Historical Psychological Thriller

The controller stood back. 'Right,' he said. 'Spin 'em!' The man flipped the piece of wood and the coins spun up into the air above his head and dropped down on to the carpet. There was silence. Wake in Fright tells the tale of John Grant's journey into an alcoholic, sexual and spiritual nightmare. It is the original and the greatest outback horror story. Bundanyabba and its citizens will forever haunt its listeners.

If you think the only thing Ellison writes is speculative fiction, craziness about giant cockroaches that attack Detroit, or invaders from space who look like pink eggplant and smell like chicken soup, this dynamite novel of the emergent days of rock and roll will turn you around at least three times. No spaceships, no robots, just a nice kid from Louisville named Stag Preston with a voice like an angel, seductive moves like the devil, and an invisible monkey named Success riding him straight to hell.

In Let It Come Down, Paul Bowles plots the doomed trajectory of Nelson Dyar, a New York bank teller who comes to Tangier in search of a different life and ends up giving in to his darkest impulses. Rich in descriptions of the corruption and decadence of the International Zone in the last days before Moroccan independence, Bowles's second novel is an alternately comic and horrific account of a descent into nihilism.

Taken at the Flood is a story of love, lust, mistrust and murder. The founder of Softcell Computer Softwear systems has everything a man could desire, a beautiful wife who is pregnant with their first child, and an expensive lifestyle. But seeing the girl in Venice, whilst on honeymoon with Evelyn will alter the course of his life.

Summer, 1954. U.S. Marshal Teddy Daniels comes to Shutter Island, home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane. Along with his partner, Chuck Aule, he sets out to find an escaped patient, a murderess named Rachel Solando, as a hurricane bears down upon them.

But nothing at Ashecliffe Hospital is what it seems. Is he there to find a missing patient? Or has he been sent to look into rumors of Ashecliffe's radical approach to psychiatry?

The Disappearance of Lisaby Harper Stanwick, Sr. is a gripping mystery novel set in the bustling streets of 1920s New York. Carmen Sinclair, a determined and independent young woman, finds herself entangled in a web of mystery and intrigue when she becomes the secretary to the enigmatic Kensington family. Living under the strict and watchful eye of Mrs. Kensington, Carmen forms a close bond with Lisa Kensington, the sheltered and ethereal daughter of the household. One fateful night, Lisa mysteriously disappears, leaving behind only a few cryptic clues. The family, particularly Mrs. ...

THEY DISCOVERED THE ABANDONED ASYLUM THINKING THEY'D FOUND AN URBAN ADVENTURE. INSTEAD, THEY UNLOCKED DARK SECRETS THAT COULD DESTROY THEM. 

 When Grace and Kaitlin deicide to explore the crumbling remains of Blackwood Asylum, they expect a night of harmless thrills. What they discover instead is a terrifying link between the asylum's dark past and their own forgotten lives. As the girls uncover the asylum's grisly history, they are drawn into a web of secrets that spans centuries. Visions of the past begin to invade their reality, blurring the lines between who they are and who they ...

BLEECKER STREET: Where Sin Never Sleeps A Historical Thriller Based on New York City's Infamous East River Ripper and the Woman Who Dared to Unmask Him. New York City, 1880s—a city of dazzling opulence and unspeakable horrors. The glittering Gilded Age masks a darker reality, where shadowy alleys whisper with danger, and a ruthless killer known as the New York Ripper stalks the night, leaving the butchered bodies of merchant seamen in his wake. When Emma Gilder, an ambitious young reporter for The New York World, sets out to expose the truth behind the murders, she finds herself in a ...

On the fringes of a civil war arise a kaleidoscope of stories of abuse, power, betrayal, sex, love, and absolution, all united by the failings of a dying government. Set in the backdrop during the last years of South Africa's apartheid, How the Water Falls is a psychological thriller that unfolds the truth and deception of the system’s victims, perpetrators, and unlikely heroes. The two main characters, one white, Joanne– a reporter, the other black, Lena– a banned activist, have their lives continuously overlap through the people they know during a thirteen-year period and eventually...

Uncover the secrets lurking beneath the waves in this haunting blend of history, myth, and obsession. In 2014, Jane Wilson stumbled upon a hidden cave on her family's coastal property near Port Phillip Bay, Australia, a discovery that would unravel her life and rewrite the history of the land she thought she knew. What began as a curious exploration of an Aboriginal rock carving, etched with the eerie image of a squid-like creature, spiralled into a relentless quest to unearth the truth behind the bay's mysterious past. From ancient Indigenous myths of a monstrous leviathan to colonial ...

