Thrilling & Chilling Fiction Stars
Discover the best thrilling and chilling fiction stars in our curated list of must-read books. Dive into suspense, mystery, and heart-pounding tales that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
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The Husband
by Dean Ray Koontz
When landscaper Mitchell Rafferty receives a phone call that his wife has been kidnapped and there is a two million dollar ransom, his extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing, seventy-two hour journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption. 525,000 first printing.
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World War Z
by Max Brooks
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “Prepare to be entranced by this addictively readable oral history of the great war between humans and zombies.”—Entertainment Weekly We survived the zombie apocalypse, but how many of us are still haunted by that terrible time? We have (temporarily?) defeated the living dead, but at what cost? Told in the haunting and riveting voices of the men and women who witnessed the horror firsthand, World War Z is the only record of the pandemic. The Zombie War came unthinkably close to eradicating humanity. Max Brooks, driven by the urgency of preserving the acid-etched first-hand experiences of the survivors, traveled across the United States of America and throughout the world, from decimated cities that once teemed with upwards of thirty million souls to the most remote and inhospitable areas of the planet. He recorded the testimony of men, women, and sometimes children who came face-to-face with the living, or at least the undead, hell of that dreadful time. World War Z is the result. Never before have we had access to a document that so powerfully conveys the depth of fear and horror, and also the ineradicable spirit of resistance, that gripped human society through the plague years. THE INSPIRATION FOR THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE “Will spook you for real.”—The New York Times Book Review “Possesses more creativity and zip than entire crates of other new fiction titles. Think Mad Max meets The Hot Zone. . . . It’s Apocalypse Now, pandemic-style. Creepy but fascinating.”—USA Today “Will grab you as tightly as a dead man’s fist. A.”—Entertainment Weekly, EW Pick “Probably the most topical and literate scare since Orson Welles’s War of the Worlds radio broadcast . . . This is action-packed social-political satire with a global view.”—Dallas Morning News
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Anansi Boys
by Neil Gaiman
One of fiction's most audaciously original talents, Neil Gaiman now gives us a mythology for a modern age -- complete with dark prophecy, family dysfunction, mystical deceptions, and killer birds. Not to mention a lime. Anansi Boys God is dead. Meet the kids. When Fat Charlie's dad named something, it stuck. Like calling Fat Charlie "Fat Charlie." Even now, twenty years later, Charlie Nancy can't shake that name, one of the many embarrassing "gifts" his father bestowed -- before he dropped dead on a karaoke stage and ruined Fat Charlie's life. Mr. Nancy left Fat Charlie things. Things like the tall, good-looking stranger who appears on Charlie's doorstep, who appears to be the brother he never knew. A brother as different from Charlie as night is from day, a brother who's going to show Charlie how to lighten up and have a little fun ... just like Dear Old Dad. And all of a sudden, life starts getting very interesting for Fat Charlie. Because, you see, Charlie's dad wasn't just any dad. He was Anansi, a trickster god, the spider-god. Anansi is the spirit of rebellion, able to overturn the social order, create wealth out of thin air, and baffle the devil. Some said he could cheat even Death himself. Returning to the territory he so brilliantly explored in his masterful New York Times bestseller, American Gods, the incomparable Neil Gaiman offers up a work of dazzling ingenuity, a kaleidoscopic journey deep into myth that is at once startling, terrifying, exhilarating, and fiercely funny -- a true wonder of a novel that confirms Stephen King's glowing assessment of the author as "a treasure-house of story, and we are lucky to have him."
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American Gods
by Neil Gaiman
Shadow is a man with a past. But now he wants nothing more than to live a quiet life with his wife and stay out of trouble. Until he learns that she's been killed in a terrible accident. Flying home for the funeral, as a violent storm rocks the plane, a strange man in the seat next to him introduces himself. The man calls himself Mr. Wednesday, and he knows more about Shadow than is possible. He warns Shadow that a far bigger storm is coming. And from that moment on, nothing will ever he the same...
