Book picks similar to
Sister, Sister by Andrew Neiderman


horror
thriller
childhood
favorite-authors

Dark Island


Stephen Cross - 2019
    Within days, two families are dead. No wounds, no illness, their faces frozen in terror. What horror did they see in their last moments? Was it enough to frighten them to death? Tom has worked the mediterranean holiday resorts for years. Barman, kitchen hand, waiter. Always moving, always one step ahead of his past. The job at Milera Island Resort, a new five star hotel, is too good to be true. Accommodation, good pay, easy work. What could go wrong? A few days after the grand opening the resort is thrown into chaos. Two famlies are found dead. No marks on their bodies, no obvious injuries, no apparent cause of death. Their faces, however, are frozen masks of terror. Panic takes the island, evacuation begins, but how long do they have? Tom begins to suffer strange hallucinations and terrifying dreams, more unexplainable deaths occur, and as the chaos deepens Tom becomes aware of a dark presence descending from the woods. Can Tom find a way for everyone to escape before the darkness takes them? Is his past entwined with the growing madness? Who, or what, is the killer amongst them? Dark Island is a thrilling horror novel from the writer of the Surviving the Fall series. Expect chills that will keep you up at night...

Toybox


Al Sarrantonio - 1999
    Toybox itself was nominated for an International Horror Guild Award for best collection.Little Selene was bored. And then came the mysterious Toyman, carrying a very special toybox, filled with wonders and terrors beyond imagination. As Selene peered into the toybox, the stories tumbled out: a quiet little girl whose horrible secret bursts forth at a Halloween party ... a doll made of corn that hides a very nasty surprise ... a depraved celebration for the last vampire ... All of these and many more awaited Selend - and now they wait for you - inside the toybox. Go ahead, open it, if you dare.

Mama's Boy


Charles H. King - 1992
    NYPD detective Jake Harrowing spree and suicide, but proving it was murder seems impossible--until Jake discovers the small child who witnessed the slaughter from his secret hiding place.

Mystery Walk


Robert R. McCammon - 1983
      Born and raised in rural Alabama, Billy Creekmore was destined to be a psychic. His mother, a Choctaw Indian schooled in her tribe’s ancient mysticism, understands the permeable barrier between life and death—and can cross it. She taught the power to Billy and now he helps the dead rest in peace.   Wayne Falconer, son of one of the most fervent tent evangelists in the South, travels the country serving his father’s healing ministry. Using his unique powers to cure the flock, Little Wayne is on his way to becoming one of the popular and successful miracle workers in the country. He helps the living survive.   Billy and Wayne share more than a gift. They share a dream—and a common enemy. They are on separate journeys, mystery walks that will lead them toward a crossroad where the evil of their dreams has taken shape. One of them will reject the dark. The other will be consumed by it. But neither imagined just how monstrous and far-reaching the dark was, or that mankind’s fate would rest in their hands during an epic showdown of good versus evil.   From the author of Gone South, Boy’s Life, and the Matthew Corbett series, a master of suspense who has won the World Fantasy and Bram Stoker Awards, Mystery Walk offers “creepy, subtle touches throughout [and] splendid Southern-town atmosphere” (Kirkus Reviews).

Darren Shan's Demonata Series 9 Books Collection


Darren Shan
    Cotntains Blood Beast, Demon Apocalypse, Wolf Island, Death's Shadow, Dark Calling, Lord Loss, Demon Thief, Slawter, Bec

The Beloved


J.F. Gonzalez - 2005
    Perhaps your best friend is dating her, getting himself into debt by taking her out to fancy restaurants and buying her expensive gifts. Yet you see her for what she is... Or maybe he's the guy who has perfectly good excuses for not finding a job, so he lets his live-in girlfriend support them. She works hard to keep a roof over their head and food on the table...and in the meantime, she's running herself ragged emotionally and financially. Of course you know people like this. Everybody knows at least one. They're not who you think they are. They are charismatic, sexually attractive, and they'll completely drain you emotionally, financially, and physically. And then they'll move on to the next person. Don't let that next person be you. They're not human. They're something else...something too terrifying to imagine...

Lance Brody Omnibus


Michael Robertson Jr. - 2017
     Omnibus Includes: DARK BEGINNINGS (Book 0, Prequel Novella): The true beginning to the Lance Brody series, Dark Beginnings introduces us to Lance Brody and all his unique abilities, and leads us to the tragic events that unfold in Lance’s hometown of Hillston that force our young hero to start his life on the run, and show us the dark and strangely powerful duo that will hunt him … and haunt him. DARK GAME (Book 1): After meeting two new friends--one of this world, and one of another--Lance learns that young men have been disappearing from the small town of Westhaven without a trace. No clues left behind, no answers. Left with no choice but to use his unexplainable gifts--the ones that allow him to see beyond the veil and into the shadows--Lance sets out to restore peace to Westhaven before another boy can vanish ... But the darkness Lance felt the moment he arrived will do everything it can to stop him. No matter the lives lost. DARK SON (Book 2): Six years before Lance Brody arrives to stay in the old farmhouse in the tiny town of Ripton’s Grove, Mark Benchley murdered his wife and teenaged daughter before turning the shotgun on himself. But while the town has accepted the Benchley family’s fate, it doesn’t take long for Lance to realize there might be much more to the night the Benchley family died, and the farmhouse itself, than anybody knows. Anybody alive, that is. While digging for answers and trying to piece together the clues the ghosts of the farmhouse seem to be offering him, Lance discovers something that shakes him to his core. A young boy named Ethan who may carry with him a secret bigger than anything Lance could have ever expected. A secret that may change Lance’s life forever. What Amazon Readers are saying about the Lance Brody Series: "I was totally captivated from page one." "The story pulls you in, and makes it hard to put down." "Loved it! Great premise. Very entertaining." "One of the best reads in ages! I was drawn in & felt like I knew the characters personally." "If you like paranormal and mysteries, READ THIS BOOK!!" "This excellent mystery and ghost story keeps you guessing until the very end." "There are very few book series that keep me interested. THIS SERIES IS FUN AND I JUST CANNOT PUT THEM DOWN. I cannot wait for the next one."

