Book picks similar to
The Manor Hauntings by J.S. Donovan
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BULLETS (Jon "Big Slick" Elder Book 1)
Elijah Drive - 2015
Professional poker player Jon "Big Slick" Elder was minding his own business in a diner when an Arizona sheriff walked in and killed the man sitting next to him, a Mexican day laborer accused of murder. The law officer then arrested Slick simply because the sheriff didn't like the color of Slick's skin. Slick knew that the stranger who had been sitting next to him at the diner was no murderer because, in addition to cards, Slick also kills people for money. The poor man didn't have the look, but Slick does, and with the help of a Latina assistant district attorney, a Navajo state trooper and a homegrown federal agent, Slick sets out to prove the dead man's innocence. What he discovers, as he digs deeper, is a deadly mystery that threatens not only him, but his newfound friends as well. But Slick hates to have anyone… ANYONE… toss him his shoes and tell him to get out of town. "This is an exciting, intriguing, and thrilling book with twists and turns that are unexpected but all too believable. Dear author: please write another one like this." - Book Angel "Tense, thrilling and with a lot of twists, this is an edge-of-your-seat-read with some great action scenes. An excellent debut novel by Elijah Drive." Croydon Citizen BULLETS - mystery thriller by Elijah Drive
The Intruder (Audible Original)
Jeffery Deaver - 2021
But that tranquility is shattered when he realizes a figure from his past has arrived in town, armed with a knife, his intentions clear from the man’s attempts to break into Evan’s house in the middle of the night. The authorities can do nothing.Evan can turn only to the nightmares that plague his sleeping hours for answers. But the question is: can those dreams save him, or are they part of the intruder’s plan?
Warm Moonlight
Joseph Wurtenbaugh - 2012
It's a thrilling story of adventure and rescue, of escape and revenge, set in New England in the early days of Prohibition. Written in the great storytelling tradition, 'Warm Moonlight' has all the intensity of a got-to-hear-how-it-ends campfire yarn, but with a decidedly adult sophistication and sensibility. The ending is unique and satisfying, but leaves the audience, like one of the characters in the story, wondering - how much of it was true? How much invented? Can such things be? Maybe it's a ghost story or . . . . maybe it isn't.
The Last Lesson
Jon Athan - 2019
A gang-infested school. A vengeful teacher. After his star pupil, Rina Ogawa, is sexually assaulted in a school restroom, Edward Clifford sets out on a journey to find the truth and bring her attackers to justice. He finds himself delving head-first into the lives of his other students—lives filled with crime, violence, and hatred. What starts as a desperate attempt to achieve justice quickly sends Edward down the path of vengeance... Who attacked Rina Ogawa? Can Edward bring her attackers to justice? Or will he take matters into his own hands? From the provocative author of The Law of Retaliation and Grandfather’s House, Jon Athan brings you a shocking thriller packed with mystery, suspense, and extreme violence. This is a story of human horror. WARNING: This novel contains graphic content. Reader discretion is advised.
Vanished
Karen Lewis - 2013
The murky winter twilight gathered stealthily around him. As he passed by the corner grocery store, he waved to the proprietor, who returned the greeting. He didn’t have far to go now; his home was just the third house down from the corner. Where, at that very moment, his mother boiled water for his tea. But he never made it. For somewhere in that short distance of just about one hundred feet, he simply vanished and was never seen again. Fifteen years later, the case still remained unsolved. Under its former title Monsters in our Midst, this novel received the following reviews: REVIEW FROM COFFEE TIME ROMANCE "Ms. Lewis brings to light one of the horrors that any parent prays they never experience. The unknown would be like a cancer that just eats away at your very soul. As a parent, I can only hope that there are people out there like Scott Preston, who take it upon themselves to keep a case like this alive. The real tragedy in this story is the fact that no matter how horrible the truth, it is so much better than not knowing." REVIEW FROM DARK ANGELS "MONSTERS IN OUT MIDST by Karen Lewis will chill you to the bone. What an excellent suspense thriller to get lost in." "Every person questioned in this story has a little something to hide and you never know what it’s going to be. I found myself gaping and gasping a few times, through out the story. I was so eager to read more, I was able to finish the book, in a few short hours. Karen Lewis knows how to make sneaky characters, twisting clues and a dangerous plot that will keeps you guessing, even when you think it’s over. I have to tell you, I had no idea who the bad guy was. Every time a new character was introduced I was certain they were the perpetrator, but things just kept going farther and farther into left field. The fact that I had no idea what really was happening, kept me guessing, until the very end. You know, in most of the mystery books you read, you can guess who done it? Well in MONSTERS IN OUR MIDST I guessed wrong and the ending will give you the willies. I can’t wait to get my hands on more of Ms. Lewis’s work." REVIEW FROM BROWLER BOOKS "Karen Lewis takes you back in time to solve a cold case. She has written a very interesting mystery that will leave you completely shocked at the outcome. Scott Preston is a newspaper reporter given a very difficult assignment. He has to investigate a cold case of a missing boy that happened fifteen years ago. The police couldn't solve the case, so he feels that he shouldn't be asked to look into this case. The more he investigates the more interested he gets. Things don't always add up the way they should. This book will hold your interest from page one all the way to the very last page. I would recommend this book. 4.5 stars" REVIEW FROM MANIC READERS I really enjoyed Monsters in Our Midst. Karen Lewis has a fluent, easy writing style which draws the reader in. Her characters are well-drawn and believable. I was particularly taken with Scott's Aunt Violet. You get the feeling throughout that somebody knows something and isn't telling, but you can't work out who. Is it the neighbor who was away at the time, but seems a bit shifty? Or the truck driver who taught part-time at the boy's school and may have been seen in his company on the fatal day? Or even the boy's own mother, who seems far too unemotional about the whole thing and can only deal with the situation by insisting that her son is still alive? http://www.amazon.co.
