Book picks similar to
Behold the Child by Harry Shannon
horror
ebook
mystery
thriller
Beneath Claire's House
Corey J. Popp - 2015
Popp comes a young adult, supernatural thriller that will keep readers guessing until its shocking conclusion. Sixteen-year-old Claire Young is tormented by a recurring, prophetic nightmare and visitations from gruesome, mutilated ghosts. She's convinced the apparitions intend to harm her widowed father, but there's little she can do locked away in Saint Thomas Psychiatric Hospital. Her situation is hopeless until a mysterious priest delivers the name of a man who may be the only one willing to help. Claire launches a daring scheme that leads her and her best friend to a former paranormal investigator. But the matter is complicated by Claire's own father. Convinced his daughter is schizophrenic, he'll send Claire back to Saint Thomas permanently if he discovers she’s still clinging to her delusions. Claire and her friends must tread lightly to complete the investigation, but amid bizarre twists and chilling encounters, she’ll discover her home's basement is hiding something far more sinister than just ghosts.
Crime Beat
Scott Nicholson - 2011
Then a murder victim is discovered, and Moretz is first on the scene.As more bodies are discovered, Moretz comes under police suspicion, but the newspaper's sales are booming due to his coverage of sensational crime. His editor is torn between calling off his newshound and cashing in on the attention, plus the editor is romancing the big-city reporter assigned to cover the suspected serial killer.And Moretz seems to be one step ahead of the other reporters, the police, and even the killer himself.CRIME BEAT is a 21,000-word novella, the equivalent of about 80 book pages. Also contains the bonus story "Do You Know Me Yet?" from HEAD CASES.-------------------------By Scott Nicholson, #1 Kindle bestselling author in Mystery & Suspense. Nicholson is author of Disintegration, The Skull Ring, The Red Church, and other crime, mystery, suspense, and paranormal thrillers. His mystery collections include Curtains and Head Cases, and with bestselling Kindle author J.R. Rain, he's published the urban fantasy Cursed!--------------"This is one author that aims to kill and never misses.” – Jeremy Robinson, INSTINCT and THRESHOLD"Buy everything he writes. He's the real deal." – Bentley Little, THE DISAPPEARANCE"Always surprises and always entertains." – Jonathan Maberry, PATIENT ZERO"Scott Nicholson's strong and vivid writing draws the reader deep into the story." – Vicki Tyley, THIN BLOOD
Desecration
J.F. Penn - 2013
Her career is on the ropes. Her daughter is dying — there are only hours left before the end, and decisions have to be made. Museum curator Blake Daniel is a man on the edge of destruction. Cursed with the ability to “read” objects — to see where they’ve come from, and the bloody histories they experience — Blake splits his time between working as a researcher at the British Museum… and binge-drinking to forget his nightmare visions.Together, these two broken souls are all that stand between London and a serial killer. A young woman has been murdered, her uterus and unborn child removed during a gala event at a college of surgeons, any of whom could have committed the crime. The only clue is a small ivory figure of a woman undergoing a Cesarean section, dating to the seventeenth century.Body modification, grave robbery, Nazi eugenics, a laboratory that specializes in extreme genetic experiments. All come together to create a mystery unlike any Jamie has experienced, and a danger greater than any Blake has ever seen in his visions. It will take all Jamie’s detective skills, and all Blake’s psychic abilities, to find the killer. To end the murders. To stop something that wants to destroy all that is good… and leave behind only DESECRATION.Desecration is the first book in a thrilling new series by New York Times and USA Today bestselling author J.F. Penn: a blend of crime, psychological thriller — and the supernatural.
Unseen
John Michael Hileman - 2012
When Jake's estranged sister, Holly, finds herself the target of a national serial killer who has chosen her son as his next victim, Jake begins to wonder if there is a connection. Could these children be the ghosts of the killer's victims?As the kidnapper's plan unfolds, Jake uncovers a startling secret about the unseen children that will change his life forever--and Holly discovers just how far she is willing to go to save her son. Unseen is a riveting story of rescue, restoration, and romance that will leave you thinking long after the last page has been turned.
The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo
J.R. Rain - 2010
Now armed and dangerous, she sets out to hunt down the very thing that destroyed her life.That is, until she disappears.Spinoza is a private investigator who specializes in finding the missing. He's good at what he does. Damn good. But he's also a recovering alcoholic and a royal mess. Hired to find Veronica, Spinoza won't let his personal demons — or demons of any kind — get in the way of finding the truth about the missing girl.Now following a bizarre set of clues that leads him into stranger and stranger territory, Spinoza is about to come face-to-face with something legendary...and something hungry for blood.(Please Note: The Vampire With the Dragon Tattoo is approximately 90 manuscript pages, or 22,000 words.)
The Donzerly Light
Ryne Douglas Pearson - 2010
But the success he’d imagined is frustratingly elusive.Until he meets the bum. An enigmatic transient who occupies a Manhattan corner, offering puzzling morsels of wisdom on a sign he changes daily. Drawn to the bum one day by a familiar snippet on his sign, Jay gives the man some spare change.What he gets in return shakes him to his core.Suddenly gifted with some power of prescience, Jay becomes the darling of Wall Street, picking winning stocks as if he can glimpse the future.Or shape it.But the dark side of this gift reveals itself as a curse when Jay tries to turn away from what he’s been given, leading the bum to reach into his life with murderous results. Running from the horrific reality that his power now unleashes, Jay finds his flight coming full circle as he must face the man, the thing, that set him on this path.
