Mystery Cults Fiction

A psychologist in suburban Cleveland, Dustin is drifting through his forties when he hears the news: His adopted brother, Rusty, is being released from prison. Thirty years ago, Rusty received a life sentence for the massacre of Dustin’s parents, aunt, and uncle. The trial came to epitomize the 1980s hysteria over Satanic cults; despite the lack of physical evidence, the jury believed the outlandish accusations Dustin and his cousin made against Rusty. Now, after DNA analysis has overturned the conviction, Dustin braces for a reckoning.

In a cave near Weston, potholers discover what they think are human remains. The bones are identified as belonging to Hugo Latchford, a boy who went missing a decade ago, and whose parents belonged to a quasi-religious cult masquerading as environmental activists. It’s not long before rumours that he was sacrificed in a midsummer ritual resurface. Returning to duty from maternity leave, DI Louise Blackwell finds herself leading the investigation, soon discovering that Hugo’s parents are still alive and the cult very much still active.

She might be the first victim, but she won’t be the last. Three...A woman is abducted in front of her child. Two...A month later, a second is taken in explosive circumstances. One...But the web is bigger and darker than anyone could imagine. The clock is ticking to uncover the truth.

The game was never just a game. What began as a thrill-seeking dare in a forgotten hotel room has spiralled into a dark conspiracy far beyond what Mike, Mary, and Sarah ever imagined. Debbie’s death was only the opening move. The Watchers have been keeping score—and now the Archive is complete. Haunted by the past, hunted by those who erase truth, and fractured by secrets, the survivors must choose bury the darkness or drag it screaming into the light. But the deeper they dig, the more horrifying the truth becomes. Blood has always been the currency—and now it’s time to pay. As ...

With plans for a new performing arts center at Wynter Castle taking up all her time, baker Merry Wynter has been all but unaware of the fringe group compound near her small town - until a street preacher accosts her with taunts of doom and damnation. Worried that some of her close friends may have been lured in by the group and its charismatic leader, Merry begins digging into the ministry - and soon suspects they may have ties to the recent death of a young woman and the disappearance of many others.

A dark and daring debut novel exploring power, control and resilience against all odds, The Tribes tells the story of a cult member accused of a shocking crime and the lawyer who chooses to defend her.

When Arkham Advertiser reporter Andy van Nortwick receives a mysterious film reel in the mail, with a simple note: "Maude Brion is very much alive!", he steps onto a path which will lead him to the brink of madness. Brion, the famous actress and film director, vanished a year ago on an ill-fated expedition into the Amazon rainforest, delving into the legend of the Spider Queen. Thrilled by the prospect of his big break, Nortwick swings the funds to launch a rescue mission. He gathers a team of explorers and a keen folklorist to bring back Brion and cement his reputation.

Father John controls everything inside The Fence. And Father John likes rules. Especially about never talking to Outsiders. Because Father John knows the truth. He knows what is right, and what is wrong. He knows what is coming. Moonbeam is starting to doubt, though. She's starting to see the lies behind Father John's words. Then a fire engulfs life as she knew it, and Moonbeam is forced outside The Fence into a world she does not recognize.

Having just graduated from college, Jason and Eddie are ready to let loose and embark on a cross-country road trip. After some killer partying at a rock music festival in Nevada, they head out into the desert with girls and adventure on their minds. Their situation takes a dark turn, however, when they lose direction and find themselves at the entrance of a ghost town in the bowels of the sprawling desert. The residents turn out to be . . . a little off.

FBI agents Brady Moore and Alicia Wager are accustomed to grisly crimes like the so-called Pelletier Killings. But when the pair uncovers ancient prophecies that link the victims, the wrath of the killers turns on them. Reeling from a series of attempts on their lives, they follow a scant trail of evidence that leads them to Luco Scaramuzzi, the charismatic Italian ambassador to Israel, a man of near limitless power and incalculable wealth.

Hunter of the Light Series: Book 3 of 15 What has she done? Rachel wakes up in an unfamiliar room. A bloody knife. A dead body. How did she get here? What has she done? Adam comes to her rescue, and they set out to find the truth. Along the way, they discover long-lost family, disturbing secrets and hidden chambers that may implicate upstanding members of the community. Rachel and Adam are just beginning to unearth the dark and sinister events that many would kill to keep buried. Will Rachel’s dreams send them down a path that they can’t come back from? Rachel fears that death has ...

When Toru Narazaki's girlfriend, Ryoko, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of a private detective he's hired to find her. Ryoko's past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue leads him to a compound in the heart of Tokyo, with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru's brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn't what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence beneath its surface.

"He pushed me." Three words turn a suspected suicide into an unsettling murder, pointing to a killer whose methods and motives threaten to expose buried memories of Seong-Jae's past. Yet neither Malcolm nor Seong-Jae are ready for the shadowed secrets that could shatter their tenuous new relationship, when a haunting presence seems to stalk them around every corner, watching their smallest move, baiting them and flirting just out of reach. Is it the killer, always staying one step ahead?

Not much can make Detective Betty Rhyzyk flinch. But when forced into therapy, a desk assignment, and domestic bliss following a terrifying run-in with an apocalyptic cult, she’s having trouble readjusting to life as it once was. At home, she struggles to connect with her loving wife, Jackie. At work, someone has been assassinating confidential informants. To make matters worse, Betty’s partner seems to be increasingly dependent on the painkillers he was prescribed for injuries he sustained narrowly rescuing her.

En route to a family vacation on the French Riviera, Inspector Roderick Alleyn glimpses from the train a shocking tableau. In a moonlit window, a white-robed figure raises a knife to a woman's shadow. Thus begins his incognito exploration of the Chateau of the Silver Goat... where a jet-set cult's "Way of Life" could spell death for a maiden lady of a certain age, and even for Alleyn's own young son, unless he can unveil its illicit mysteries.

The final book in the Hunter of the Light series. How will Rachel react to the story of her past? Everything is beginning to fall into place. The past is unveiling itself as the future closes off. The past and the future do not just link up in the present; they bind them together. As Rachel and Adam uncover the tragic history of the Iniijibay people, Maya and Alexander discover secrets about their pasts and their powers. These discoveries will bring them together, but they must act quickly to stop the evil that is threatening the world. Will their efforts be enough, or is the wage of sin ...

When nearly 100 members of The Ark, a sinister apocalypse cult, are found dead by poison at their isolated community in North Wales, those left alive are scattered to the winds with few coping skills and fewer answers. For 23-year-old Romy, who has never known life outside the compound, learning how to live in a world she has been taught to fear is terrifying.

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow.

At thirty-nine, Nicole Mueller’s life is on the rocks in “this brilliant, tangled web of lies, cover ups and deception” (Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author). Her once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are about to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo. Membership is anonymous, but every member is a successful professional.

Kidnapped by a cult of religious fanatics, an Austin school bus driver and 11 of his young charges have been held underground at the group's highly fortified compound for 46 days. While a team of federal negotiators begins to lose all hope of rescuing the hostages, crime reporter Molly Cates sets out to discover everything she can about the cult's iron-willed leader, Samuel Mordecai.