Book picks similar to
The Walls of the Castle by Tom Piccirilli
horror
fiction
novellas
favorites
Under the Lake
Stuart Woods - 1986
This placid body of water has brought prosperity to an isolated community, and with it, two strangers who intermingle with the insular local folk, strangers probing into crimes against nature from generations past that cannot remain submerged beneath the waters’ surface.Under the Lake marks the eagerly awaited return to the South of Stuart's Edgar Award winning novel, Chiefs. John Howell, once a top investigative journalist, comes to this backcountry town on the run from a once promising personal and professional life that has somehow gone sour. What he finds is a mystery so deep, so complex, so bizarre, that he cannot concentrate on the book he has come here to write.The story begins with his entanglement in a subtle, but relentless battle waged by the autocratic town father and the local sheriff against an outcast family, ravaged by its origins. Howell is further drawn in by his involvement with two women – an ambitious young reporter on the prowl for corruption, and a shy backwoods beauty, forsaken by the world because of her family’s ill kept secret. Then, without warning, visits from an otherworldly young girl haunt Howell as his rustic cabin becomes a spectral theater offering strange and frightening images of a hideous event of long ago.
The Dark Country
Dennis Etchison - 1982
Dick and Thomas Harris, Etchinson's award-winning fiction is justly known for its creepy ambiance.
Burnt Offerings
Robert Marasco - 1973
They find a beautiful old country mansion on Long Island -- restful, secluded, with pool and private beach -- perfect, for the right people. But their "perfect" summer home hides terrors beyond their wildest imaginings. During that long summer the house becomes a nightmare from which there seems to be no escape.
Other People's Shit
C.V. Hunt - 2013
People are turning into clowns. Society isn’t interested in finding a cure or treating the infected as humans. But when unconventional couriers begin to harass the contaminated, and clowns start disappearing, a band of transformed coworkers set out to find answers.
Little Lies
Heather Gudenkauf - 2014
Positioned beneath a statue of Leto, the goddess of motherhood, the crime is weighted with meaning and, Ellen discovers, remarkably similar to one from a decade past.Ellen's professional duty is to protect the child, but she's not equipped to contend with a killer. As she races to connect the dots, she knows her time is running out. And the stakes are high: if she fails, another mother is sure to make the ultimate sacrifice.
Innocents Lost
Michael McBride - 2010
Her father, FBI Special Agent Phil Preston of the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment Team, devotes his life to finding her and discovers a pattern in a recent string of abductions. Dr. Les Grant leads a group of graduate students into the Wyoming wilderness in search of an unidentified Native American medicine wheel photographed by an anonymous hiker. Instead, they stumble upon a macabre tableau of suffering. Fremont County Sheriff Keith Dandridge finds himself right at the heart of the mystery when twenty-seven bodies are disinterred in the Wind River Range at the westernmost edge of his jurisdiction, with the promise of more to come. All the while, an unknown evil is summoning the men to its killing grounds, where the remains of the lost innocents are left to rot...and a fate far worse than death awaits them.
Last Days
Brian Evenson - 2009
The story follows Kline, a brutally dismembered detective forcibly recruited to solve a murder inside the cult. As Kline becomes more deeply involved with the group, he begins to realize the stakes are higher than he previously thought. Attempting to find his way through a maze of lies, threats, and misinformation, Kline discovers that his survival depends on an act of sheer will. Last Days was first published in 2003 as a limited edition novella titled The Brotherhood of Mutilation. Its success led Evenson to expand the story into a full-length novel. In doing so, he has created a work that’s disturbing, deeply satisfying, and completely original.
Some of Your Blood
Theodore Sturgeon - 1961
Inside this folder are the letters, memos and transcripts for a young soldier named George Smith, a quiet young man with a terrible past and a shocking secret. As Outerbridge conducts George's therapy, he gradually discovers the truth about George's traumatic childhood, his twisted romance with an older woman named Anna, and the unusual obsession George keeps hidden from the world. With the masterful touch that earned him the Hugo and Nebula awards, Theodore Sturgeon creates a character capable both of unsettling violence and irresistible humanity.
The Missing Years
Lexie Elliott - 2019
The other half belongs to a man who disappeared without a trace twenty-seven years ago—her father.Leaving London behind to settle the inheritance from her mother’s estate, Ailsa returns to her childhood home, nestled amongst the craggy peaks of the Scottish Highlands, joined by the half-sister who’s almost a stranger to her.Ailsa can’t escape the claustrophobic feeling that the house itself is watching her—as if her past hungers to consume her. She also can’t ignore how the neighbourhood animals refuse to set one foot within the gates of the garden.When the first nighttime intruder shows up, Ailsa fears that the manor’s careless rugged beauty could cost her everything.
You Should Have Left
Daniel Kehlmann - 2016
New surroundings and new ideas, a new beginning. Fresh air."These are the opening lines of the journal kept by the narrator of Daniel Kehlmann's spellbinding new novel: the record of the seven days that he, his wife, and his four-year-old daughter spend in a house they have rented in the mountains of Germany—a house that thwarts the expectations of his recollection and seems to defy the very laws of physics. The narrator is eager to finish a screenplay, entitled Marriage, for a sequel to the movie that launched his career, but something he cannot explain is undermining his convictions and confidence, a process he is recording in this account of the uncanny events that unfold as he tries to understand what, exactly, is happening around him—and in himself.
The Unremarkable Heart
Karin Slaughter - 2010
In The Unremarkable Heart she has turned her talents to a gripping story that will chill you to the bone.This eBook exclusive includes extra material: the first chapter of her new paperback, Broken, out this June. And the first chance to read the opening chapter to her compelling new novel, Fallen, out in hardback this July.
Avenue of Regrets
R.J. Piñeiro - 2018
. . Worthy of Hitchcock." --Publishers Weekly Your spouse and infant son died in a tragic accident, or so you thought.And on the same night you were accused of a crime you can't remember committing. "A Superb Psychological Thriller." --Douglas Preston"Rife with suspense." --Kirkus Reviews Yet, you were exonerated, somehow. And you even found the strength to go on, to try to make amends by starting a shelter for battered women. You think, hope--even pray--that by helping those abused, those living in fear, that your dark days will be behind you, allowing you to emerge from this long avenue of regrets. "A hard-hitting examination of regrets, atonement, and acknowledging sins committed and those imagined." --Midwest Book Reviews But on the seventh anniversary of that terrible night, you learn that everything that happened seven years ago--everything--was not as it had seemed. "Greed, violence, and the hope of redemption are the defining themes of Avenue of Regrets, a non-stop action thriller." --Foreword Reviews This revelation propels you into a world of corruption and violence you never knew existed. Still, you won't stop--can't stop. How could you? Someone killed your family, and you must search for the truth . . . no matter the cost. "A riveting crime thriller." --Cheryl Kay Tardiff HAUNTED BY THE PAST. SEARCHING FOR THE TRUTH.AVENUE OF REGRETS.
The Bear Who Wouldn't Leave
J.H. Moncrieff - 2015
He soon learns he was right to be wary. Edgar is no ordinary toy, and he doesn’t like being rejected. When Josh banishes him to the closet, terrible things begin to happen.Desperate to be rid of the bear, Josh engages the help of a friend. As the boys’ efforts rebound on them with horrifying results, Josh is forced to accept the truth—Edgar will always get even.