Set in pre-World War I Europe, The World Is Made of Glass is a powerful novel of love, sexual obsession, murder and guilt. A cryptic and mysterious case history appears in the autobiography of pioneering Swiss psychiatrist Carl Jung: ‘A lady came to my office. She refused to give her name. What she had to communicate to me was a confession. Some 20 years ago, she had committed a murder.’ Jung’s encounter with the woman had an explosive effect on him and brought him very close to total breakdown.

London, 1948: Eve Forrester is stuck in a loveless marriage, isolated in her gloomy house, when out of the blue, she receives a letter. A wealthy stranger has left her a mysterious inheritance, but in order to find out more, she must travel to the glittering French Riviera. There, Eve discovers she has been bequeathed an enchanting villa overlooking the Mediterranean Sea, and suddenly, life could not be more glamorous. But while she rubs shoulders with the rich and famous, challengers to her unexplained fortune begin to emerge - challengers who would love to see Eve gone forever.

Welcome to the Jungle—The Curse of Clark, Texas is a true-crime thriller based on real, actual events. While certain characters, names, incidents, locations, and dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic effect—what has not been fictionalized is that in 1980-something, tragedy struck one of the most affluent high-schools in the state of Texas. Was Tom C. Clark High School in San Antonio, Texas cursed?

William Arrowood, Victorian London’s less salubrious private detective, is paid a visit by Captain Moon, the owner of a pleasure steamer moored on the Thames. He complains that someone has been damaging his boat, putting his business in jeopardy. Arrowood and his trusty sidekick Barnett suspect professional jealousy, but when a string of skulls is retrieved from the river, it seems like even fouler play is afoot. It’s up to Arrowood and Barnett to solve the case before any more corpses end up in the watery depths.

First place winner of the 2021 North Street Book Award for Genre Fiction Top 25 Best Indie Books of 2022 by Readfreely A mixed-race patrolman at the bottom ranks of Harbin's Special District police force. A dismembered body. A raging Red Terror campaign. A brewing war with the Soviet Union… 1929: Borya is at the bottom ranks of Harbin's Special District police force. His meager salary is the only thing that keeps his widowed mother and sisters fed. When fate takes him from chasing pickpockets to pairing him with one of the force's premier detectives, his life changes forever. They are ...

Summer, 1976. Jesse and his brother, Edgar, are on the road in search of victims. They’re rovers, nearly indestructible nocturnal beings who must consume human blood in order to survive. For 70 years they’ve lurked on the fringes of society, roaming from town to town, dingy motel to dingy motel, stalking the transients, addicts, and prostitutes they feed on. This hard-boiled supernatural hell ride kicks off when the brothers encounter a young woman who disrupts their grim routine.

South Africa in the 1880s. A young and naive English doctor by the name of William Abbey witnesses the lynching of a local boy by the white colonists. As the child dies, his mother curses William. William begins to understand what the curse means when the shadow of the dead boy starts following him across the world. It never stops, never rests. It can cross oceans and mountains. And if it catches him, the person he loves most in the world will die.

"A nonstop suspense thriller with an amazing cast of characters." --NetGalleyHistorian Wrenn Grayson arrives at the Rosemont mansion expecting to receive payment for her services from the mansion's new owner, Clay Addison. That expectation dies when she and Clay find Trey Rosemont murdered on the foyer floor. Across town, police officers race to Eastwood University. Priceless Egyptian artifacts were stolen from the history department safe. Wrenn's longtime love, Eastwood professor Gideon Douglas, heads the department. Only recovery of the artifacts will save his career. Life in Havens, Ohio...

A mystery novel set in New Cornwall during the early 20th century. Immerse yourself in the gripping world of crime and intrigue in "Deception in New Cornwall," where the shocking murder of Julian H. Clark sends shockwaves through a seemingly serene community. Join Philo Quentin, an eccentric art aficionado and amateur detective, as he unravels a web of deceit and psychological complexities that reveals the darker sides of humanity. The narrative unfolds with a seemingly innocuous breakfast meeting interrupted by the devastating news of a murder that propels Quentin into a high-stakes ...

At the Tan Yards, Victor Prizeman bends everyone to his will. Then he surprises them by saying his forefathers worked there as tanners. Next the narrator tells a tale about the Prizeman clan, and how their patriarch met his end. And back in the present, history appears to be repeating itself when Victor demands that he light the annual Halloween bonfire. The Tan Yards is a story that will delight fans of horror, as well as those with a special place in their hearts for Halloween. Now with a Five Star editorial review from Readers' Favorite