The Lady on the Road: An Urban Legend Short Story
Nick Herntier - 2019
After leaving her friend's house, she decides she's going to prove to her brother that "The Lady on the Road " urban legend is just that...
After the Evil
Cary Allen Stone - 2005
He is investigating a murder; a serial killer is responsible. FBI profiler Mika Scott leads the investigation. Mika and Jake were partners and lovers. Tensions run high when Jake discovers who the killer is. Will they get there in time to stop another murder?
Heart Collector
Jacques Vandroux - 2013
But when a mutilated corpse is discovered in an old baptistery, she’s faced with some difficult questions: Who left a young woman’s body in a high-security museum in the middle of the night? And where is the victim’s heart?Barka has no leads, until several days later when unassuming computer technician Julien Lombard comes forward, claiming to have had a premonition of the woman’s abduction and murder. The ensuing investigation turns up nothing, however, and Julien is just as skeptical about his intel as the police are. But, after another woman goes missing, Barka decides to take a chance and trust in Julien’s gift. Does Julien hold the key to preventing another gruesome crime? Working together, can they find the murderer before he steals another heart?
Infinity House
Shane McKenzie - 2012
Grandmamma did, too, back when she could still think straight. Hell, everybody in the poverty and crime-ridden Oak knew to stay away from it.But when a drug deal goes bad, and Mike is left penniless and desperate, he and his younger brother, James, do the unthinkable. In the dead of night, they sneak onto the unkempt property in search of rumored treasures. Beneath the thick shadow cast by the deserted home, they find what they are looking for.But brothers get greedy. Enticed by the promise of enough riches to get them out of the doomed neighborhood, the pair enters the house.And soon discover that the truth can be much worse than legend.
The Sound Of Footsteps
Diane Patterson - 2014
Ghosts are easy to deal with. Ghosts aren’t real. Reality is where the trouble starts. Drusilla Thorne and her sister Stevie need a place to live in San Antonio while Drusilla sets up her new identity. The place they find is definitely cheap — the landlord can’t find tenants because it’s supposedly haunted. That’s fine with Drusilla, because she knows ghosts aren’t real. But something is making enough noise to keep her awake at night. And if it’s not ghosts making those noises, what is? Sometimes Drusilla needs to remember asking questions might bring answers nobody wants to hear.
Creatures of Appetite
Todd Travis - 2013
Everyone else calls it a nightmare. Locked doors don't stop him. He leaves no trace behind. He only takes little girls. His nickname... The Iceman. A deranged serial killer roams wintry rural Nebraska with a demented purpose no one can fathom. Special Agent EMMA KANE, a former DC cop and damaged goods now with the FBI, is assigned to babysit burnt-out profiler JACOB THORNE, once the best in the business but now said to have lost his edge, as they both fly to Nebraska to catch this maniac. Thorne is erratic, abrasive and unpredictably brilliant, but what he and Kane find in the heartland is much more than anyone bargained for, especially when the Iceman challenges them personally. The clock is ticking and a little girl's life is on the line. And maybe even more with that, once they find out what he's really up to.NOTE FROM THE AUTHOR: This book has frank and profane adult language within... this is often how many a law enforcement officer speaks, in my experience. Not all, but many, very many. The book also has violence and adult situations, but the profanity is the only thing that some folks have been noting, for some odd reason, so I'm warning you now that it has profanity. I totally understand that not everyone wants to read curse words. However, to write a book like this without a cop cursing would not, in my mind, be authentic. Therefore, if you can't handle HBO-style language, (a la THE WIRE, etc.) this book is not for you. If fictional bad language bothers you more than the fictional murder of young people, this book is definitely not for you, but I thank you for your time and consideration.
Bloody Valentine
James Patterson - 2011
It's for murder.Mega rich restaurant owner Jack Barnes and his second wife Zee are very much in love. However, their plans for Valentine's Day are about to be torn apart by the most violent murder.Who is the strange figure plotting this sick crime? Who hates Jack that much? There are plenty of suspects living in Jack's fancy block of flats. Is it them, or could it be the work of an outsider with a twisted mind? One thing's for sure, the police have got their work cut out solving this bloody mess.
Messages
Christine Dougherty - 2011
Fired from his job, his girlfriend on the verge of leaving him, barely keeping his life in order, James’ unyielding insistence on following the signs and putting together the clues brings him to the answer…and it changes everything. Hindered by flashbacks to a barely remembered babyhood at the hands of a criminally insane mother, James forges ahead, committing acts he’d never have thought himself capable, from shadowing a local teen, to kidnapping, to a murderous confrontation–all over the object of his desire. When he partners with a mysterious cop named Riddel, James is certain he will not only bring everything out into the open, but also convince his girlfriend Lacey that she is central to his quest. And she is, but in a way they are all unable to foresee.