Suspense Drama

The St. Charles Players present multi-cast dramatizations of some of Edgar Allan Poe's greatest works, including The Black Cat, The System of Dr. Tarr and Prof. Fether, The Purloined Letter, and The Murders in the Rue Morgue.

When the adults of Brockton, Connecticut, morphed into bloodthirsty monsters nine months ago, the students at Jefferson High barricaded themselves inside their school. Now eighteen-year-old Kay is trying to keep her classmates from starving. Kay has no poker face and can't keep her mouth shut, so when she learns a secret that threatens the delicate power balance at Jefferson, she's dragged out of the school in a secret assassination attempt.

A young girl has been taken. Abducted, never to be seen again. Joe and Hannah, her traumatized parents, are consumed by grief. But all is not as it seems behind the curtains of their suburban home. Loretta, the Family Liaison Officer, is sure Hannah is hiding something – a dark and twisted secret from deep in her past. This terrible memory could be the key to the murder of another girl fifteen years ago. And as links between the two victims emerge, Joe and Hannah learn that in a family built on lies, the truth can destroy everything.

Craig Finnigan is determined to finish his book this summer, but being an aspiring writer while wrangling his seven-year-old daughter is not easy. So when Alice makes fast friends with a neighborhood boy, Levi, Craig is happy she has a distraction from her constant visits to his home office. But that happiness soon turns to misgivings as Levi’s behavior evolves from that of a shy, odd boy into something far more disturbing.

Sent from London to New York to bring a dying friend’s message to his daughter, Mary, Sam Dean arrives in Queens, steeped in a mesh of Caribbean and Hispanic culture, looking forward to reconnecting with family and old friends. But his relaxing holiday turns dark when Mary disappears, and Sammy is caught up in a world of murder, sex and corrupt politics that threatens to turn his world upside down.

Moments before she dies, Nicola's grandmother Betty whispers to her that there are babies at the bottom of the garden. Nicola's mother claims she was talking nonsense. However, when Nicola's daughter finds a bone while playing in Betty's garden, it's clear that something sinister has taken place.

Big-city defense lawyer Dean Lincoln left his picturesque hometown of Beaufort years ago. But now, the lure of small-town life and a family matter have drawn him back. Amidst the sultry heat and the Spanish moss, and beneath the facade of Southern small-town charm, Lincoln begins work again and is immediately thrown into two cases: a rich kid charged with murder and a poor kid accused of arson. Both swear they are innocent. Both feel the system is trying to crush them. And in this corner of the South, guilt is rarely decided in the courtroom…

Sheltered and naïve Carmen Darby has lived under the thumb of her father Rex, a brutal criminal businessman, her whole life. But when Rex announces his retirement and plans to leave his vast wealth to his three daughters, Carmen doesn't thank her father as effusively as he'd like, enraging him. Cast out from her home, Carmen assumes a new identity and starts her life over, but she knows she can't outrun the sins of her family for ever.

Smash all the Windows won the inaugural Selfies Book Award in 2019. It has taken conviction to right the wrongs. It will take courage to learn how to live again. London, 22 August 2003. A day that began like any other would end in tragedy. Fifty-eight people set off for work, only to never return. For more than thirteen years, the search for truth has eaten up everything: marriages, families, health, careers and finances. A flawed justice system failed the victims' kin, but hope arises when a rookie law student scrutinizes the disaster and uncovers potential answers.

In a razor-sharp legal thriller, Jack Kowalski must win two challenging trials to save his reputation and his career. Junior barrister Jack Kowalski is crushed. His client Timothy Smart appears to have committed a monstrous crime while on bail - a bail application Jack fought hard to win. When a high-profile Polish footballer is charged with rape and demands a fellow countryman represent him, Jack must overcome his guilt and get back to work.

Olivia Reed needs a break. She doesn’t want to think about her name plastered on tabloids or be reminded of her recent meltdown on a Manhattan street. Her micromanaging publicist has just the thing in mind: a remote retreat in upstate New York—the House of Light. It’s not rehab; it’s a Spiritual Center, a site for seeking realignment and personal growth. There will be yoga and morning meditation, soft bamboo-blend fabrics and no shortage of crystals to cleanse her energy.

In War Crimes for the Home we meet an old and forgetful Gloria, living in an old folks' home called Sea View. But when she met Ron, he was a handsome American pilot, and she was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz. Now, 50 years on, Gloria starts to remember what happened....

Ten years ago, Sebastian Croll was found not guilty of murdering his playmate. Criminal solicitor Daniel Hunter defended the 11-year-old in a trial that gripped the nation, but the past is unearthed when Daniel gets a call from his old client. Sebastian's university professor has been brutally murdered, and everyone who knew her is in the frame. As Daniel steps in to represent Sebastian for the second time, rumour of his client's identity spreads like wildfire.

Harriet and Mark have it all: successful careers, a lovely house in a leafy London suburb, twin boys on the cusp of leaving home. Yvette and Gary share a smaller place with their two daughters in a shabbier part of the same borough. But when the stars align for a collective move north, it means a fresh start for them all. For Mark, it’s a chance to escape the rat race; for Harriet, a distraction from her unfulfilled dream of a late third child. Gary has decided to reboot the Madchester band that made him famous, while Yvette hopes it will give her daughters what she never had.

It’s been ten years since Alison’s perfect world fell apart. Ten years since her son Sam disappeared while on a family holiday. Lost at sea, they said, his body never found. And even though her brother and sister were supposedly looking after the kids, Alison will always blame herself. Caught in a spiralling web of all-consuming grief where the lines between reality and fantasy blur, Alison refuses to let go. So when her ex-husband seeks to have Sam officially pronounced dead, Alison embarks upon a desperate and harrowing quest to discover what really happened that day on the beach.

Unleash your adventurous side with my latest Dark Romantic Suspense, a tale where opposites don't just attract, they ignite. Stephen and Charlotte, the central characters, find themselves entangled in the consequences of their parents' actions, promising an intriguing narrative that deviates from the cliché 'happily ever after'. This story concludes, not with an expected harmonious conclusion, but with a stark reflection of Stephen and Charlotte's unapologetic resolve.

Three years ago, Kate Doyle escaped a serial killer who died at the hands of her rescuers. FBI consultant and psychologist Ryan Strickland helped Kate rebuild her life, and the case was closed on the Rose Reaper’s seven victims—the six who were killed and Kate, the one who got away. Today, Kate has a good man in her life, a secure job, and hope. But her dreams for the future become a nightmare when a copycat killer starts hunting. One by one, with each new body, comes a gift for Kate: a single red rose. And then the warning: See you soon.

Sydney, Rain y Brianna. Tres niñas de nueve años. Tres niñas inseparables. Amigas de por vida o al menos eso era lo que creían. Las tres solían ser las mejores amigas durante su infancia en el sofocante desierto de California; deseaban encontrar una manera de huir de ahí. Años después, cada una cumplirá su deseo, pero no de la manera que imaginaban.

Five years ago, when Akash Hingorani won a trial in court for his friends Priti and Vansh Diwan, he lost his heart to the presiding judge, Shilpa Singh. But the passionate start to their relationship would meet a swift end. And then, nine months after the affair is over, Akash gets a call for help from Judge Shilpa Singh.

Lawyer Gabby Lewis always knew she would die young. Since her mother’s death twenty-five years ago, she’s dreaded her upcoming fortieth birthday, the same age her mother died. When she discovers a connection between her mother and a suspicious mansion house, Ocean Haven, Gabby begins to suspect that her mother’s death wasn’t an accident, it was murder.