The Legend of Devil's Creek
D.C. Alexander - 2012
More abductions and killings soon follow. Justin Riddley, recently transferred to the island’s small college, faces growing evidence that one of his new friends and fellow students may be the murderer. John Marshall, redemption-seeking captain of the local police force, leads the frantic murder investigation and struggles to figure out whether the killings are tied to the island's dark and violent past. Tormented by tragic wartime memories, and more convinced with each day that it is humanity’s fate to destroy itself, Marshall races against both the murderer and the specter of his own mental breakdown. As blood continues to spill, Riddley and Marshall wonder whether there may be a dark, universal force that drives evil deeds great and small, and whether the nature of one’s childhood might sometimes, in the end, be all that separates the saint from the psychopath.
The Forgotten Eden
Aiden James - 2010
Only one person has ever survived a visit to this place long enough to tell about it. His name is Jack Kenney. Thirteen years old at the time of the event, Jack and his family were forced to flee Carlsdale and head north to the larger city of Tuscaloosa. The menace from their former home left them in peace for nearly eight years. But after the brutal murder of a noted archaeologist and teacher at the University of Alabama, everything changed. Jack and his older brother, Jeremy, attend the University and are close friends of the late professor. Within days of his death, they are abducted by the FBI, held against their will in a secret holding facility near Manassas, Virginia. Frustrated by the brothers' seeming refusal to cooperate, the agency's interrogations become increasingly violent, until Jack gains a welcome reprieve when Special Agent Peter McNamee arrives from the FBI's Richmond office. He befriends Jack and gains his trust, drawing upon a similar supernatural event from his own youth. Willing, finally, to talk after so many years spent in sworn silence, Jack leads Peter on an extraordinary roller-coaster ride involving a mystical and deadly realm located in America's Deep South....
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King - A 30-Minute Summary
Instaread Summaries - 2014
Mr. Mercedes by Stephen King - A 30-minute Summary of the Novel Inside this Instaread Summary: Overview of the entire bookIntroduction to the Important people in the bookSummary and analysis of all the chapters in the bookKey Takeaways of the bookA Reader's Perspective Preview of this summary: Part1Chapter 1Down-on-his-luck, Augie Odenkirk helps homeless Janice Cray care for her baby as they wait in the early morning fog for a job fair. A gray Mercedes plows into the crowd. Augie, Janice and the baby are among the victims.Part 2Chapters 1-3About a year after the Mercedes crash, Retired Detective K. William Hodges watches more grubby reality shows, fails to enjoy his beer, and thinks, again, of shooting himself. The arrival of the mail distracts him. A letter, allegedly from the driver of the killer Mercedes, stuns him. The writer brags about killing eight and wounding many. He says that he got off sexually at he drove into the crowd. He wore a condom and used bleach to get rid of any DNA. He wore a hair net under a clown mask for the same reason. He knows Hodges is miserable and hopes the letter cheers him up. He gives Hodges a website where they can talk, including a username: kermitfrog19.Chapters 4-6Hodges wonders if he should turn the letter over to his former partner, Pete Huntley. He believes the writer is the killer because he knows inside information about the condom and the bleach. The idea of using this letter, and chats on line, to catch the killer gives Hodges a reason to live.Chapter 7-9Hodges analyzes the letter and sees that the writer has several identifying traits, including misusing perk for perp and peppering his words with an image of a smiley face. The same smiley face was glued onto the steering wheel of the Mercedes. Hodges calls Pete and makes a lunch date....
Girls of Brackenhill
Kate Moretti - 2020
It’s been seventeen years, and though desperate to start a new life with her fiancé, Hannah is compelled to question the events of her last summer at Brackenhill.When a human bone is found near the estate, Hannah is convinced it belongs to her long-lost sister. She launches her own investigation into that magical summer that ended in a nightmare. As strange happenings plague the castle, Hannah uncovers disturbing details about the past and startling realizations about her own repressed childhood memories.Fueled by guilt over her sister’s vanishing, Hannah becomes obsessed with discovering what happened all those years ago, but by the time Hannah realizes some mysteries are best left buried, it’s too late to stop digging. Overwhelmed by what she has exposed, Hannah isn’t sure her new life can survive her old ghosts.
