Book picks similar to
Lost Shadows by Julie Elizabeth Powell


fantasy
psychological-thriller
need
stand-alone

The Guardians Series 1: The Hell Book


Wendy Saunders - 2017
    For the descendants of the Salem witch trials, the past appears hard to escape… Book 2: The Ferryman Betrayed by her family and still trying to piece together the broken strands of her life, Olivia and Theo must also figure out how to stop Nathaniel, the demon from seventeenth century Salem, who has been let loose on the unsuspecting town of Mercy. Book 3: Crossroads The doorway to the Otherworld has been closed but at a terrible cost. Theo has been trapped on the other side while the Demon Nathaniel searches for one of the lost crossroads of the Underworld. Book 4: Witchfinder All of a sudden Olivia and Theo find themselves thrown back in time to 17th century Salem. Isabel and Nathaniel are hell bent on finding Olivia’s ancestor, Hester West, who was the last of the West women known to have had possession of Infernum, the most powerful book ever to have existed. Book 5: Infernum When Olivia finally returns to her hometown of Mercy with her husband Theo, the relief is short lived. Her mother and the demon Nathaniel have also returned and they are under the disturbing impression she knows where the Hell book is and they’re not the only ones. Book 6: A Little Town Called Mercy A Collection of short stories, including:6.1 Daughter of Fire6.2 The Salted Bone6.3 Storyteller

The Strange Life of Brandon Chambers


Scott Spotson - 2016
    Army, is implicated in a tragic explosion on the army base while spearheading a top-secret weapons project. During the aftermath, both his parents are labeled as traitors, and he’s haunted by visions he can’t understand.Brandon struggles through adolescence and college, still troubled by hallucinations that are also witnessed by others, leading him to believe that someone—or something—is deliberately laying clues in his path. Doggedly pursuing one clue at a time, Brandon seeks the answers.

The Visitor


K.L. Slater - 2018
     Everyone pretends to be something they’re not. But someone is always watching… and that someone is closer than you think. Holly returns to her home town after some time away – she has been through something terrible and now she needs a safe haven in which to recover, and to plan the rest of her life. She finds a room in a quiet and leafy suburban street, in the home of Cora Barrett. David lives next door to Cora Barrett and he sees everything that happens on Baker Crescent. David stays at home, and he watches: he likes to feel safe and he doesn’t like to leave the house. He wants to keep his friends and neighbours safe too. So he observes them, and he records every tiny detail of their lives, just in case the information is ever needed. Both lonely and vulnerable, Holly and David gradually begin to strike up a friendship. But Holly can’t shake the feeling that someone from her past might have tracked her down. And David is always watching… But uncovering the secret that could save his new friend and neighbour could be the one thing that destroys him.

Stone Cold


Jenny Hilborne - 2013
    When a scandal threatens to ruin his company, he is determined to identify the culprit and handle it his way. Mara Mann has other ideas, and her own reasons for bringing him down. Then the murders of two senior corporate executives stun the Oxfordshire community. Mara's hatred for Dean leads her into the dangerous and twisted world of Vice President, Reid Dalton, and to the discovery of a forgotten grave. As she uncovers more truths about her boss, and learns the secret he has kept hidden, she is drawn deeper into the mind of a killer and puts her own life at risk.

The Bird Eater


Ania Ahlborn - 2014
    He abandoned his rural Arkansas hometown vowing never to return, until his seven-year-old son died in an accident, plunging Aaron into a nightmare of addiction and grief. Desperate to reclaim a piece of himself, he returns to the hills of his childhood, to Holbrook House, where he hopes to find peace among the memories of his youth. But solace doesn’t come easy. Someone—or something—has other plans. Like Aaron, Holbrook House is but a shell of what it once was, a target for vandals and ghost hunters who have nicknamed it “the devil’s den.” Aaron doesn’t believe in the paranormal—at least, not until a strange boy begins following him wherever he goes. Plagued by violent dreams and disturbing visions, Aaron begins to wonder if he’s losing his mind. But a festering darkness lurks at the heart of Holbrook House… a darkness that grins from within the shadows, delighting in Aaron’s sorrow, biding its time.

The Gift


Louise Jensen - 2016
    Eternally grateful to Callie and her family, Jenna gets closer to them, but she soon discovers that Callie’s perfect family is hiding some very dark secrets …Callie’s parents are grieving, yet Jenna knows they’re only telling her half the story. Where is Callie’s sister Sophie? She’s been ‘abroad’ since her sister’s death but something about her absence doesn’t add up. And when Jenna meets Callie’s boyfriend Nathan, she makes a shocking discovery.Jenna knows that Callie didn’t die in an accident. But how did she die? Jenna is determined to discover the truth but it could cost her everything; her loved ones, her sanity, even her life.A compelling, gripping psychological thriller with a killer twist from the author of the Number One bestseller The Sister.

Bloodwalker


L.X. Cain - 2016
    Another child disappears…When Zorka Circus performs, its big top roars with laughter and cheers, but when it moves on, there are fewer children in the European towns it leaves behind.Circus Security Chief Rurik suspects a killer hides among the international performers, but they close ranks—they’ve always viewed lightning-scarred Rurik as the monster. Nevertheless, he's determined to find the culprit and stop them before anyone else dies and the only place he can call home is ripped apart by the murders.Into Zorka Circus comes the Skomori clan, despised as gravediggers and ghoulish bloodwalkers. A one-day truce allows bloodwalker Sylvie to marry. Instead, she finds a body. Alerting others will defy her clan’s strict rules, break the truce, and leave her an outcast.When more bodies turn up, the killer's trail becomes impossible to ignore. Rurik and Sylvie must follow the clues—even if they lead to something unimaginable.

