Psychological Thriller Supernatural

The Bruton Inn, located outside of the small Maine city of Hollis Oaks, is home to something sinister. An icy presence has made its way from a dark past to the present day. Cold spots, shadows, and whispers permeate the halls, and guests are beginning to change. For two front desk employees, the dark rumors are about to come to light. They call upon an urban shaman and his connection with the spirit world to dig up the truth. Will they be able to stand against this malevolent force?

Grant is handsome, charismatic, and charming. He's also a horror novelist who's had moderate success in his craft. The only thing more attractive than the man is the fact that he actually wants to meet Amy's son, Bailey. Bailey is independent for his age, as competent at caring for his own daily needs as most children twice his age, and he soon warms to the charming writer. Months later, after Bailey and his mother have taken up residence with this new man, odd behaviors begin to emerge....

When Professor William Standish receives the rare honor of an Esswood Fellowship, and the chance to study Isobel’s private manuscripts at close hand, he is thrilled beyond his wildest ambitions. But upon arriving, something seems slightly strange at Esswood House. He hears faint laughter in the halls, the pitter-pattering of small feet in the night; strange faces appear in the windows of the library, and of course, there are those giant dollhouses in the basement....

Anna Percival drifted through the shadowy rooms of the old dark house in a sleepwalker's trance. And wherever she went a strange death was sure to follow. Many years before, at Land's End Manor, lived another Anna, a murderess of uncommon cunning and cruelty. Gossipy villagers tried to make Anna Percival believe that the other Anna's evil spirit lived in her! Yet even as death thrived at Land's End, Anna Percival found her own safety threatened again and again. Was she out to take her own life as well as the lives of others?

Dunbar Manor had always been a place of fear for Ann Randall. Years ago, her mother had been killed there by a black-hooded figure who escaped capture. There were those who said that the phantom-like "thing" still roamed the eerie grounds at the dark of the moon. Ann had never expected to return to Dunbar Manor. But one night she awoke in one of its shadowy rooms, her money gone, to find herself the fiancée of a sinister man she had never seen before! She was informed that soon she would become the mistress of the great estate.

Despite carrying the scars of childhood trauma, Mary McAllister has enjoyed a successful career and become the mother of two wonderful children. Then their deadbeat father leaves, her young daughter dies, and she is hospitalized in a psychiatric center as she seeks to recover from this devastating loss. But she is not the same when she is released—and during escalating periods of crisis, she claims to be possessed by Z-DA, an evil creature from a distant galaxy that has come to earth in a war almost as old as the universe itself with Ordo, leader of a good species.

Forty years ago, triplets Miriam, Louise, and Edward were swept up in a case of rural mass hysteria. Coerced into fabricating unspeakable lies about their first-grade teacher and her adult son, they were complicit in destroying two lives. Ever since, they have believed they are being followed by a presence still seeking retribution for their childhood sins. Unless their guilty consciences are conjuring as many monsters as their innocent minds once did.

Essie has always seen herself as someone defined by her ambitions, a cold and independent woman, whose only soft spot is her husband. She never imagined herself as a mother, but then she finds out she’s pregnant. As her difficult pregnancy transforms her body and life into something foreign to her, her husband spends the nights pacing in the attic, and the house begins to whisper.

Heather agrees to go camping with Dougie and his friends because she's desperate to get closer to him, and a secluded beach sounds like the perfect place. But the trip takes a sinister turn that brings Heather's plans to a violent end. One by one, the group begins to vanish. A year later, Heather knows she's just lucky to be alive. And now, people are asking for answers, or else she will be the one to take the blame. But the truth about what happened on that trip is far more terrifying than anyone knows....

Betsy Ryan is pregnant with her third child, and receiving threatening notes from a stalker. During what should be a joyful time in her life. She can't help but think it's the same person who attacked her at the train station almost a decade ago, and changed the course of her life forever. To save herself and her unborn child, Betsy must face her fears and find her strength, to reveal who is after her and most importantly...why.

