Book picks similar to
The Summoning by John Lyon


horror
weird-fiction
horror-novels
paperbacks-from-hell

The Mephisto Waltz


Fred Mustard Stewart - 1969
    After a period of depression following his resounding failure as a concert pianist, Myles had decided, with Paula's encouragement to turn to a career in writing. Now the free-lance assignments that would finance his work on a novel were beginning to come in, among them a journalist's dream - the chance to interview the internationally celebrated pianist Duncan Ely. Astonishingly, the notoriously difficult Duncan warms toward him, sensing perhaps in Myles' love for music - and in his extraordinary pianist's hands - a kindred soul. The Mephisto Waltz is a spellbinder of a novel - a novel that makes Rosemary's Baby look like child play." The book was made into a major motion picture released in 1971 starring Alan Alda, Jacqueline Bisset and Curt Jurgens

The Night of the Moonbow


Thomas Tryon - 1989
    In this spellbinding novel of idyllic childhoods torn apart by the blossoming terror of child pitted against child, Tryon spins a tale of the hidden horrors that lurk behind children's innocence, and an inevitable explosion of evil.

The Return


Bentley Little - 2002
    Of course nobody really believes it. It’s just a good campfire story, something to attract gullible tourists ­ until an excavation team unearths the figurine of a screaming woman, the jawbone of a deformed animal, and a child’s toy. How odd that they were buried together. Odd, too, is the foul odor lingering in the air, the strange noises at night, and the man’s face found hanging from a tree. Now the locals are locking their doors. Because after sundown, campfire stories can seem very, very real.

Saurian


William Schoell - 1988
    Something calls Tom back to the ruins of his boyhood home, to the scene of the devastation that almost destroyed him.

Pin


Andrew Neiderman - 1981
    Father was consumed by his medical practice and an analytical approach to life. But he understood the sensual hunger growing inside his children's young bodies. He knew they could help each other answer "The Need". Father had Science. Father had Reason. And he had Pin.

Helltown: A Horror Novel


Stephen Bentley - 2015
    It's nothing like the suburb you might live in . . . Unless, that is, an insane, Listerine-guzzling Realtor sold you your house? Or perhaps your postman happens to have a disturbing relationship with his claw hammer? A grieving Dan LaBarbara knows something is different in Helltown as soon as he comes back home. Yeah, sure, the town always been a little off. You can feel that about the place, like if you stepped into a house whose only occupants were freshly murdered corpses in an upstairs bedroom. But this is something else entirely. Standing in his little brother Barbie's basement workshop, holding one of those dioramas Barbie's been building since the accident, the ones that seem to move when you hold them, Dan can feel Barbie's terror. Barbie must know something is coming, something big, something evil. He's trying to warn Dan in the only way he knows. Why else would Barbie build a diorama depicting a man-sized version of a cartoon rabbit with bloody teeth about to devour a trembling teenager? Why else would he spend so much time crafting an intricate model of Death standing over a pimply teenager in the school library? And let's not even talk about that little model of the mob of undead surrounding the massive tower of vicious black spines behind the high school. Hilltown has a story to tell, and the lonely brain-damaged man who builds magical dioramas in his basement workshop has been telling it all along. As the evil closes in around them, Dan and his new love interest Jessica must do the impossible: save everyone one in Hilltown before it's too late.

Midnight's Lair


Richard Kelly - 1988
    But the darkness is also the home of things Nature never intended - things violent, bestial, and obscenely evil. When a sudden power failure incapacitates the elevator to the surface, a group of tourists is trapped in the underground depths. Cold and scared, without lights or food, their only hope is to find an escape route through the sealed-off end of the cavern. But their explorations uncover a nest of horrors that has lain hidden for generations, and their idyllic underground journey becomes a nightmare trip through hell, as they find themselves battling for survival against the creatures of the abyss....

Nightblood


T. Chris Martindale - 1989
    . . and more.

Dance of the Dwarfs


Geoffrey Household - 1968
    It's a remote place, isolated from the world, and home to a group of half-Indian cattlemen.Dawnay is puzzled by the cattlemen's apparent fear of the dark. Until he learns of the elusive dwarfs who are supposed to dance among the trees by moonlight. His scientific brain urges him to confront the unknown, but Dawnay has entered a realm of nightmare, one that science cannot explain...