I Know My Name


C.J. Cooke - 2017
    Help me.A woman is washed up on a remote Greek island with no recollection of who she is or how she got there.Potter’s Lane, Twickenham, London: Eloïse Shelley is officially missing.Lochlan’s wife has vanished into thin air, leaving their toddler and twelve-week-old baby alone. Her money, car and passport are all in the house, with no signs of foul play. Every clue the police turn up means someone has told a lie…Does a husband ever truly know his wife? Or a wife know her husband? Why is Eloïse missing? Why did she forget?The truth is found in these pages…

Come Back For Me


Heidi Perks - 2019
    An island wrapped in secrets.A tiny island community is stunned by the discovery of a long-buried body.For Stella Harvey the news is doubly shocking. The body has been found in the garden of her childhood home - the home her family fled without explanation twenty-five years ago.Now, questioning her past and desperate to unearth the truth, Stella returns to the isolated island. But she quickly finds that the community she left isn’t as welcoming as she remembers – and that people in it will go to any length to protect their secrets. One thing rings true…You can’t bury the truth forever.

Age of Anansi


James Lovegrove - 2012
    until the day the spider appears. What looks like an ordinary arachnid turns out to be Anansi, the trickster god of African legend, and its arrival throws Dion’s existence into chaos. Dion’s already impressive legal brain is sharpened. He becomes nimbler-witted and more ruthless, able to manipulate and deceive like never before, both in and out of court. He has been transformed into Anansi’s avatar on earth.Then he discovers the price he has to pay for his new-found skills: he must travel to America and take part in a contest between avatars of all the other trickster gods. It’s a life-or-death battle of wits, full of skulduggery and double-cross. At the end, only one will be left standing.

Melt


Shane M. Brown - 2013
    A schoolboy. A CEO. A UPS delivery driver. A retired schoolteacher. A computer gamer. A hunter. They are just everyday people with nothing in common.No ransom is demanded. No one knows why they are taken. And no one could possibly imagine the horrors they've been chosen to face. Given no instructions, totally isolated from the outside world, all they find is ice.From the moment they awaken, the ice begins to melt and their terrifying struggle for survival begins. The ice will push them beyond their limits of endurance. It will reveal their personal secrets. It will torture them in ways they hadn't imagined possible, but it is also their only hope of escape.As cryptic patterns emerge, the ice reveals its rules. Rules they must obey or die. Thrust into the most horrifying ordeal of their lives, seven strangers must band together to survive. But as the ice melts, what they find inside begins to tear their group apart.They will learn terrible things about each other. They will learn their own personal limits. Scariest of all, they will learn what humans are capable of when pushed to the edge of sanity.

The Family Friend


C.C. MacDonald - 2021
    IT ONLY TAKES ONE TO DESTROY YOU.Erin lives an idyllic life by the seaside with her baby boy and Australian fiancé. She's upbeat and happy - a natural mum.At least that's what her thousands of followers on Instagram think.In reality, Erin is struggling with anxiety and finding it difficult to connect with her screaming son. So, when an agent offers to make her the biggest Instamum out there, she can't refuse.And when Amanda, a family friend who's visiting from Australia, says she'll move in and babysit to help make it happen, it seems like the stars have finally aligned for Erin's exciting new career.But there's something Amanda isn't telling her.Something that will destroy Erin's carefully curated persona online.___________________________ Praise for HAPPY EVER AFTER: 'Kept me gripped and kept me guessing' Erin Kelly, author of He Said/She Said'Excellent domestic noir, chillingly plausible... I loved the ending' Jo Spain, author of The Confession'An absorbing story, a bunch of unexpected twists, great writing. I totally lost myself in this book' John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

When He Finds You


Sadie Ryan - 2020
    He felt a thrill just knowing that simple thing …”Gemma’s business is on the brink of collapse, and there’s a real chance that she and her husband could lose everything they’ve worked so hard for.So when a stranger offers financial help, Gemma ignores the red flags and accepts out of desperation. The condition? Just companionship – that’s all the stranger wants. Surely a small price to pay to get her life back?But when things seem too good to be true, it’s often because they are – and soon Gemma finds herself being dragged so far into a twisted, dangerous world that she might never surface again …

The Last Thing She Ever Did


Gregg Olsen - 2018
    . .The community along Oregon's Deschutes River is one of successful careers and perfect families. For years, up-and-comers Liz and Owen have admired their good friends and neighbors, Carole and David. They appear to have it all--security, happiness, and a beautiful young son, Charlie.Then Charlie vanishes without a trace, and all that seemed safe is shattered by a tragedy that is incomprehensible--except to Liz.It took one fleeting moment for her to change the lives of everyone she loves--a heartrending accident that can't be undone. Neither can the second-worst mistake of her life: concealing it. As two marriages crack and buckle in grief and fear, Liz retreats into her own dark place of guilt, escalating paranoia--and betrayals even she can't imagine. Because there's another good neighbor who has his own secrets, his own pain, and his own reasons for watching Liz's every move.And only he knows that the mystery of the missing boy on the Deschutes River is far from over.

Sincerely, Yours


Charlotte Barnes - 2021
    As the weeks and months passed, Sarah gradually moved on from the horror of that night and managed to settle into her changed family life. After the police confirm that her mother was one of three similar victims the case goes cold. Until Sarah receives a letter: “I didn’t know you were there, or I would never have done that. Sincerely, Yours.”And, so begins a terrifying game of cat and mouse as the killer collects more victims and continues to elude police, all the while, sending Sarah letters. As the killer gets closer, Sarah wonders if she comes face to face with him, will she opt for mercy or murder?