Book picks similar to
Whitney by Russell C. Connor


horror
fiction
natural-disasters
book-club-authors

The Wicked Ones: Children of the Lost


J.Z. Foster - 2018
    FosterYou know, the best thing about nightmares is that they're not real. It's all just in your head, and as soon as you wake up, pop! It's all gone. You're safe. It's not like they could crawl out, creeping from your mind with long, slender fingers and milky yellow eyes sunken into heads with pointed horns bursting out. That'd just be insane. Daniel Tanner's life is insane. A mysterious disease came to claim his son, seemingly pulling him into the grave with cold fingers named misery and hopelessness.Now a stranger has come calling with an even stranger tale of monsters—horrible things that take children in the middle of the night and leave their own, things that crawled out of the fairy tales our barbarous ancestors used to tell, things that they tried to warn us about. We didn't listen. Because monsters aren't real, are they? There's no reason to fear the dark, no reason at all to believe the old tales about creatures with a taste for human meat. That would be insane... wouldn't it?

The Outsiders: Book One


Brandon Faircloth - 2018
    Patrick Barron, carrying a woman’s lifeless body into the woods, he was terrified. When Dr. Barron admitted to it and started explaining why it was necessary, Jason’s life would never be the same. Dr. Barron recounts the brutal murder of his wife and the secret world he uncovered trying to bring her killer to justice—a world filled with monsters wearing human faces, cults, and even stranger things… The Outsiders: Book One tells the story of Dr. Barron and his grandson, but it also contains a number of other interconnected stories spanning decades and worlds beyond this one. This is the definitive entry point into The Outsiders universe—a place where nothing is what it seems and depending on who you ask, the heroes may be the biggest monsters of them all.

The Killing Ship


Simon Beaufort - 2016
    " Having spent the summer conducting fieldwork on stark Livingston Island, marine biologist Andrew Berrister is looking forward to returning to civilization. But his final days in Antarctica take an unexpected turn when it becomes clear that he and his small group of scientists are not alone on the island. Deducing that the intruders are a crew of illegal whalers, the scientists face an increasingly desperate struggle for survival when two members of their shore party disappear and their supplies are deliberately sabotaged. As Berrister and his remaining companions flee across the treacherous, icy terrain, they are pursued unrelentingly by ruthless killers whose true reasons for being in the Antarctic are darker and more dangerous than the scientists could ever have imagined.

Infestation


William Meikle - 2017
    A suspected Russian spy boat is in trouble in Canadian waters. Investigate and report are the orders. But when Captain John Banks and his squad arrive, it is to find an empty vessel, and a scene of bloody mayhem. Soon they are in a fight for their lives, for there are things in the icy seas off Baffin Island, scuttling, hungry things with a taste for human flesh. They are swarming. And they are growing.

One Dinosaur One Bullet


Dane Hatchell - 2018
    Dan Webber and his son guide wealthy hunters 100 million years back in time where Tyrannosaurs rule and Velociraptors scavenge. New understandings of physics alleviate the once-honored fear of altering the future by new actions committed in the past. But when an anomaly interferes with the time machine’s programming, Dan and the others find themselves in a life-threatening situation no one has prepared for! Paying homage to the SF classics A Gun for Dinosaur by L. Sprague de Camp and A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury, One Dinosaur One Bullet pits six time travelers against vicious dinosaurs in the prehistoric past. One Dinosaur One Bullet is a novella 22,000 words long, available at this time for the special price of .99 cents.

Meadowlarks


Thomas Holladay - 2021
    . . Carolyn and her eight-year-old son Jason unwittingly step into a maelstrom of horror partially brought about by their unwillingness to allow a long-standing ritual to continue. As family relationships, heritage, neighbors, and deadly forces intersect, evil becomes apparent in not only an unleashed supernatural beast, but in the hearts of men. Rural roots, supernatural horror, Native rituals, and family relationships blend seamlessly to build a nicely-paced drama that comes full circle for elderly Native John Crow, whose new neighbors have now become part of this sacred valley and its long-standing ritual practices, changing their lives forever. Meadowlarks is especially recommended for fans of Tony Hillerman-style intrigue who seek a vifgorous dose of the supernatural added into a mix of mystery and interpersonal struggle. Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review All Carolyn Potter wanted was a safe haven in which to raise her son, Jason, not to find a night stalker lurking in the forest surrounding their new mountain home. Following the unsolved murder of her husband and a violent attack on her son, Carolyn Potter learns she has inherited a cattle ranch located in a remote valley high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She eagerly leaps at the opportunity to escape urban violence, move out of her oppressive mother's home and get away from her hungry eyed, lip licking employer, Tom Kirby. Kirby, buried under gambling debts, is destroying Kirby Publications, a company built by his deceased father. Learning of Carolyn's inheritance compels him to win her favor in order to marry into her newfound wealth but Carolyn chooses Shangri-la, her dead husband's family ranch. Carolyn and Jason love their new home but soon learn of a local ritual being practiced on their land where a bull calf is brutally slaughtered with each cycle of the full moon. Seeking to end this gruesome practice, Carolyn saves the young calf and unleashes a monstrous creature, not realizing this creature is the protector of Shangri-la. After the creature attempts to break into their home, Carolyn calls on Tom Kirby for help. Kirby zooms to the rescue to confront the beast, rescue the girl and inherit her wealth, with which he intends to regain his prowess as a winning gambler. After her complete failure to end the slaughter of both bull calves and her neighbors, Carolyn must now decide whether to move back to civilization, stay and try to defeat her new threat or accept a bloody ritual that keeps the beast at bay.

