Book picks similar to
X The Unknown by Shaun Hutson


horror
shaun-hutson
fiction
science-fiction

The Resident


Francis Cottam - 2011
    Few of them change the locks. Juliet Devereau can't believe her luck: after weeks of looking for a place to live, she's found a beautiful, spacious apartment overlooking Brooklyn Bridge. It almost seems to good to be true.It is... Over the weeks, a chilling sense of being watched stalks Juliet. Strange sounds wake her in the night, the mirror in the bathroom trembles, and doors she thought shut are open. Then the silhouette of a man standing in her living room makes her realise that she's not alone in there. But what's haunting her is far more terrifying than a malevolent spirit; it's alive, strong and obsessed. Suddenly Juliet is caught up in a deadly game of cat and mouse, and there's no guarantee that she'll come out alive...

A Memory Of Demons


David Ambrose - 2003
    But Tom's demons return with a vengeance as he discovers the baby is possessed by the spirit of another girl, who went missing 10 years ago - the night Tom had his last drug-fuelled blackout.

White Anvil: Sasquatch Onslaught


Matt Betts - 2019
    The survivors fight to stay alive and regroup as the terrible storm buries them in snow. Only then do they discover the train also carried another cargo—two cars loaded with biological experiments—genetically-altered sasquatches conditioned to annihilate anything they find. Can the few remaining soldiers team with a pair of sisters and a police constable to fight the relentless beasts, icy temperatures, and escaped prisoners long enough for help to arrive? "... a fresh take on a classic legend, full of suspense and action. This one had me on the edge of my seat and loving the characters." — Michael D. Nadeau, author of The Darkness Returns (A Lythinall novel) Book 1 "Cryptid lovers rejoice, for you have found the author who will lead you to an action-packed adventure that you will ignore family to read." — Jonathan Lazar, Author of Zachariah Lars and the High Elf Mystery “For those of us who grew up on Saturday morning creature features and painstakingly tuned-in to horror hosts using our dented and bent rabbit-ear antennas, Matt Betts delivers all the goods and more. WHITE ANVIL is packed with the excitement and atmosphere, but it also has what so many stories lack: Believable characters behaving rationally as they do their best to survive in the face of unexpected terror. — Dan Stout author of Titanshade “...an action-packed adventure that you don’t want to miss.” — Sara Tantlinger, Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland

Crazy Eights


James Melzer - 2017
    An expert in all things extraordinary, she’s approached to lead the formation of a new team into the West Virginia wilderness to evaluate reports of a giant spider, but her quest for answers leads her to the discovery of an eight-legged monstrosity no one could have prepared for. Existing for eons beneath our earth, these aren’t your garden variety spiders. They’re bloodthirsty monsters that will rip apart anything—and anyone—in their path, and while a town fights to survive Emily and her team will have to do everything they can to beat back the terror before there’s a new species at the top of the food chain!

Doom 3: Worlds on Fire


Matthew Costello - 2008
    With global economies in ruins and all-out world war more than a possibility, the U.S government turned to the Union Aerospace Corporation, giving it carte blanche on the legendary red planet of Mars in a desperate bid to construct an off-world outpost that might provide resources, a military advantage...as well as something so secret that even members of government don't have a clue about it.... Special Ops Marine Lieutenant John Kane was once a careerist simply glad to have a job, and couldn't care less about politics just as long as Uncle Sam's check cleared. But that was before he listened to his conscience and disobeyed a direct order. Busted down to private, Kane has been reassigned to the "U.S. Space Marines" -- the private army of the UAC -- with the prospect of becoming little more than a glorified security guard on Mars.... Now Lt. Kane's fate leads him to Mars City -- part environmental community, part lab center, and all owned and protected by the UAC. It's a strange world with a fatal environment, and the thousands who live and work within the city have already begun to think of themselves as Martians. And away from Mars City, at the strange ancient sites uncovered on the planet, a small squad of marines stand guard while scientists uncover wall glyphs and search for artifacts, having already found something that is so far amazing and inexplicable -- including the relic called "U1," nicknamed "the Soul Cube" -- and unknown to all, the bringer of destructive chaos and unspeakable horror....

The Darwin Effect


Mark Lukens - 2016
    They are all suffering from short-term memory loss and they can't remember why or how they got on this ship. The onboard computer (MAC) tells them that it was programmed to wake them up early. They believe MAC woke them up by mistake. They can't re-enter suspended animation, there's only enough food for a few months, and they are too far away to return to Earth ... but even if they could return, MAC tells them that the Earth has been destroyed by nuclear war. They realize that they are all going to die on this ship.Cromartie, the unelected leader of their group, tries his best to keep the others calm, but soon they are at each other's throats. After one of them is found murdered, Cromartie and Sanders form an alliance. Cromartie tells Sanders that pieces of his memories are beginning to come back to him in his dreams; he believes he's seeing clues to their survival.But after the next murder, Cromartie and Sanders must work fast to find the mind-blowing key to their survival and figure out which one of them is the killer before it's too late.

