Book picks similar to
Into the End by Bonnie R. Paulson


fiction
thriller
post-apocalyptic
dystopian

Apocalypse Island


Mark Edward Hall - 2012
    Is it a serial killer, someone with a penchant for the macabre and a need to destroy? Or is it a darker force, an ancient legend from a mysterious Island come ashore to wreak havoc upon the unsuspecting?Amid the backdrop of Portland's burgeoning night scene, Police Lieutenant Rick Jennings discovers that no one is safe, and that evil has many faces. Danny Wolf, a gifted musician with alcohol problems is witnessing brutal murder in his dreams. Someone is carving a cross on each of the young female victims before crucifying them. Newly released from prison for a crime he did not commit, Wolf is having trouble adjusting to civilian life. He believes the dreams are a symptom of his adjustment until he discovers that they are real and that the victims are his own groupies. He soon begins to doubt his sanity. Could he be a homicidal madman? Wolf has no memory of his early childhood but discovers that he spent his first eight years in a Catholic orphanage on a mysterious island off the coast of Maine. Is it possible that his early life and the murders are somehow connected? Soon the killings become more bold and gruesome, as members of the church begin to die. Enter Police Lieutenant Rick Jennings and his young assistant Laura Higgins. They discover a government conspiracy involving the Catholic Church, and a cold war CIA mind control program known as MK-Ultra where children were used as test subjects. Danny Wolf becomes the number one suspect in the murders, but no one, not even Wolf, is prepared for what they discover on Apocalypse Island, a mind blowing secret that was supposed to stay hidden forever.

The Inner Circle


Kevin George - 2011
    Siberia... A tiny comet rips through Earth's atmosphere and explodes above the Tunguska region of Siberia, instantly engulfing thousands of square acres of the mostly desolate region. The explosion is heard for hundreds of miles, the light of the comet seen halfway across the globe. Had the comet hit a few hours earlier in a more populated area, millions would have been killed...A century later, another comet - this one hundreds of times bigger and more powerful - encounters a black hole in deep space and is pushed onto a new, deadly course leading straight to Earth...A small group of humans - including the President of the United States, a former astronaut and a middle school science teacher - discovers the existence of this potentially deadly comet and keep its existence hidden from the rest of the world. Although the group - which calls itself the Inner Circle - has twelve years to deal with the problem, they will need every second of that time. Not only must they figure out a way to avert this crisis, they must also start to make plans in case they can't avoid a catastrophe that could annihilate humankind...The Inner Circle is the first book of the 12-part Comet Clement series. Please enjoy and if you like it, keep an eye out for books 2 and 3, which will be available in one download...

Yesterday's Gone: Season One


Sean Platt - 2011
     They thought they were alone. They were wrong. On October 15th, humanity went missing. A handful of scattered survivors wake to find the world empty of friends, family, and neighbors. Among them, a child searches for his family. A special agent turned enemy of the state survives a fiery plane crash with no way to reach his daughter. A serial killer discovers he’s no longer at the top of the food chain. Now these strangers must find the strength inside them to weather the new world. But they are not alone. In the absence of civilization, a new threat emerges. In the stillness, it waits and watches, preying on their weakness. Their only hope is to find more survivors, rise above their fear, and face the oncoming darkness. But can they unite before they too are lost? And can they all be trusted? Season One of Yesterday’s Gone by Sean Platt and David W. Wright is a tense post-apocalyptic thriller that will leave you guessing to the end. Combining TV’s thrilling, episodic nature with the in-depth character only found in novels, Yesterday’s Gone is a new wave in fiction. If you like The Stand and LOST, you’ll love this series that combines tension, intrigue, and fear of the unknown. Get Yesterday’s Gone now and see who lives and who dies! (Warning: This book is intended for mature audiences and contains disturbing and potentially offensive material.)

Sick


Brett Battles - 2011
    Just a bad dream, he thinks. She's had them before. Yet he can't help but worry when she cries out again as he pads down the hallway. Stepping through her doorway, he expects to find her sitting up in bed, frightened by a nightmare.But the nightmare is his. It's real. And it's just beginning...Something is burning Ash's daughter alive. Something horrible that is spreading beyond the walls of their home, and taking no prisoners.Thirty seconds later, Ash will discover his daughter isn't the only one in his family infected, and as his world spins, coming apart at the seams, a team of armed men in biohazard suits bursts into his house.But these aren't the good guys.They haven't come to save Ash's family. They've come to separate them, to finish what they started.The problem is Ash refuses to disappear. He wants only one thing: to find those responsible.Because humanity is on the brink of execution.And man is pulling the trigger.

