Book picks similar to
Redheads by Jonathan Moore
thriller
horror
mystery
first-reads
Remembering Sarah
Chris Mooney - 2004
Mike waits at the bottom of a precariously steep hill as stubbornly independent Sarah races up the slope with a friend. But she never comes back down.Mike now lives out every parent's worst nightmare. His daughter has vanished. His marriage is falling apart. And investigators are unable to pin their only suspect, a local defrocked priest, with any crime. But is the key to Sarah's disappearance hidden in the turmoil and despair that is burying Mike alive? Or is it in his family's troubled past? One person holds the terrifying secret....
The Reach
Nate Kenyon - 2008
She’s been diagnosed as schizophrenic and locked away in a children’s psychiatric ward. But that’s not what makes her special. She also has a very strange—and powerful—gift. Scientists have been studying Sarah’s remarkable psychic power for years, enhancing it, manipulating it…twisting it into something evil. But their plans have gone horribly wrong. How much longer can they control Sarah? And what will happen if her powers are unleashed?
Raveling
Peter Moore Smith - 2000
One of the brothers, Pilot, has come back home to take care of his aging mother, but his own mental state has not been stable since his sister vanished. He is determined at last to find out the truth -- but for every step he takes nearer the facts of that long-ago night, the less he trusts reality. And by the time he finds one incontrovertible piece of evidence, even Pilot cannot be sure what it really means.
The Year of the Storm
John Mantooth - 2013
The police were baffled. There were no clues, and most people figured they were dead. Only Danny still holds out hope that they’ll return. Months later, a disheveled Vietnam vet named Walter Pike shows up at Danny’s front door, claiming to know their whereabouts. The story he tells is so incredible that Danny knows he shouldn’t believe him. Others warn him about Walter Pike’s dark past, his shameful flight from town years ago, and the suspicious timing of his return. But he’s Danny’s last hope, and Danny needs to believe…
The White Devil
Justin Evans - 2011
When seventeen-year-old Andrew Taylor is transplanted from his American high school to a British boarding school—a high-profile academy for the sons of England’s finest—his father hopes that the boy’s dark past will not follow him from across the Atlantic. But blood, suspense, and intrigue quickly surround Andrew once again as he finds himself struggling with a deadly mystery left unsolved by a student from Harrow School’s past—the enigmatic poet Lord Byron.
A Requiem For Dead Flies
Peter N. Dudar - 2012
But the house on Battle View Farm has a haunting secret. As Grandma Vivian slowly slipped into madness, the brothers' lives became entangled in mortal danger. That summer of terror left them scarred and plagued by the family's dark secret. Now, years later, the MacAuley brothers have returned with dreams of breathing new life into Battle View Farm. But living in the house on Battle View Farm, they are forced to face their past and solve the mystery that began generations ago. And to face the ghosts that still haunt their family's legacy. A legacy written in dead flies. "Peter N. Dudar has just made me a fan. A Requiem for Dead Flies is beautifully eerie. There are very few horror authors working today who have Dudar's skill at putting ordinary people into such terrifying situations. The dark descent into memory and family secrets waiting for the MacAuley brothers is almost too much - it would be too much, too like a nightmare you just can't wake up from - if it weren't for Dudar's smooth eloquence. Seriously, the pages go down as easily as a fine bourbon. Just don't let your guard down, because like a fine bourbon, this book's got a bite to it. A first class chiller!" -Joe McKinney, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Flesh Eaters and Dead City "Peter Dudar's A REQUIEM FOR DEAD FLIES is an original twist on the modern ghost story. In rural New York on a lonesome family farm, Dudar layers on the tension in a perfectly paced narrative, leading to a surprising and horrific ending. A REQUIEM is an outstanding first novel and I highly recommend it." -Holly Newstein, co-author of ASHES and THE EPICURE, as H.R. Howland. "Peter N. Dudar is a natural born storyteller who brings his characters to vivid life. In A REQUIEM FOR DEAD FLIES, he gives us the tale of the MacAuley brothers who, in trying to get a fresh start, instead collide with a wall of grief, built from the debris of tragic family secrets. A bright new voice in the horror genre, and a book not to be missed." -L.L. Soares, Author of LIFE RAGE and IN SICKNESS
Inheritance
Joe McKinney - 2012