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Night of the Jaguar
by Michael Gruber
“Like settling down with a Gabriel Garcia Marquez novel—if it was rewritten by James M. Cain.” —Denver Post Michael Gruber’s Night of the Jaguar—like his earlier novels featuring Miami detective Jimmy Paz (Tropic of Night, Valley of Bones)—transforms the conventional thriller into something extraordinary, taking the crime novel to a place it has never gone before. Combining a grisly murder investigation with chilling supernatural elements and provocative thought, Night of the Jaguar is a bravura display of the originality and artistry that has won Gruber the title, “the Stephen King of crime fiction” while inspiring the Washington Post Book World to name the Jimmy Paz trilogy, “among the essential novels of recent years.”
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Bad Men
by John Connolly
BAD MEN On the Maine island once known as Sanctuary, policeman Joe Dupree is the guardian of its secrets, keeper of its memories. He knows that Sanctuary had been steeped in carnage once, centuries ago, when its settlers were betrayed to their enemies and slaughtered. Now, a strange, otherworldly evil is about to descend again....With rookie officer Sharon Macy, Joe stands guard against a bloodthirsty band of men set on murder, robbery, and retribution. But unleashing the fury of the ghosts of the past will have unimaginable consequences for any who spill innocent blood on Sanctuary's shores. Includes an excerpt from The Black Angel, John Connolly's return to the world of detective Charlie Parker -- coming soon in hardcover from Atria Books.
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The Historian
by Elizabeth Kostova
Discovering a medieval book and a cache of letters, a motherless American girl becomes the latest in a series of historians, including her late father, who investigates the possible surviving legacy of Vlad the Impaler, a quest that takes her across Europe and into the pasts of her father and his mentor. A first novel. Reprint. 500,000 first printing.
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Forever Odd
by Dean Ray Koontz
In the unique world of Pico, Odd--an unforgettable hero who lives between the living and the dead--takes a stand against evil in a battle where there are no innocent bystanders. 600,000 first printing.
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Odd Thomas
by Dean Koontz
Meet Odd Thomas, the unassuming young hero of Dean Koontz’s dazzling New York Times bestseller, a gallant sentinel at the crossroads of life and death who offers up his heart in these pages and will forever capture yours. “The dead don’t talk. I don’t know why.” But they do try to communicate, with a short-order cook in a small desert town serving as their reluctant confidant. Sometimes the silent souls who seek out Odd want justice. Occasionally their otherworldly tips help him prevent a crime. But this time it’s different. A stranger comes to Pico Mundo, accompanied by a horde of hyena-like shades who herald an imminent catastrophe. Aided by his soul mate, Stormy Llewellyn, and an unlikely community of allies that includes the King of Rock ’n’ Roll, Odd will race against time to thwart the gathering evil. His account of these shattering hours, in which past and present, fate and destiny, converge, is a testament by which to live—an unforgettable fable for our time destined to rank among Dean Koontz’s most enduring works.
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Lost Echoes
by Joe R. Lansdale
Since a mysterious childhood illness, Harry Wilkes has experienced horrific visions. Gruesome scenes emerge to replay themselves before his eyes. Triggered by simple sounds, these visions occur anywhere a tragic event has happened. Now in college, Harry feels haunted and turns to alcohol to dull his visionary senses. One night, he sees a fellow drunk easily best three muggers. In this man, Harry finds not only a friend that will help him kick the booze, but also a sensei who will teach him to master his unusual gift. Soon Harry’s childhood crush, Kayla, comes and asks for help solving her father’s murder. Unsure of how it will affect him, Harry finds the strength to confront the dark secrets of the past, only to unveil the horrors of the present.
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Haunted
by Chuck Palahniuk
Haunted is a novel made up of twenty-three horrifying, hilarious, and stomach-churning stories. They’re told by people who have answered an ad for a writer’s retreat and unwittingly joined a “Survivor”-like scenario where the host withholds heat, power, and food. As the storytellers grow more desperate, their tales become more extreme, and they ruthlessly plot to make themselves the hero of the reality show that will surely be made from their plight. This is one of the most disturbing and outrageous books you’ll ever read, one that could only come from the mind of Chuck Palahniuk.
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Hannibal
by Thomas Harris
A showdown between two psychopathic killers with a beautiful FBI agent caught in the middle. From his respirator, Mason Verger orders the capture of Hannibal Lecter, the man who put him there, and the bait is Clarice Starling, with whom Lecter crossed swords in The Silence of the Lambs.
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Hannibal Rising
by Thomas Harris
This novel explains the early years of Hannibal Lecter, and how they affected his later behaviour.