Bane County: A Short Story


J.R. Rice - 2019
    . . Mystery, Suspense, an edge-of-your-seat Thriller with characters you’ll fall in love with. An old-school, heart-pounding, coming-of-age Horror series with 100s of 5-Star Reviews. A Bane County Short Story. This 8,000-word Novelette entitled “When Bane Flowers Bloom” takes place within the Bane County Universe. The timeline of the story is set during the third book of the series (First Moon), and it answers many questions and reveals new mysteries spanning all the way back to Book 1 (Forgotten Moon). Prepare yourself, for a twisting turning descent into absolute terror.

Dark Island


Stephen Cross - 2019
    Within days, two families are dead. No wounds, no illness, their faces frozen in terror. What horror did they see in their last moments? Was it enough to frighten them to death? Tom has worked the mediterranean holiday resorts for years. Barman, kitchen hand, waiter. Always moving, always one step ahead of his past. The job at Milera Island Resort, a new five star hotel, is too good to be true. Accommodation, good pay, easy work. What could go wrong? A few days after the grand opening the resort is thrown into chaos. Two famlies are found dead. No marks on their bodies, no obvious injuries, no apparent cause of death. Their faces, however, are frozen masks of terror. Panic takes the island, evacuation begins, but how long do they have? Tom begins to suffer strange hallucinations and terrifying dreams, more unexplainable deaths occur, and as the chaos deepens Tom becomes aware of a dark presence descending from the woods. Can Tom find a way for everyone to escape before the darkness takes them? Is his past entwined with the growing madness? Who, or what, is the killer amongst them? Dark Island is a thrilling horror novel from the writer of the Surviving the Fall series. Expect chills that will keep you up at night...

The Witch


Fred Anderson - 2021
    Desperate to avoid reliving the traumatic memories of his father’s death, Ryan begs for a way out.Fortunately, Grandma Wendy's best friend Dot offers to keep the siblings for the afternoon, and despite her misgivings Lisa agrees to let the old woman take them. But as all three Campbells soon discover, Dot isn’t the sweet lady she appears to be. She’s bent on revenge for her own traumatic memories—and has all the powers of hell at her command to get it.Author's note: The Witch is a novel for adults, and contains brutality, bloody violence, death, explicit language, sexual innuendo, children in peril,and terror.

Happy Ever After Trilogy


Matt Shaw - 2012
    could you ever love me?Peter loves Vanessa. He loves her a lot and is looking forward to starting a nice life with her, and only her. No one else to get in the way and mess up their beautiful relationship. He'll do anything for her. Absolutely anything to make her happy. Anything to see that beautiful smile of hers. Anything to live happily ever after with her.The only problem is - Vanessa doesn't know Peter and, more importantly, understand why she is cuffed to the dining room table.Told through the eyes of the two people living the story, follow Peter as he keeps Vanessa prisoner hoping that she will fall in love with him and follow Vanessa as she desperately looks for a way out of this hell.G.S.O.H ESSENTIALBefore you can have your 'Happy Ever After' you need to find The One.In Susie, Peter thought he had found his perfect lady. The woman he wanted to spend the rest of his life with... He just needed to convince her to feel the same - and if that meant kidnapping her then so be it.Told through the point of view of the two characters living this story - immerse yourself in Matt Shaw's prequel to 'Happy Ever After' and learn the truth about what happened to Young Susie...But remember..... Good. Sense. Of. Humour. Essential.A FRESH START:Finally - the gripping conclusion to Vanessa's storyVanessa's alone now; living in her own personal Hell. He's gone now. Peter is gone. Not coming back, despite her ailing self-conscious trying to convince her otherwise. It's just her now. Alone. Her only objective is to break from the house in which she's become trapped. She just needs to break out. Get to the outside. Once outside she can worry about putting everything behind her - try to at least.'Don't worry about that now. Just get out. Get out. Then worry about A Fresh Start.'Told through Vanessa's POV - this is the Final partDon't forget to continue Peter's stories with 'Peter' and 'All Good Things'

The Owl: Justice Never Sleeps


Bob Forward - 1984
    It’s the mid-1980s. Crime in Los Angeles is running rampant. When the law can’t help you, there is one man who can: Alexander L’Hiboux, whose ability to sleep was destroyed in the ghastly tragedy that cost him his family. Now he’s justice-for-hire, prowling the streets and solving crimes with deadly finality. A desperate, grief-stricken shipping magnate hires The Owl to find the scum who brutalized his daughter…a quest that uncovers a shocking conspiracy that will rock the city.

The Nightwalker


Thomas Tessier - 1979
    He couldn't explain the morbid impulse that gripped him. Then it happened again when a playful race with a passing jogger spawned an animalistic urge. Now only the gruesome thrill of the hunt could satisfy his terrible hunger.