An ambitious and sharp-witted clinical psychiatrist turns detective when one of her patients comes under investigation for a series of brutal murders - is she a psychopath or a victim herself? Brilliant psychiatric resident Dr. Kim Patterson has one major flaw: She is too committed to her patients. Her willingness to break the rules and use unconventional methods to help her patients heal has already gotten her thrown out of several hospitals. And when Scarlett Hascall is brought into the psychiatric ward, Kim can't resist getting involved.

Cain Killion knows himself to be a damaged man, his only saving grace the extrasensory connection to blood that he uses to catch murderers. His latest case takes a macabre turn when he discovers a familiar and haunting symbol linking the crime to his own horrific past - and only one woman could know what it means. Mercy Ledger is brave, resilient, beautiful - and in terrible danger. The moment he sees Mercy, Cain knows he's the one who can save her.

When 16-year-old Ben McCloud moves to Black Hill Farm, he soon falls in love with the mysterious and seductive Andrea Black. Finding themselves alone on this remote farm and desperate to stay together, Ben's and Andrea's world spirals out of control. As they fight for survival, every step they take leads them into an ever darker world of terror and despair.

John Ballard is a PI with a condition. One in a million born with a sensitivity. He absorbs the memories of whatever or whoever he touches, whether he wants to or not. He's an outcast - one that's useful to the cops - but it makes for an isolated life. Called in to consult on a gruesome and inexplicably artistic murder, it's clear that only someone with his gift can hope to solve it...but absorbing the memories of the body is going to send John's life spiraling out of control.

After years of traditional treatments and therapies, Derrick still suffers from pain ineluctable enough that it has become his identity. Then he hears of an exclusive, very private New York clinic that promises relief. It comes highly recommended by a friend. The multisession remedy unfolds as a sensorial wonder that’s so illuminating it’s enough to bring tears to Derrick’s eyes. It’s all working so well. So unexpectedly well.

Under the shimmering light of a full moon, newly engaged couple Paul and Cora head home from a dinner party. But when a devastating car accident leaves Cora paralyzed from the waist down, their future together is changed in the blink of an eye. As Cora’s depression leads to a dependence on prescription pain meds, Paul turns to the works of inspirational self-help author Gabrielle Lawson. After learning of the guru’s week-long retreat focused on "energetic healing", Paul convinces a skeptical Cora to attend.

A fast-paced thriller set on the streets of a London rife with undercover magic. Abras, as they are known, can harness these illegal powers, but for con artist Amanda Coleman - whose father was a powerful and abusive practitioner - magic is anathema. When her criminal crew decide to hire an Abra to help with their heists, they don’t expect to raise a demon, or to quickly lose control of it. Now Coleman and her crew must travel across Siberia to a remote stone circle in order to kill this murderous creature, who has destroyed everything they hold dear.

When Michael "Blue" Whitley -- a former party boy turned up-and-coming Brooklyn chef -- returns with three friends to the remote Canadian commune of his birth, he discovers that his entire life has been a carefully orchestrated lie. He is in fact someone else altogether, a replacement for a local child who disappeared twenty-five years earlier. He is something not quite human.

Not only had Adam lost his parents in a car crash, but he'd also forgotten who he was. Pamela is haunted by the patient who was murdered by her father. Barbara and Mike have mysterious secrets. Harry seeks solace at the bottom of a glass. And why is Mildred so afraid? While Helen's mind gathers dust, Lizzie mourns the loss of her and her husband. Both Penny and Jane are frantic to find their daughters, if in different ways. Rick wonders what to do about his family. And who is William?

In this gothic, virtuoso debut collection, Mike McCormack dispenses nightmares both stylish and macabre. "A Is for Ax" offers alphabetized look at the killing of a parent, while the title story tracks a chilling sibling rivalry. Other works here offer multiple-quiz on the road to Calvary, a door-to-door saleswoman trafficking in strange and menacing feats, and a self-mutilating artist pushing himself to the limit. These sly and dangerous stories show us a young writer who was already a master of wicked formal play, and whose sly takes on life and death remain profoundly unsettling.