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Joplin's Ghost
by Tananarive Due
From the award-winning writer of The Good House, The Living Blood, and more, Joplin's Ghost is a chilling tale of a star-in-the-making whose life goes haywire as she is haunted by the ghost of a long-dead music legend. When Phoenix Smalls was ten, she nearly died at her parents' jazz club when she was crushed by a turn-of-the-century piano. Now twenty-four, Phoenix is launching a career as an R & B singer. She's living the life young artists envy and seems destined for fame and fortune. But a chance visit to a historical site in St. Louis ignites a series of bizarre, erotic encounters with a spirit who may be the King of Ragtime, Scott Joplin. The music of Scott Joplin is strange enough to the ears of the hip-hop generation, but the idea that these antique sounds are being channeled by the protegee of rap superstar G-Ronn is nothing short of ludicrous. With growing violence in G-Ronn's inner circle and a ghost bent on living forever through her, Phoenix's life suddenly hangs in the balance," writes Tananarive Due. Can the power of her own inner song and the love of a music writer who believes in her give Phoenix the strength to fight to live out her own future? Or will she be trapped forever in Scott Joplin's doomed, tragic past?
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The Lake
by Richard Laymon
When a teenage girl is terrorized by a madman out for blood, could it have something to do with what happened to her mother so long ago at the abandoned house out on the lake?
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After Midnight
by Richard Laymon
A young woman descends into an ever-escalating nightmare of murder and madness when her only defense against an intruder is a Civil War-era saber.
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The Ghost Writer
by John Harwood
Plagued with unpleasant memories of his mother's death, shy Gerard Freeman is obsessed with the manuscript of a century-old ghost story written by his great-grandmother and entrusted to his care.
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Rosemary's Baby
by Ira Levin
Young wife Rosemary Woodhouse is drawn into a nightmare when she is selected by a coven to bear the son of Satan.
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Edgewise
by Graham Masterton
A vengeful Sioux spirit wreaks havoc in Minneapolis - When her children are kidnapped, in desperation Lily Blake seeks the services of a Sioux shaman, who summons up the Indian spirit, Wendigo, to find them. The price for this service is a spit of land that Lily's firm is selling for development land that once belonged to the Sioux. Lily is soon drawn into the destructive world of the Wendigo and learns to the detriment of those closest to her that you should never underestimate the power of a spirit betrayed . . .
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The Book of Lost Things
by John Connolly
A 12-year-old boy, mourning the death of his mother, takes refuge in the myths and fairytales she always loved--and finds that his reality and a fantasy world start to meld.
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No Dominion
by Charlie Huston
Joe Pitt’s life sucks. He hasn’t had a case or a job in God knows how long and his stashes are running on empty. What stashes? The only ones that count to a guy like Joe: blood and money. The money he uses to buy blood; the blood he drinks. Hey, buddy, it’s that or your neck–you want to choose? The only way to lay his hands on both is to take a gig with the local Vampyre Clan. See, something new is on the streets, a new high, a high so strong it can send a Vampyre spazzing through Joe’s local watering hole. Till Joe sends him through a plate-glass window, that is. So it’s time for Joe to gut up and swallow that pride and follow the leads wherever they go. It won’t be long before he’s slapping stoolies, getting sapped, and being taken for a ride above 110th Street. Someone’s pulling Joe’s strings, and now he’s riding the A train, looking to find who it is. He’s gonna cut them when he finds them–the strings and the hands that hold them.
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Already Dead
by Charlie Huston
Those stories you hear? The ones about things that only come out at night? Things that feed on blood, feed on us? Got news for you: they’re true. Only it’s not like the movies or old man Stoker’s storybook. It’s worse. Especially if you happen to be one of them. Just ask Joe Pitt. There’s a shambler on the loose. Some fool who got himself infected with a flesh-eating bacteria is lurching around, trying to munch on folks’ brains. Joe hates shamblers, but he’s still the one who has to deal with them. That’s just the kind of life he has. Except afterlife might be better word. From the Battery to the Bronx, and from river to river, Manhattan is crawling with Vampyres. Joe is one of them, and he’s not happy about it. Yeah, he gets to be stronger and faster than you, and he’s tough as nails and hard to kill. But spending his nights trying to score a pint of blood to feed the Vyrus that’s eating at him isn’t his idea of a good time. And Joe doesn’t make it any easier on himself. Going his own way, refusing to ally with the Clans that run the undead underside of Manhattan–it ain’t easy. It’s worse once he gets mixed up with the Coalition–the city’s most powerful Clan–and finds himself searching for a poor little rich girl who’s gone missing in Alphabet City. Now the Coalition and the girl’s high-society parents are breathing down his neck, anarchist Vampyres are pushing him around, and a crazy Vampyre cult is stalking him. No time to complain, though. Got to find that girl and kill that shambler before the whip comes down . . . and before the sun comes up.
