Mystery Cults

When a series of suspicious fires leaves multiple victims dead in their homes, NYPD hostage negotiator Abby Mullen knows in her bones that the terrors of her childhood have returned. As a young girl, she narrowly escaped a fire set by Moses Wilcox, a fanatical cult leader who’s been presumed dead for thirty years. These murders have his fingerprints all over them.

As a child, Abby Mullen escaped the insidious Wilcox cult when it literally went down in flames. Years later, she’s the NYPD’s best hostage negotiator and a mother. She thought the worst part of her life was behind her. Until now. Armed conspiracy theorists called the Watchers have attacked the local high school - and taken her daughter hostage. With the delusional Watchers holding her child at gunpoint, the unflappable Abby might be at her breaking point. But the clock is ticking on her daughter’s life.

In this powerful follow-up to his action-packed thriller The Kill Clause, Gregg Hurwitz, the new maestro of pulse-pounding suspense, ratchets up the excitement with another sensational pause resister featuring Tim Rackley, a driven lawman motivated by honor, morality, and a deep sense of justice. Called back into the fold of the US Marshals Service, Tim is tasked with retrieving Leah Henning, the daughter of a powerful Hollywood producer, from a mind-control cult.

As the news of the international movie star's gruesome murder spreads, the world holds its breath in terror. Detective Botti of the Clearwater police department is tasked with finding the killer, but what seems like a routine investigation takes a dark turn when clues point to a well-known musician. As Botti delves deeper into the case, he finds himself drawn into a sinister web of deceit and betrayal. But the stakes are raised even higher when Botti discovers that the murder has ties to one of the largest Scientology churches in the city of Clearwater. With tensions running high and the ...

Visit Ashok's official website meakalpa.com to read an exclusive excerpt from The Bombay Lovecraft Society! Membership comes at a price... From Bram Stoker and CWA nominated and Utopiales Nantes Award-winning author Ashok Banker comes a chilling new novel of occult horror set in 1980s Bombay A masterful fusion of Lovecraftian terror and Indian Gothic that will haunt your dreams long after you've turned the final page. In the shadows of 1980s Bombay lurks an ancient evil that makes the notorious Rockman serial killings pale in comparison. When a struggling artist is lured into the mysterious...

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.

Lay provost Eldon Fochs is a happily married father of four. Based on his disturbing dreams, he may also be a sex criminal. His therapist isn’t sure, and his church is determined to protect its reputation. Written from the perspectives of Fochs, his analyst Dr. Alexander Feshtig, and the letters exchanged between Feshtig and his superiors in the church, Father of Lies is Brian Evenson’s fable of power, paranoia, and the dangers of blind obedience. It offers a terrifying vision of how far institutions will go to protect themselves from the innocents who may be their victims.

ALL FOUR BOOKS OF THE CTHULHU INCIDENT! EXCITEMENT, MYSTERY, ADVENTURE AND TERROR WILL GRAB YOU AND NOT LET GO, AS THE HEROIC TEAM OF G1, THE BUREAU OF EXTRAORDINARY AFFAIRS, PURSUE A CULT LEADER UNLEASHING THE HORDES OF HELL ON LONDON AND THE WORLD. WILL EVEN THE CANNY ABILITIES OF G1 BE ENOUGH TO STOP THE MONSTERS AND THE LEADER WHO SUMMONED THEM FROM CREATING HELL ON EARTH? Buy now.

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 ...

Some people say that it’s a demon-haunted world. That certainly is true in Gus’s county around Halloween, mostly due to the digital demons plaguing Gus this year that live inside the new Pakiman game. There’s also a fancy Halloween party to deal with, to which everyone who is someone is invited—and that includes Gus. If getting a costume for a party he doesn’t want to go to was his worst problem, it would be a fun holiday season. Unfortunately, someone keels over dead in the free-cheese section of Fit Foods, and that opens the door to murder. That open door leads Gus right into ...

The Lillian Carey Mysteries - Book One When a priceless ancient Egyptian artefact is stolen from a secluded museum and the curator is found dead, mysteriously covered in insect bites, private detective Lillian Carey is summoned to uncover the truth. Specialising in cases that flirt with the supernatural and the occult, Lillian is drawn into a world of dark rituals and shadowy figures. Her investigation leads her to a clandestine cult with nefarious plans for the stolen casket and the deadly curse it harbours. As Lillian delves deeper, she must navigate the treacherous terrain of a night ...

