Book picks similar to
The Girl in the Basement by Wayne Simmons
horror
rape-victim
horror-paranormal
march-21
I Will Make You Pay
Teresa Driscoll - 2019
A mysterious caller with a chilling threat. Journalist Alice Henderson hangs up, ready to dismiss it as a hoax against the newspaper. But the next Wednesday, the stalker makes another move—and it becomes clear that this is all about Alice.Someone wants her to suffer, but for what? Her articles have made her a popular local champion—could it be her past rather than her work that’s put her life in danger? Alice is determined not to give in to fear, but with the police investigation at a dead end, her boyfriend insists on hiring private investigator Matthew Hill.With every passing Wednesday the warnings escalate, until it’s not only Alice but also her family in the stalker’s sights. As her tormentor closes in, can Alice uncover what she’s being punished for before the terrifying threats become an unthinkable reality?
Creepy Crawly (DI Jake Sawyer, #1)
Andrew Lowe - 2018
Sharp, tough and pathologically fearless.Now he’s quit the capital and returned to his home town in England’s Peak District, to investigate the savage murder of his mother, thirty years earlier.When the body of a teenage boy is found in a shallow grave, close to woodland where Sawyer used to play as a child, he’s called in to help decode the killer’s nightmarish methods.But as the victims stack up and the case takes an unexpected turn, Sawyer must risk his own life to hunt the hunter and save an innocent.
Creepy Crawly is Book One in the DI Jake Sawyer series. Dive in now and discover a new breed of detective, with stories that reveal the dark side of one of England's brightest beauty spots.
Praise for Andrew Lowe:"Prose that gets under your flesh and into your bones.""Taut and compelling. Not a wasted word.""Plot and character perfectly intertwined.""Keeps you reading through the night.""Poetic and utterly gripping."(Amazon reviews).
Gabriel
Tracie Podger - 2016
My wife had been murdered and I made it my mission to find out why and by whom. But when the ‘why’ and the ‘whom’ invaded my small town, my house, my life, and turned it upside down, it brought more death and devastation. When you don’t know your enemy it’s hard to know who to trust. I had the greatest religion on earth on one side and a mad man on the other. I was stuck in the middle. My name is Gabriel. I had a perfect life, a perfect wife, and now I am fighting for justice. A dark, epic thriller for readers over the age of 18.
Someone Else's Skin
Sarah Hilary - 2014
Five years ago, her family home was the scene of a shocking and bloody crime that left her parents dead and her foster brother in prison. Marnie doesn’t talk much about her personal life, preferring to focus on work. Not even her partner, DS Noah Jake, knows much about Marnie’s past. Though as one of the few gay officers on the force and half Jamaican to boot, Noah’s not one to overshare about his private life either. Now Marnie and Noah are tackling a case of domestic violence, and a different brand of victim.Hope Proctor stabbed her husband in desperate self-defense. A crowd of witnesses in the domestic violence shelter where she’s staying saw it happen, but none of them are telling quite the same story, and the simple question remains: how did Leo Proctor get in to the secure shelter? Marnie and Noah shouldn’t even have been there when it happened but they were interviewing another resident, Ayana Mirza. They’re trying to get Ayana to testify against her brothers for pouring bleach on her face for bringing dishonor to the family, and blinding her in one eye. But Ayana knows that her brothers are looking for her, and she has no doubt that they’ll kill her this time.As the violence spirals, engulfing the residents of the women's shelter, Marnie finds herself drawn into familiar territory: A place where the past casts long shadows and she must tread carefully to survive.
Jimmy
William Malmborg - 2011
For Jimmy Hawthorn it is even worse. Not only does he need to successfully make that transition, he has to do it while hiding the fact that he is the one responsible for the disappearances of two fellow high school girls, both of whom are prisoners in a secret underground fallout shelter he discovered behind an abandoned house on the outskirts of town.
Stillhouse Lake
Rachel Caine - 2017
But when a car accident reveals her husband’s secret life as a serial killer, she must remake herself as Gwen Proctor—the ultimate warrior mom.With her ex now in prison, Gwen has finally found refuge in a new home on remote Stillhouse Lake. Though still the target of stalkers and Internet trolls who think she had something to do with her husband’s crimes, Gwen dares to think her kids can finally grow up in peace.But just when she’s starting to feel at ease in her new identity, a body turns up in the lake—and threatening letters start arriving from an all-too-familiar address. Gwen Proctor must keep friends close and enemies at bay to avoid being exposed—or watch her kids fall victim to a killer who takes pleasure in tormenting her. One thing is certain: she’s learned how to fight evil. And she’ll never stop.
Darkness Under the Sun
Dean Koontz - 2010
There once was a killer who knew the night, its secrets and rhythms. How to hide within its shadows. When to hunt. He roamed from town to town, city to city, choosing his prey for their beauty and innocence. His cruelties were infinite, his humanity long since forfeit. But still . . . he had not yet discovered how to make his special mark among monsters, how to come fully alive as Death. This is the story of how he learned those things, and of what we might do to ensure that he does not visit us.
Stolen Lives: The Heart Breaking Story of a Trafficking Victim
Brandy Sullivan - 2014
I didn't struggle with anyone after that. My nose was broken and I was covered in blood and filth from the men who came to the room…. I had survived my first day as a captive, well my body had survived, something broke inside me…my soul, my spirit, whatever you want to call it. I lost my ability to hope and dream. ********** Mark's chair scraped across the floor and fell with a loud bang as he jumped back from the table. He ran to the sink feeling nauseous, but all he could do was dry heave. Was all of this real? He just couldn't believe what he was reading….. The girl with the blue-eyes, eyes so filled with agony he almost couldn't bear to look at them, had entrusted him with her secret. She had looked to him to save her. Mark felt lost in a whirlwind of emotions as he realized he might be her only hope of survival.