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For a Few Demons More
by Kim Harrison
Rachel Morgan is a witch/bounty hunter based in the Hollows, the section of Cincinnati where supernatural beings live. She here must protect an artifact from all sorts of creatures while proving a werewolf friend innocent of serial murders.
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Claimed By Shadow
by Karen Chance
Clairvoyant Cassie Plamer has inherited new magical powers-including the ability to travel through time. But it's a whole lot of responsibility she'd rather not have. Now she's the most popular girl in town, as an assortment of vamps, fey, and mages try to convince, force, or seduce her-and her magic-over to their side. But one particular master vampire didn't ask what Cassie wanted before putting a claim on her. He had a spell cast that binds her to him, and now she doesn't know if what she feels for him is real-or imagined...
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Kitty Takes a Holiday
by Carrie Vaughn
Caught on national television transforming into a wolf, Kitty heads to a mountain cabin retreat to recover her equilibrium and write her memoirs, only to have trouble find her once again when someone leaves bizarre animal sacrifices on her front porch, and werewolf hunter Cormac shows up with an injured Ben O'Farrell, Kitty's lawyer, and they are all stalked by a strange wolf-like creature with glowing eyes. Original.
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Night Life
by Ray Garton
A band of vampires won't rest until they have exacted revenge against the people who attacked them and drove them from their home.
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Live Girls
by Ray Garton
A classic novel of horror by the author of "The Loveliest Dead"--a nominee for the Bram Stoker Award--is back in print. A strip club in New York's Times Square is very different from the others--the girls there happen to be vampires.
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The Loveliest Dead
by Ray Garton
A young family moves into their new home only to find they are not alone--they share the house with the dead.
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Berserk
by Tim Lebbon
A father's search for the truth about his son's death leads him to a mass grave filled with inhuman, headless skeletons--all of them in chains.
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Night Witch
by Jack Priest
Alone in bed Carolina plays with her locket, a gift from her dad. She doesnt know he stole it from an evil woman in Trinidad. She hears a noise outside her window, looks up and sees red eyes staring in at her.Something horrible is outside.The Night Witch is a soucouyant, Southern Caribbean cousin to the vampire and werewolf. She is a never aging shape shifter born of a mixture of Voodoo and European folklore. She lives forever because she wears a locket that contains a magic potion.Her locket has been stolen and she wants it back.
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The Lust Lizard of Melancholy Cove
by Christopher Moore
The town psychiatrist has decided to switch everybody in Pine Cove, California, from their normal antidepressants to placebos, so naturally—well, to be accurate, artificially—business is booming at the local blues bar. Trouble is, those lonely slide-guitar notes have also attracted a colossal sea beast named Steve with, shall we say, a thing for explosive oil tanker trucks. Suddenly, morose Pine Cove turns libidinous and is hit by a mysterious crime wave, and a beleaguered constable has to fight off his own gonzo appetites to find out what's wrong and what, if anything, to do about it.
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Blaze
by Richard Bachman
Originally written thirty-five years ago but never published, a crime novel chronicles the life and times of Clayton Blaisdell, Jr.--the crimes committed against him and the crimes he himself commits, including a kidnapping he is doomed to attempt.
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The Darkest Evening of the Year
by Dean Ray Koontz
Koontz delivers suspense for all seasons with a transcendent thriller--a heart-gripping tour de force featuring a dedicated dog rescuer, a very special golden retriever she saves, and the murderous adversaries they must face together.
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The Good Guy
by Dean Ray Koontz
Timothy Carrier has a dry sense of humor, but his deadpan wit lands him in a precarious situation when a stranger Tim converses with mistakes him for a hit man.