to get even with, you don't mind improvising. ***Women and Other Monsters is the first collection of short stories by best-selling author Bernard Schaffer. Readers will have plenty more to feast on (nearly as much as Blake the vampire did in the story mentioned above), whether it's a Civil War Era woman too beloved by Death to die, or Ancient Astronauts who are only supposed to observe Earth, but instead tamper with humanity and trigger a history-altering event. Prepare to be seduced, surprised and sometimes horrified at the twists and turns that await as you venture into the darkness with Bernard Schaffer.***Women and Other Monsters is a short story collection recommended for fans of scary short stories, sexy short stories, superhero stories, secret agent short stories, horror stories and more.