But Paul has a dark past, and a dark inheritance. The ghost of Martin Henninger has returned to make sure his son, Paul, delivers on his apocalyptic charge, the result of Martin's black magic, and he’s killing everyone in his path. With his two worlds colliding, and the body count stacking up, Paul soon finds himself the lead suspect in a series of grisly cult-style killings, and in an emotional standoff between duty, the truth, his wife, and his dead family. Meanwhile, Keith Anderson, San Antonio's best homicide detective, is hot on Paul's heels. His investigation takes him deep into the secrets of Paul's family. But what he finds there just might kill them both.“When I started reading Inheritance, my first reaction was one word—WOW! I kept reading, and I was blown away. Police procedural? Yeah. Horror novel? That, too. But most importantly—one helluva novel. Joe tells a roaring good tale, and when you finish it, you’ll have a lot to say, but WOW will be the first word out of your mouth.”—Rick Hautala, author of Glimpses and Indian Summer“An artful haunting with the gloomy quality of a Terrance Malick crime drama”—Weston Ochse, author of SEAL Team 666“With Inheritance, Joe McKinney delivers a first-rate supernatural thriller with edge-of-your-seat suspense, a high-octane plot, and pitch-black horror. Add to this mix strong characterization and an insider’s knowledge of law enforcement, and you have one of the best novels I’ve read in ages. I loved it!”—Tim Waggoner, author of The Harmony Society and Like Death“Joe McKinney has proven, yet again, that he is a true literary genius. Inheritance is a breath-taking thrill ride masterfully crafted to grip the reader, pulling them deep into the nightmares of its characters with a level of suspense that steals the breath from your lungs. Brilliant!”— Gabrielle Faust, author of Revenge and Eternal Vigilance“Joe McKinney delivers. Inheritance is a brisk, wry and deliriously creepy tale of family secrets and black magic that is guaranteed to get your goat!”—Harry Shannon, author of Dead and Gone and The Hungry
Relative Danger
Charles Benoit - 2004
Picture a dispute between black marketer and thief Russell Pearce and an associate-an associate who opens fire and murders Russell Pearce.Fast forward to present-day Pottsville, Pennsylvania. Young Doug Pearce, just fired from his steady job in the brewery, has never strayed far from home. But he's always found stories of his Uncle Russ, the family black sheep, fascinating. In comes a letter from an old friend of his dead uncle inviting him up to Toronto. Doug, at loose ends and bored with killing time, accepts. On arrival, he learns that wealthy and glamorous Edna has an agenda: she has assembled enough clues to solve the murder of Russell Pearce and to recover a legendary red diamond he was thought to be smuggling.Doug, nervous but game, agrees to play detective. How bad can it be to jet off to a glamour spot or two and have an adventure? Whoa! By the end of his first day in Casablanca, Doug knows he's made a mistake. And while he meets people eager to help-a retired museum curator, a beautiful and self-absorbed heiress, and her elderly father, a colleague of Russell Pearce-it becomes clear that someone else is interested in Doug, someone who is also looking for the diamond.From Morocco to Egypt to Bahrain to Singapore, Doug stumbles on. And whether he's escaping across Cairo rooftops, ducking bullets in a high-speed desert chase, or killing time in a crowded Egyptian jail cell, Doug is sure of one thing: He has no clue what he's doing. But surely he'll think of something as he's propelled full circle back to Singapore and the famed Raffles Hotel. He's definitely not 007...but will he prove to be a zero?
Supernatural Noir
Ellen DatlowPaul G. Tremblay - 2011
A detective caught in a war between two worlds... A man whose terrible appetites hide an even darker secret . . .Dark Horse once again teams up with Hugo and Bram Stoker award-winning editor Ellen Datlow (Lovecraft Unbound) to bring you this masterful marriage of the darkness without and the darkness within. Supernatural Noir is an anthology of original tales of the dark fantastic from twenty modern masters of suspense, including Brian Evenson, Joe R. Lansdale, Caitlin R. Kiernan, Nick Mamatas, Gregory Frost, Jeffrey Ford, and many more.
Mr. Wicker
Maria Alexander - 2014
Located beyond life, The Library of Lost Childhood Memories holds the answer. The Librarian is Mr. Wicker—a seductive yet sinister creature with an unthinkable past and an agenda just as lethal. After committing suicide, Alicia finds herself before the Librarian, who informs her that her lost memory is not only the reason she took her life, but the cause of every bad thing that has happened to her. Alicia spurns Mr. Wicker and attempts to enter the hereafter without the Book that would make her spirit whole. But instead of the oblivion she craves, she finds herself in a psychiatric hold at Bayford Hospital, where the staff is more pernicious than its patients.Child psychiatrist Dr. James Farron is researching an unusual phenomenon: traumatized children whisper to a mysterious figure in their sleep. When they awaken, they forget both the traumatic event and the character that kept them company in their dreams—someone they call "Mr. Wicker."During an emergency room shift, Dr. Farron hears an unconscious Alicia talking to Mr. Wicker—the first time he's heard of an adult speaking to the presence. Drawn to the mystery, and then to each other, they team up to find the memory before it annihilates Alicia for good. To do so they must struggle not only against Mr. Wicker's passions, but also a powerful attraction that threatens to derail her search, ruin Dr. Farron’s career, and inflame the Librarian’s fury.After all, Mr. Wicker wants Alicia to himself, and will destroy anyone to get what he wants. Even Alicia herself.