Contain


Saul W. Tanpepper - 2015
    They were wrong.CONTAIN (BUNKER 12 series pilot)Three years. That's how long Finnian Bolles has been hiding inside the impregnable walls of the hydroelectric complex known as Bunker 8. Three years, with enough resources to last him and the other thirty survivors three more.But then a series of disturbing events culminates in the sudden appearance of a stranger at their door. Before he too falls victim to the mysterious sickness known as the Flense, he warns them of a fate more horrific than the one they've been avoiding. But to prevent it, they must leave and seek a place many insist doesn't exist, a mythical twelfth bunker.BUNKER 12 SERIES DESCRIPTIONRequiring no more than the slightest skin-to-skin contact, the Flense spreads with ruthless speed and stealth, decimating mankind before it's even aware of it. The infected are turned into soulless creatures, Wraiths, which wreak destruction upon anyone and anything in their path.Secure inside ten isolated bunkers are Humanity's tattered remains, each working tirelessly to unravel the mystery of the scourge. But the bunkers were never meant to protect forever. In fact, they were never meant to protect at all.CONTAIN is the first book in the new thriller cyberpunk series BUNKER 12.THE FLENSE SERIES DESCRIPTION(BUNKER 12 companion series)Hundreds die in a fiery train crash in northern China. A cargo ship smuggling refugees is lost to calm seas off Libya. Entire villages in Ghana are abandoned overnight.Contracted by a prepper group to investigate a series of seemingly disconnected global tragedies, a young freelance reporter, Angelique d'Enfantine, uncovers a disturbing pattern: each event is preceded by the sudden spread of a mysterious ailment and is followed by the appearance of a man dressed in black and silver who witnesses claim is the devil himself.Each event is more grisly than the last. As the risk to her life grows, Angel begins to doubt that the tragedies are harbingers of an impending biblical catastrophe, but rather practice runs conducted by a fanatical organization bent on global annihilation. Could her sponsors be using her to advance their own paranoid agenda?

The Brink


Martyn J. Pass - 2016
    Humanity had barely survived The Panic 70 years earlier and now the slow death brought on by the collapse of society seems unavoidable, especially as it seems the worst is still to come. Accompanied by a strange hound he rescued from the labs deep beneath the Fort, Alan sets out to aid the survivors who struggle to hold back mankind's final hour, joining up with a handful of soldiers desperately trying to fan the embers of mankind into life once more. But Alan has a secret he's desperate to hide and which threatens to be revealed with every action he takes. Can his fear of discovery be overcome so that mankind can stand a chance of surviving? Or will humanity topple over the brink as he stands by and watches? Following on from Project - 16, The Brink tells the story of a man who faces a destiny he neither wants nor is prepared for and starts Alan Harding on a path to legend.

Broken World


Kate L. Mary - 2014
    Then her car breaks down and she’s faced with a choice. Give up, or accept a ride from redneck brothers, Angus and Axl. Vivian knows the offer has more to do with her double D’s than kindness, but she’s prepared to do whatever it takes to reach her daughter.The virus is spreading, and by the time the group makes it to California, most of the population has been wiped out. When the dead start coming back, Vivian and the others realize that no electricity or running water are the least of their concerns. Now Vivian has to figure out how to be a mother under the most frightening circumstances, cope with Angus’s aggressive mood swings, and sort out her growing attraction to his brooding younger brother, Axl. While searching for a safe place to go, they pick up a pompous billionaire who may be the answer to all their problems. Trusting him means going into the middle of the Mojave Desert and possibly risking their lives, but with the streets overrun and nowhere else to turn, it seems he might be their only chance for survival.

Dystopia


Janet McNulty - 2013
    In the distant future the United States has been split into two regions separated by a barren wasteland; this is the country of Dystopia. Here the individual is discouraged, freedom is an illusion, food is rationed, and everything you do is tracked by a chip implanted in your arm. This is Dana Ginary’s world.At age seventeen, people receive their career assignments chosen for them by a government body. Forced to work at the Waste Management Plant because she was declared too individualistic, Dana finds herself surrounded by death and brutality. Knowing her days are numbered, she looks for a way to leave the plant before she, too, becomes one of its causalities. It is then she meets a man named George and soon finds herself caught up in a cat mouse game between the resistance and the Dystopian government. Dana finds herself faced with an agonizing choice of whom she will betray and whom she will save: her friend George, her parents, or herself.

Critical Dawn


Darren Wearmouth - 2014
    Archaeologists Pippa Quinn and Charlie Jackson find advanced technology in undisturbed 16th Century graves. A portent, the discovery precedes thousands of giant sinkholes opening up across the globe as extreme weather threatens the population. Charlie suspects the two are related. A centuries old plan unfolds. Pippa, Charlie, and the rest of humanity will have to fight for survival, sacrificing the life they’ve known to protect Earth from an ancient and previously dormant enemy. Even that might not be enough as this new enemy exacts a plan that will change the course of humankind forever. Critical Dawn is an apocalyptic ride to the very edge of human existence. Factions will battle for control of the Earth—if they can avoid the threat of extinction.