Hanging Hill
Mo Hayder - 2010
Married to a successful business man, she’s always been a bit of a dreamer. Until now.Her sister Zoe is her polar opposite. A detective inspector working out of Bath Central, she loves her job, and oozes self-confidence. No one would guess that she hides a crippling secret that dates back twenty years, and which – if exposed – may destroy her.Then Sally’s daughter gets into difficulties, and Sally finds she needs cash – lots of it – fast. With no one to help her, she is forced into a criminal world of extreme pornography and illegal drugs; a world in which teenage girls can go missing.Two sisters intent on survival. Until one does something so terrifying that there’s no way back …
The Beautiful Dead
Belinda Bauer - 2016
. . Eve Singer needs death. With her career as a TV crime reporter flagging, she’ll do anything to satisfy her ghoulish audience.The killer needs death too. He even advertises his macabre public performances, where he hopes to show the whole world the beauty of dying.When he contacts Eve, she welcomes the chance to be first with the news from every gory scene. Until she realizes that the killer has two obsessions.One is public murder. And the other one is her . . .
Singularity
Joe Hart - 2013
He's become weathered and haunted by the harsh reality of his career yet continues on despite a crippling personal loss. But when one of the largest penitentiaries in Minnesota calls requesting an investigation into an inmate's brutal death, even his expertise is pushed to the limit.Singleton Penitentiary, located in the middle of an inhospitable swamp, has become an island amidst a torrential flood. The prisoners are silent, the staff is belligerent, and the murder committed in one of the solitary confinement cells is unimaginable.Cut off from the outside world and faced with insurmountable odds, Shale must uncover a secret stretching back half a century and race against time to save himself and perhaps all of humanity from an insidious threat, that may not be human.
It Waits on the Top Floor
Ben Farthing - 2021
She hires a team to reverse-engineer the overnight construction. But she knows more than she’s letting on.A curious 9-year-old decides there’s treasure inside, and goes exploring. His terrified dad chases close behind.Inside, the facade of an empty office building is quickly shattered. Ghostly figures stalk the explorers. The walls themselves are hungry. And something is waiting on the top floor.
Daughter
Jane Shemilt - 2014
The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios—kidnapping, murder—seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter’s disappearance, she’s still digging for answers—and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she’s trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she’d raised.
The Morecambe Bay Trilogy 1: Left for Dead, Circle of Lies & Truth Be Told: The first trilogy in one collection!
Paul J. Teague - 2020
Two guilty secrets. A memory that won't stay buried ... When Charlotte and Will Grayson return to the seaside resort where they met as teenagers, they hope it'll help to heal the wounds in their marriage. But visiting the dilapidated holiday camp where their relationship began brings terrible memories back from the past. The man who'd once made their lives hell has come back to find them - only, the last time they saw him, they'd left him for dead on the beach. As the threats to their new life become more severe, Charlotte and Will discover that they were mistaken about what happened to Bruce Craven on that fateful night. And now he's returned to finish off what was started thirty years ago. Sometimes the past is best left alone Circle Of Lies Five powerful men. One desperate woman. A seaside town rocked to its core ... When Charlotte Grayson discovers a local author dead in her seaside guest house she’s determined to find out what drove such a successful man to take his life at the pinnacle of his career. After an old newspaper cutting is sent linking the writer to a powerful group of men in the town, Charlotte starts to suspect it wasn’t suicide. Joining forces with a local newspaper reporter, Charlotte soon finds that the sleepy resort conceals many dark secrets. As more bodies are found it seems the resort is at the mercy of a serial killer hellbent on taking revenge. But the truth lies closer to home and Charlotte must confront her own past first before she can remove her family from danger. How far would you go to protect your family’s darkest secret? Truth Be Told An evil man. A quest for revenge. A woman who will do anything to save her family. A truth that must be told ... Charlotte Grayson is caught up with something bigger and more dangerous than she could ever have imagined. What appeared to be a run-down seaside resort has become a living nightmare for her and her family. Now living under the threat of a violent reprisal, Charlotte discovers help where she least expected it. The seaside town has been at the mercy of a powerful group of men for several decades - but that's all about to end. As Charlotte fights to protect her daughter from a vile corruption, she must finally put to rest the demons of her past. This is one night in Morecambe that she'll never forget. In the final reckoning, the full truth must be told ... Buy the entire Morecambe Bay trilogy in one collection!
Behind Closed Doors
B.A. Paris - 2016
He has looks and wealth; she has charm and elegance. He’s a dedicated attorney who has never lost a case; she is a flawless homemaker, a masterful gardener and cook, and dotes on her disabled younger sister. Though they are still newlyweds, they seem to have it all. You might not want to like them, but you do. You’re hopelessly charmed by the ease and comfort of their home, by the graciousness of the dinner parties they throw. You’d like to get to know Grace better.But it’s difficult, because you realize Jack and Grace are inseparable.Some might call this true love. Others might wonder why Grace never answers the phone. Or why she can never meet for coffee, even though she doesn’t work. How she can cook such elaborate meals but remain so slim. Or why she never seems to take anything with her when she leaves the house, not even a pen. Or why there are such high-security metal shutters on all the downstairs windows.Some might wonder what’s really going on once the dinner party is over, and the front door has closed.From bestselling author B. A. Paris comes the gripping thriller and international phenomenon Behind Closed Doors.