Meadowlarks


Thomas Holladay - 2021
    . . Carolyn and her eight-year-old son Jason unwittingly step into a maelstrom of horror partially brought about by their unwillingness to allow a long-standing ritual to continue. As family relationships, heritage, neighbors, and deadly forces intersect, evil becomes apparent in not only an unleashed supernatural beast, but in the hearts of men. Rural roots, supernatural horror, Native rituals, and family relationships blend seamlessly to build a nicely-paced drama that comes full circle for elderly Native John Crow, whose new neighbors have now become part of this sacred valley and its long-standing ritual practices, changing their lives forever. Meadowlarks is especially recommended for fans of Tony Hillerman-style intrigue who seek a vifgorous dose of the supernatural added into a mix of mystery and interpersonal struggle. Diane Donovan, Midwest Book Review All Carolyn Potter wanted was a safe haven in which to raise her son, Jason, not to find a night stalker lurking in the forest surrounding their new mountain home. Following the unsolved murder of her husband and a violent attack on her son, Carolyn Potter learns she has inherited a cattle ranch located in a remote valley high in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. She eagerly leaps at the opportunity to escape urban violence, move out of her oppressive mother's home and get away from her hungry eyed, lip licking employer, Tom Kirby. Kirby, buried under gambling debts, is destroying Kirby Publications, a company built by his deceased father. Learning of Carolyn's inheritance compels him to win her favor in order to marry into her newfound wealth but Carolyn chooses Shangri-la, her dead husband's family ranch. Carolyn and Jason love their new home but soon learn of a local ritual being practiced on their land where a bull calf is brutally slaughtered with each cycle of the full moon. Seeking to end this gruesome practice, Carolyn saves the young calf and unleashes a monstrous creature, not realizing this creature is the protector of Shangri-la. After the creature attempts to break into their home, Carolyn calls on Tom Kirby for help. Kirby zooms to the rescue to confront the beast, rescue the girl and inherit her wealth, with which he intends to regain his prowess as a winning gambler. After her complete failure to end the slaughter of both bull calves and her neighbors, Carolyn must now decide whether to move back to civilization, stay and try to defeat her new threat or accept a bloody ritual that keeps the beast at bay.

The Vanished


Celia Rees - 1997
    They make entertaining copy for the school newspaper, then Fraser begins to wonder if some of them might be true.

Louisiana Blood (A Chandler Travis and Duke Lanoix Mystery Thriller)


Mike Donald - 2019
    When the remains of Jack the Ripper’s first five victims are discovered in present day Louisiana, an English detective and a local sheriff form an unlikely alliance to unravel the mystery…and find themselves caught up in a modern-day conspiracy.

The Folcroft Ghosts


Darcy Coates - 2017
    May and Peter Folcroft seem warm and charming at first, and the house, hidden in the base of the mountains, is idyllic. But strange things keep happening. The swing moves on its own. Peter paces around the house late at night. Doors slam and curtains shift when no one is inside. Tara begins to suspect the old house is haunted. When a storm cuts the phone line, May shifts from doting to obsessive. Tara and Kyle must try to keep up the pretext of a happy family, but an empty journal and locked room provide clues to the unforgivable lies, secrets and decades-old murders entwined with the Folcrofts' history. And the ghosts are growing restless...

Off Season


Jack Ketchum - 1980
    A beautiful New York editor retreats to a lonely cabin on a hill in the quiet Maine beach town of Dead River—off season—awaiting her sister and friends. Nearby, a savage human family with a taste for flesh lurks in the darkening woods, watching, waiting for the moon to rise and night to fall...And before too many hours pass, five civilized, sophisticated people and one tired old country sheriff will learn just how primitive we all are beneath the surface...and that there are no limits at all to the will to survive.

The Invited


Jennifer McMahon - 2019
    . . In a quest for a simpler life, Helen and Nate have abandoned the comforts of suburbia to take up residence on forty-four acres of rural land where they will begin the ultimate, aspirational do-it-yourself project: building the house of their dreams. When they discover that this beautiful property has a dark and violent past, Helen, a former history teacher, becomes consumed by the local legend of Hattie Breckenridge, a woman who lived and died there a century ago. With her passion for artifacts, Helen finds special materials to incorporate into the house--a beam from an old schoolroom, bricks from a mill, a mantel from a farmhouse--objects that draw her deeper into the story of Hattie and her descendants, three generations of Breckenridge women, each of whom died suspiciously. As the building project progresses, the house will become a place of menace and unfinished business: a new home, now haunted, that beckons its owners and their neighbors toward unimaginable danger.

Friend


Diana Henstell - 1985
    A young genius desperately isolated in a world of theories and formulae few can understand. Until he meets shy and loving Samantha. The friend he never had. The love he only dreamed of. He loves her so much, he cannot let her go.And when suddenly, tragically, Samantha is lost, he makes a solemn vow -- to use his gifts of genius to keep his beloved Samantha. For just a little while longer....A modern day Frankenstein story that was the basis for a Sci-Fi horror movie of the same name by Wes Craven.

Hideaway / The Vision


Dean Koontz - 1994
    Two complete unabridged novels in one volume: HIDEAWAY, tells of an accident victim being miraculously resuscitated, and THE VISION is the story of a clairvoyant who can foresee murders but cannot prevent them taking place.