New York Times best-selling author Nevada Barr continues her award-winning Anna Pigeon series with this riveting mystery that features the puzzling plot twists, deft characterizations, and sparkling dialogue that have become Barr's trademarks, and which her ever-growing fan base can't get enough of.

They Never Left When disgraced journalist Rex Mallory returns to the small town of Whisper Ridge, he expects rust, rumors, and a few ghosts from his past. What he doesn’t expect is a missing woman, a mutilated corpse, and the burned remains of a notebook that points to decades of disappearances. As Mallory digs deeper, he uncovers chilling whispers of an abandoned asylum, a preacher with too many secrets, and a sheriff who doesn’t take kindly to questions. Every lead pulls him closer to a horrifying truth buried beneath the town’s sleepy surface—one the townspeople are willing to ...

The FBI calls on former agent Jessica Blackwood to look at a puzzling crime. A wildlife officer has found the body of a popular YouTuber encased in an obelisk made of salt in a remote refuge. When the agency is tipped off to a second body, that of a TikTok star chained to the bottom of Nevada’s Pyramid Lake—her hands clasped in prayer—Jessica recruits a trusted colleague of her own: Floridian underwater investigator Sloan McPherson.

In December 1975, the Lutz family moved into their new home on suburban Long Island. George and Kathleen Lutz knew that, one year earlier, Ronald DeFeo had murdered his parents, brothers, and sisters in the house, but the property - complete with boathouse and swimming pool - and the price were too good to pass up. This is the shocking true story of an American dream that turned into a nightmare beyond imagining for the Lutz family, who were forced to flee their new home in terror.

Hunter of the Light Series Boxset Books 1-5 Rachel wakes in a cold sweat after another nightmare. She is starting to question what’s real and what’s in her head. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “...twists that keep you guessing and leave you craving the next book." ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ “...highly recommend the entire series!" Book 1: Dreaming of Death Is Rachel really free from death’s grip? After a fatal crash claimed her family’s lives, she must return home alone. She's hoping to settle into a new normal but terrifying experiences begin creeping into her life... gruesome dreams, sleepwalking, and ...

DI Louise Blackwell is still reeling from her brother Paul's murder when she is brought back from enforced leave and tasked with solving a strange new case - the slaughter of wild sheep at Cheddar Gorge, a place shrouded in mystery and folklore. When a man is brutally attacked with a machete on the clifftop and a young girl disappears, Louise realises that the horror is just beginning. Rumours of a mythical presence near the gorge are spreading fast, and why is a local environmental cult resisting all attempts to solve the case?

I thought I had a perfect life with a loving husband until… He joined a cult. I wake in the middle of a nightmare, alone in a room I don’t recognize. Far from my perfect life. And I realize my husband is not only my enemy, he’s also the worst villain in my life. He’s the reason I’m here. He brought me to this place because I refuse to follow the rules. His rules. He demands I have a son as our first child, and when the doctor announces we’re expecting a daughter, my husband accuses me of going against God’s vision for us. He thinks The Farm will put me on my path to God. And I...

On the idyllic island of Lute, every seventh summer, seven people die. No more, no less. Lute and its inhabitants are blessed, year after year, with good weather, good health, and good fortune. So it’s only fair that every seven years, on the day of the tithe, the island’s gift is honored. Nina Treadway is new to The Day. A Florida girl by birth, she became a Lady through her marriage to Lord Treadway, whose family has long protected the island. Nina’s heard about The Day, of course. It's all superstitious nonsense. Then The Day begins. And it's a day of nightmares.

Cults prey on the very attributes that make us human: our desire to belong, to find a deeper meaning in life, to live everyday with divine purpose. Their existence creates a sense that any one of us, at any time, could step off the cliff’s edge and fall into that daunting abyss of manipulation and unhinged dedication to a misplaced cause. Perhaps it’s this mindset that keeps us so utterly obsessed and desperate to learn more, or it’s that the stories are so bizarre and unsettling that we are simply in awe of the mechanics that make these infamous groups tick.