Badwater: A Horror Story (The Shattered God Mythos)


Travis Liebert - 2019
    We see a lot of strange and disgusting things. But what I saw last week has me questioning both my job and reality." There's a place in the river where not even search and rescue divers are supposed to go. It's called Badwater. But when Joseph Albright dives into this forbidden region, he discovers something beyond comprehension. Intent on solving a mystery as old as the earth itself, he comes into contact with forces beyond fathom. Get this riveting new horror story and learn of the terrors that pervade our world.

Shadows


David Kazzie - 2020
    Power grids fail, planes fall from the sky, and America is thrown into chaos.Lucy Goodwin, an emergency room nurse, is anxious to get home to Virginia when her life is turned upside down by the mysterious blackout. Trapped in Washington, DC, and lucky to be alive after her train crashes, she realizes her journey home is only getting started.Lucy befriends a young girl orphaned by the disaster, and together, they must face down humanity’s capacity for darkness if they are to survive the opening days of America’s new reality.

It Came With The Crash


Boris Bacic - 2021
    They were dead wrong.Stranded in the middle of the forest and without help, six crash survivors forge a plan to stay alive in the harsh conditions that surround them. As the days go on and their supplies dwindle, the tension in the group increases. To make matters worse, they soon begin to realize that they are being watched by someone... or rather something. The bodies of their dead passengers disappear in the night, animalistic shrieks fill the air, and sometimes - just sometimes - they see a figure between the trees watching them.The group is faced with a difficult decision: Leave the crash site in search for help, or continue waiting for rescue. They know that the wrong decision could be their death - either by mother nature, or something far more terrifying.

The Haven


Graham Diamond - 1977
    A young botanist leads a small expedition to find a way out to rescue humanity.

Trade-Off


Tom Kasey - 2012
    A body is discovered with a human femur driven through the top of its skull. Hunter must find out who killed them, and why.But someone high-up doesn’t want the case solved. Facing the deadliest test of his career, Hunter must stay one step ahead, uncover the killer and, somehow, stay alive… Part conspiracy, part manhunt, with an extraordinary twist, fans of David Baldacci, Chris Kuzneski and Scott Mariani will love Trade-Off, book one in The Steven Hunter Thrillers, previously published as written by Tom Kasey. ‘A knock-out thriller. Trade-Off will blow you away’ Matt Lynn, best-selling author of Death Force and Fire Force.

Hell: The Necromancer


Tom Lewis - 2021
    In the year of Manson, war, riots, and societal upheaval, a new and more insidious evil stalks the city, leaving a grisly trail of dismembered corpses and horrifying phenomena in its wake. And the only lead the police have is a fifteen-year-old girl with terrifying powers.From the author of ‘Hell: The Possession and Exorcism of Cassie Stevens,’ comes a terrifying new tale of supernatural horror. Sometimes evil has a child's face.

A Haunting in Rose Grove


Rockwell Scott - 2018
    A violent haunting. A house with a bloody history. Jake Nolan left it all behind, but now he must return. Jake has it all — a new home, an amazing girlfriend, and nearing a promotion at work. Best of all, he feels he’s finally moved on from the horrors of his traumatic past. But when he learns that his estranged brother, Trevor, has moved back into their haunted childhood home, Jake knows his past is not quite finished with him yet. Jake rushes to the old house in Rose Grove — a small town with a tragic history — to pull his brother from that dangerous place. But it’s too late. There, he finds Trevor trying to make contact with the spirit that tormented them years ago. And Trevor refuses to leave. He is determined to cleanse the house and remove the entity. But the supernatural activity becomes too much to handle, and Jake knows they are both unprepared for the fight. Worse, the entity targets Daniel, Jake’s young nephew, and wants to bring him harm. And when the intelligent haunting shows signs of demonic infestation, Jake realizes they aren’t dealing with a mere ghost. Jake attributes the evil spirit for driving his parents to an early grave. Now it wants to claim the rest of the family, and the only way Jake and Trevor will survive is to send the entity back to hell. A Haunting in Rose Grove is a supernatural horror novel for readers who love stories about haunted houses and battles with the demonic — the truest form of evil that exists in our world. You are only one click away from enjoying this scary tale. Start reading today!

The Crying Boy: A Compelling Suspense Thriller


Jane E. James - 2017
    When she learns that the boy in the painting was deaf, like her dead son, she starts to try to communicate with his ghost.Meanwhile, Clayton finds himself entangled in an equally undesirable friendship with a retired fire chief who knows more about the painting than he is prepared to let on.Is The Crying Boy painting cursed, and can numerous house fires be linked to it?Struggling with their unstable marriage, the couple find themselves in further danger as an increasingly disturbing bond develops between Avril and The Crying Boy.In a twist of events Avril's irrational behavior is brought to a dramatic halt when she discovers she is pregnant. With her affections once again restored for Clayton, she decides to dispose of the sinister portrait. But the cast off painting wants revenge and its anger towards Avril's unborn child might just prove immeasurable.

Gloop!


David Brian - 2015
    It has lain in the cold and dark of the bog, waiting patiently for a host to set it free. Now, for John Cluer and his family, nothing will ever be the same again.A novelette of approximately 10,000 words.