WhiteSpace: Season Two


Sean Platt - 2013
    But the shooter wasn’t acting alone.Roger Heller was part of something bigger…A conspiracy of scientific experiments, missing citizens, and ancient secrets threatening the island and its people.Behind it all: the enigmatic Blake Conway.Can Jon Conway piece the mystery together before he loses someone else that he loves?Can Roger Heller’s surviving family move on from his heinous actions?Will Cassidy’s addictions destroy her new family with Emma and Jon?Can Milo trust the mysterious Don Bellows?What will happen when Brock Houser launches his own investigation?WhiteSpace is a character-driven, mysterious, sci-fi thriller that would be right at home with superbly scripted TV shows like LOST, The Killing, and Fringe.

MEGACROC


Julian Michael Carver - 2020
    When evidence at the latest scene suggests that a massive predator may be the source of the carnage, a local crocodilian specialist is brought in as a consultant. Soon an effort is launched by the police and the coast guard to successfully locate and capture the ancient creature, which threatens the lives of everyone in the expedition, as well as the surrounding communities.

Petrified


Graham Masterton - 2011
    Although Suki, his little girl, seemed thrilled to be kidnapped from her mom’s parents’ house, an electric storm has hit, and it looks like the Lord isn’t going to make it easy for Braydon to get away. Braydon’s right. A huge truck jack-knifes in front of him, his car catches alight, and Sukie winds up in hospital with terrible burns – burns which only exacerbate the terrible nightmare she’s had for years about scary things flying through the sky, like shadows . . .

Contagion / Invasion / Chromosome 6


Robin Cook - 1999
    Robin Cook's signature cutting-edge suspense and bold strokes of reality. The consequences of managed health care in an age when even the wariest consumer may be at risk is the catalyst for Contagion, while a sinister cabal involved with unacceptable medical ethics provides the nerve-jangling backdrop for Chromosome 6. Invasion, published in hardcover for the first time, preys on our deepest fears as it explores a sudden outbreak of a disease unlike anything humankind has ever seen.

Night Games


Richard Laymon - 1985
    Just spend a night alone in an empty, deserted house. There's nothing to be afraid of. It's only another one of Lyle's silly night games.Or is it?

Sepulchre


James Herbert - 1987
    In that house there is a psychic called Kline who is part of its secret. The Keeper is guardian of the house, of the psychic, and of the secret. But now an outsider must protect them from a terrible danger. Halloran will combat men who thrive on physical corruptions; he will find love of a perverse nature; he will confront his soul's own darkness. And eventually he will discover the horrific and awesome secret of the Sepulchre.

Operator B


Edward Lee - 1999
    This critically acclaimed novella involves a U.S. Air Force test pilot recruited for a very special mission: to fly an operational recovered UFO. Any test pilot's dream, right? Wrong. Special disfiguring surgery is required for anyone human who wants to fly the craft. This expertly plotted novella proves to detractors that Lee can write in many arenas, not just horror, and doesn't have to rely on the "gross-out" to keep readers enthralled. (Lee has implied that he may one day expand this project to novel-length, just as he hopes to expand his hard sci-fi TRIAGE novella 2202.) "OPERATOR "B" made the Preliminary Ballot for 1999 HWA Stoker Award for Best Novella. Little known fact: the working outline for this novella was a screenplay, which is also the case for his well-reviewed conspiracy/UFO novel THE STICKMEN.

Broken Voices


Andrew Taylor - 2012
    Two lonely schoolboys at the end of childhood are forced into an unwanted companionship. One of them is terrified of what the future holds.Does music have its ghosts? Its victims? Something is stirring in the cathedral that both echoes an ancient tragedy and seems to offer a chance of future happiness. One thing is certain. Broken voices make false promises. And their lies may prove fatal.

Anansi Island


Christian Cantrell - 2010
    But throughout the island's history, its isolation also made it the perfect place to hide things the world was never meant to see.As Laurel finds herself entangled in the island's newest and most bizarre chapter, she must not only solve its mysteries, but also survive long enough to pass them on.This short story (about 7,500 words) mixes science fiction and horror with endearing and enigmatic characters who can only solve the mysteries of Anansi Island by facing their worst fears.