The Last Kind Words
Tom Piccirilli - 2012
Upon the razor-thin edge between love and violence lives a pair of brothers, their bonds frayed by betrayals and guilt, their loyalty to each other their last salvation.Raised to pick a pocket before he could walk, Terry Rand cut free from his family after his older brother, Collie, went on a senseless killing spree that left eight dead. Five years later, only days before his scheduled execution, Collie contacts Terry and asks him to return home. Collie claims he wasn’t responsible for one of the murders—and insists that the real killer is still on the loose.Dogged by his own demons, Terry is swept back into the schemes and scams of his family: His father, Pinsch, a retired cat burglar, brokenhearted because of his two sons. His card-sharp uncles, Mal and Grey, who’ve incurred the anger of the local mob. His grandfather, Shep, whose mind is failing but whose fingers can still slip out a wallet from across the room. His teenage sister, Dale, who’s flirting dangerously with the lure of the family business. And Kimmie, the woman Terry abandoned, who’s now raising a child with Terry’s former best friend. Terry pieces together the day his brother turned rabid, delving into a blood history that reveals the Rand family tree is rotten to the roots, and the secrets his ancestors buried are now coming furious and vengeful to the surface.A meditation on how love can confine a person just as easily as it can free him, juxtaposing shocking violence and sly humor, The Last Kind Words is the brilliantly inventive family saga that only a singular talent like Tom Piccirilli could conjure.
Sleepless
Charlie Huston - 2010
Gripping, unnerving, exhilarating, and haunting, Sleepless is well worth staying up for.What former philosophy student Parker Hass wanted was a better world. A world both just and safe for his wife and infant daughter. So he joined the LAPD and tried to make it that way. But the world changed. Struck by waves of chaos carried in on a tide of insomnia. A plague of sleeplessness.Park can sleep, but he is wide awake. And as much as he wishes he was dreaming, his eyes are open. He has no choice but to see it all. That's his job. Working undercover as a drug dealer in a Los Angeles ruled in equal parts by martial law and insurgency, he's tasked with cutting off illegal trade in Dreamer, the only drug that can give the infected what they most crave: sleep.After a year of lost leads and false trails, Park stumbles into the perilous shadows cast by the pharmaceuticals giant behind Dreamer. Somewhere in those shadows, at the nexus of disease and drugs and money, a secret is hiding. Drawn into the inner circle of a tech guru with a warped agenda and a special use for the sleepless themselves, Park thinks he knows what that secret might be. To know for certain, he will have to go deeper into the restless world. His wife has become sleepless, and their daughter may soon share the same fate. For them, he will risk what they need most from him: his belief that justice must be served. Unknown to him, his choice ties all of their futures to the singularly deadly nature of an aging mercenary who stalks Park.The deeper Park stumbles through the dark, the more he is convinced that it is obscuring the real world. Bring enough light and the shadows will retreat. Bring enough light and everyone will see themselves again. Bring enough light and he will find his way to the safe corner, the harbor he's promised his family. Whatever the cost to himself.It is July 2010.The future is coming.Open your eyes.
Stained
Lee Thomas - 2004
A secret, generations old. Another missing boy. They called the sadistic killer The River Rat, and he'd struck again. In a desperate search for his neighbour's son, Ted Lewis came face to face with the killer and survived, but his life was irrevocably altered. The residents of Marchand, Louisiana believed they were safe. The murderer had been captured and was behind bars. But the nightmare wasn't over yet. Because on that summer night, something passed between the two men. Memories of brutality and phantoms of countless victims torment Ted. His normal life is shattered, and he struggles to fight a growing presence that threatens to leave his soul stained forever.
The Hand That Feeds You
A.J. Rich - 2015
Everything she holds dear in life is taken away from her in an instant.Devastated and traumatised, Morgan tries to locate Bennett's parents to tell them about their son's death. Only then does she begin to discover layer after layer of deceit. Bennett is not the man she thought he was. And she is not the only woman now in immense danger ...