Sea Sick


Iain Rob Wright - 2012
    Now, years later, Jack is a changed man, with a head full of secrets driving him insane. His recent record of police brutality and a reputation for not following the rules has prompted his seniors to give him an ultimatum: take a few weeks off, relax, and find some way to let go of all the anger – or else find another job.That’s why Jack is about to board The Spirit of Kirkpatrick, a cruise liner built for relaxation and fun. Pretty soon, however, Jack realises that a little R&R is the last thing he’s ever going to get aboard the cursed ship. There’s a virus onboard, making people insane and bleeding from the eyes. The whole ship is overrun with blood and death, and there is nowhere to escape. Just when Jack thinks his number is up and his life is over, he wakes up. The day is exactly the same. In fact, everything is the same. Jack is forced to witness the viral outbreak again and again as it ravages the ship and its passengers over and over, day after day. Jack finds himself trapped in a repeating hell. It won’t be long before Jack realises there are others onboard just like him – and that some of them know more than they’re letting on.

Artificial Evil


Colin F. Barnes - 2012
    Gerry Cardle reluctantly runs the Death Lottery. It's a job he despises, yet one which keeps his name off the list. Until one day, despite his agreement with The Family, his name is inexplicably drawn next.With his world crashing down around him and with just seven days left to live, Gerry realises that the system has been breached by a malicious artificial intelligence. In order to save his life and preserve the safety of those within the city, he must do the unthinkable: flee to the abandoned wastelands outside the dome. Bitter, resolute, and with nothing left to lose, Gerry will have to do whatever it takes to survive--even if it means sacrificing his freedom, and possibly worse--his life.

Dead Hunger


Eric A. Shelman - 2011
    In an effort to save his younger sister, Flex re-connects with perhaps the strongest woman he knows - Gem Cardoza, his former girlfriend. Together they take his six-year-old niece Trina, the only uninfected survivor of his sister's family, and his infected sister Jamie, and make a run from central Florida back to his isolated home in Lula, Georgia. As they head north, they encounter another uninfected, Hemphill "Hemp" Chatsworth. A naturalized U.S. citizen, Hemp is British, and extremely smart. He holds a degree in Epidemiology and Mechanical Engineering, both of which this group will need. Along with the crossbow-wielding Charlene "Charlie" Sanders and a pregnant Great Pyrenees dog, this small group uses street smarts, book smarts, and technology to defend against the new "Abnormals" that walk the earth. But Hemp is also compelled to learn how they got this way, and if possible, how to reverse the condition and save Flex's sister. So grab your machine gun and take a ride in their fortified vehicles and mobile lab; you're going to want these people on your side when the Dead Hunger... (Please note: This book contains strong language.)

Monte Vista Village


Lynn Lamb - 2014
    When I walked out into the devastated landscape, I didn’t find zombies, witches or vampires— what I found was infinitely worse; it was real. Is this our reckoning? Our tormentor is no longer the enemy; it is what’s left of the desperate earth. My neighbors are starving and sick from the biochemicals in the air. Our food, water and meds are running low. Our only hope is to come together to stay alive. Who will lead us to salvation? Certainly not me. Why would it be me? The Army Colonel is driving me nuts. Something is just not right there. He should be the leader of the Village, not me. Can my story have a happily-ever-after? Can it have any kind of ever-after?

SODIUM Harbinger


Stephen Arseneault - 2011
    They are forced to defend themselves against an unworldly enemy. Will man's first encounter with aliens force them to run or will they stand and fight? Follow along in this first thriller in the SODIUM series as the unwitting group of hikers determine their own fate.

Constance


Matthew FitzSimmons - 2021
    For the wealthy, cheating death is the ultimate luxury. To anticloning militants, it’s an abomination against nature. For young Constance “Con” D’Arcy, who was gifted her own clone by her late aunt, it’s terrifying.After a routine monthly upload of her consciousness—stored for that inevitable transition—something goes wrong. When Con wakes up in the clinic, it’s eighteen months later. Her recent memories are missing. Her original, she’s told, is dead. If that’s true, what does that make her?The secrets of Con’s disorienting new life are buried deep. So are those of how and why she died. To uncover the truth, Con is retracing the last days she can recall, crossing paths with a detective who’s just as curious. On the run, she needs someone she can trust. Because only one thing has become clear: Con is being marked for murder—all over again.