The First
Jason Mott - 2013
Read how it all begins in this short story, The First.It's been just over a year since Edmund Blithe died, and just over a month since his fiancée, Emily, stopped wearing her engagement ring. Emily has finally begun to move on… Until Edmund mysteriously and inexplicably returns, sending the world—and Emily—into a tailspin.Edmund is only just the beginning. Around the world, people's loved ones are returning from beyond, seeking only to reenter the lives they left behind. As the world dives deep into uncertainty, Emily and Edmund are determined to find their way back to one another…even if it means risking everything.The reappearances continue in The Sparrow, and look for The Returned from Harlequin MIRA, a moving tale of a family given a second chance at life and a world where nothing—not even death—is certain.
Survive Another Day
Baileigh Higgins - 2017
With no one to rely on but herself, she has to find a way off the bloody streets before it's too late. But with a six-month-old baby and a hysterical toddler in tow, escape seems unlikely. Battered and abused, Maria looks back upon her life with husband Rolf with loathing. Caught in a prison from which she cannot escape, she's powerless to change her destiny and forever bound to a man she hates. Until the virus grants her an unexpected chance at revenge.All it takes is one mistake...As the sun sets against the backdrop of the African veldt and living nightmares walk the streets in the shape of their loved one's bodies, humanity's last hope rests in the hands of ordinary men and women called to do extraordinary things.
Lurk
Adam Vine - 2016
But late one night, he finds a box of old Polaroids buried under his house that can change to show him whatever he desires, and Drew finds himself with the power to watch the people around him without them ever knowing.Yet as Drew falls deeper into the rabbit hole of jealousy and despair, he begins having strange visions of the students who lived at the house twenty years ago and the gruesome fates they met after moving out. He finds evidence of a stalker who may be living on the property. The line between reality and nightmare blurs. Drew realizes there is something under the house that is manipulating him through the pictures, an eldritch, not-quite-dead thing that will drive him to do unspeakable evil if he doesn't look away...A blistering page-turner, LURK is horror unlike you've ever read.
The Break
Sam Sisavath - 2020
He’s about to join his wife and unborn child in retirement, an event he didn’t think would ever happen. It’s a cause for celebration, and all that’s left is the ride home.Unfortunately for Cole, the world has other plans.When an unknown phenomenon strikes the planet, man becomes its own worst enemy, transforming into rabid crazies that strike out at the nearest victim, seemingly driven by a single urge: Kill. Cole and a handful of individuals were left mysteriously unaffected. They don’t know why, but more importantly, they don’t care—because right now, it’s all about staying alive.The city streets run red with blood as those infected by the mysterious plague seek out more victims, forcing Cole to reawaken dormant skills from a past life in order to get through the day.Then he has to do it all over again the day after that…and the one after that…Cole only knows one thing: He will get home to his wife and unborn child, and God help anyone that stands in his way.Book 1 in the Fall of Man saga, a new take on post-apocalyptic horror. Are you ready? Don’t be so sure.
The Secret Dead
S.W. Fairbrother - 2014
She should. She's died enough times. Vivia is a hag, one of the last of her race, and can die, visit the underworld, and return at will. She loves her job helping London's most vulnerable supernaturals, even if her colleague Malcolm drives her round the bend on a daily basis. Then Malcolm is outed as a zombie, and along with his teenage son, flees the police. When Malcolm is captured, he is only able to pass on one message before his dead brain degrades completely: 'He killed me.' When the police find decades-old corpses hidden near Malcolm's home, Vivia begins to realise Malcolm's still-missing son is in a lot more danger than from just a possible zompocalypse...
The Eyes of The Sun
Christina McMullen - 2012
But when a date with a handsome stranger takes a deadly turn, she quickly discovers that the truth is more terrifying than fiction. The real monsters are the creations of evolutionary advantage, not vivid imaginations. But vampires aren't the only ones with evolution on their side. An anomaly in her blood is found to be fatal to vampires and Lucy is swiftly recruited into shadow organization hell bent on eliminating the vampire problem once and for all. Vampirehunting does not come naturally and Lucy's dangerous improvisations are quickly called out by Andre Garnier, a hunter who makes no secret of the fact that he opposes Lucy's recruitment. Soon it is discovered that The Eyes of The Sun, the oldest and most dangerous collective of vampires, are once again gaining ground and have infiltrated the very organization that is trying to stop them. The hunters have become the hunted and no one is to be trusted. Lucy and Andre are forced to set aside their differences for the sake of survival, but The Eyes of The Sun have an agenda that no one expected.