Psychological Thriller Short Stories

An isolated castle. A young girl in a turret room. A ghostly figure that pursues her at night. Anna spends her days, and some nights, wandering the shadowy halls and winding staircases of her mother’s sprawling castle estate, The Manor. Peeking out of the huge windows, peering up at its resplendent ceilings, and looking out across the sprawling natural landscape as the sun sets over the heavily wooded forest outside, Anna feels overwhelmingly intrigued, and undeniably trapped. Sometimes, she hears eerie noises coming from the attic above, and the crypt underground, both of which she has ...

In the title story, a young boy becomes obsessed with his cousin's doll after she tragically passes away from leukemia. As he grows older, he begins to collect "found dolls" from the surrounding neighborhoods and stores his treasures in the abandoned carriage house on his family's estate. But just what kind of dolls are they?In The Doll-Master and Other Tales of Terror, Joyce Carol Oates evokes the “fascination of the abomination” that is at the core of the most profound, the most unsettling, and the most memorable of dark mystery fiction.

Twisted Tales returns with a second volume of psychological mayhem and disturbing supernatural encounters. If you're into screaming trains, vengeful clowns, the terror of online dating, remorseful ghouls, pandemic-spreading ghosts, murderous mansions, and seriously sick restaurants, then these Twisted Tales are the short stories begging to be read.

Clea McAllister returns to the Newport haven of her childhood, a gilded mansion by the sea once owned by her beloved grandmother. Now she is a paying guest at her own ancestral home, and Clea’s vacation hides a darker intention: to confront the estate lawyer who stole her rightful inheritance. But wicked games are still being played at Belle Mer, and Clea uncovers more than she ever intended.

Some appliances want your convenience. This one wants your obedience. When Rick buys the state-of-the-art Antarctica 2000 refrigerator, he’s thrilled with its voice-activated doors, massive storage, and gleaming chrome finish. It’s the pinnacle of modern convenience. Until it starts talking back. Politely at first. Asking for “please” and “thank you.” Calling him Rick even though that’s not his name. Making passive-aggressive suggestions about his butter use. Tracking his finances and warning him about his mortgage. Then it starts spoiling his food on purpose. Delivering ...

Step into the decaying halls of Grimwood and feel your grip on reality slip away. Every whisper, every shadow, every creaking floorboard will set your nerves on fire! A sweet warning: This psychological thrill ride will shatter your perceptions and leave you questioning everything you thought you knew! Is it real? Is it delusion? You won't know until it's far too late! Face the horrors lurking in the depths of your own mind! But remember - in Grimwood, escape is just another cruel illusion. So are you brave enough to lose your mind?

He's a serial killer. A murderer of young women, all killed in brutal attacks. But despite Hamish Wolfe's conviction, he's always stuck to his story - he's innocent, and he's been wrongly imprisoned. And now he wants someone to investigate and, more importantly, to write his story. Maggie Rose is a notorious defense attorney and writer whose specialty is getting convictions overturned. At first Maggie is reluctant to even acknowledge Hamish's requests to meet, ignoring his letters. But this is a very charismatic and persuasive man, good looking and intelligent.

Matthew, Claire, Ian, and Mason haven’t set foot on the Merle family property since the summer they were sixteen. They tried for years to put their history behind them, to forget the mystery of the girl who vanished so long ago. But a powerful force from their past is still at play. This time, there’s no hiding from it.

Charlotte had spent her entire life in the historic town of Riverside. Since her childhood, she had been captivated by an old, mysterious house located in the heart of town, right by the banks of the Coosa River. Determined to make her dream a reality, she purchased the creepiest house in town with plans to restore it for herself. However, she was unaware that the home of her dreams would soon transform into the source of her nightmares. She decides to host a costume ball to welcome her friends to her newly renovated home when the past literally comes back to haunt them.

A scientist suffering from PTSD is faced with the terrible knowledge of the impending destruction of our species. In his desperate attempts to prevent humanity's fate, he commits violent acts and is branded a terrorist. How far would you go to save the planet from annihilation? Where do humans come from and how did we get here? Scientists have theorized about the human race's origins for many years. But no one was prepared for what was found in orbit, seven ancient alien probes that have been monitoring the planet for billions of years. The data and video images recorded inside them show ...

Tammy Partridge and her boyfriend, Kevin, are on a photo-ready road trip across America in pursuit of influencer fame. Only a couple hundred followers so far, including Roxanne, a superfan of the beautiful young couple. But when Tammy’s body is discovered in the Utah wilderness, and Kevin is nowhere to be found, the picture-perfect adventure suddenly goes wrong—and viral, with three million followers and counting. Motives are questionable. Conspiracy theories cloud the dark corners of the internet. As everyone spins their own version of the truth, reality is getting harder to see.

Time slips. Doomsday scenarios. Killer butterflies. C. J. Tudor's novels are widely acclaimed for their dark, twisty suspense plots, but with A Sliver of Darkness, she pulls us even further into her dizzying imagination. Riveting, macabre, and explosively original, A Sliver of Darkness is C. J. Tudor at her most wicked and uninhibited.

A short novel. A good choice for those who want a quick and entertaining read. The source that unleashes pleasure always comes from within the human being, but is nourished from the outside. We access the world through our senses and sometimes one of them predominates, being the architect of our desire. We can express this desire towards a person, but it may also be that a thing is the recipient of our most convoluted instincts, or that perhaps, the mixture of these produces total ecstasy. In Duval's case, he enjoyed the pleasure that a woman's body gives him, however, flowers were an ...

The award-winning master of psychological suspense is in top form in this collection of diverse and diabolically clever stories. In the never-before-published “Just One More,” a married couple—longing for that old romantic spark—creates a playful diversion that comes with unexpected consequences.

A brilliantly twisty, 80-page novella from the number-one best-selling author of the Logan McRae series. Including an extract from his new Logan novel, The Missing and the Dead. It's the night of the big Referendum, and all Acting Detective Inspector Logan McRae has to do is find a missing ‘No' campaigner. Should be easy enough.... But, as usual, DCI Steel has plans of her own. As the votes are counted, there's trouble brewing in the pubs and on the streets of Aberdeen.

Where the Shadows Feed: Volume II Short Tales of Horror Prepare to unravel the terrifying secrets that defy the boundaries between control and chaos. In this spine-chilling second volume, Joe Ippolito masterfully explores the thin line between human ambition and supernatural retribution, where every carefully constructed world can unravel in an instant. Venture into realms where reality bends and primal forces beyond comprehension lurk just beneath the surface. From a landscape architect's meticulously crafted garden that transforms into a living nightmare of ancient, malevolent spirits to ...

The seven houses in these seven stories are empty. Some are devoid of love or life or furniture, of people or the truth or of memories. But in Samanta Schweblin’s tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back in: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, a child’s first encounter with a dark choice or the fallibility of parents.

The book opens with a woman, naked except for her high-heeled shoes, seated in front of the window in an apartment she cannot, on her own, afford. In this exquisitely tense narrative reimagining of Edward Hopper's Eleven A.M., 1926, the reader enters the minds of both the woman and her married lover, each consumed by alternating thoughts of disgust and arousal, as he rushes, amorously, murderously, to her door.

There's a darker side to the festive season screaming to be let out in this Christmas edition of Twisted Tales... Read on in terror to five chilling stories of horror and suspense, with a couple centering around that magic time of year!

Half a dozen more terrifying tales of suspense and horror! A Night at the Movies (another post-apocalyptic story with a twist), Speaking of the Dead (when a seance goes bad), Carnival Clowns (three teenagers set out for the fair seeking fun), Killer Concert (a young woman goes to see her favorite band with murderous results), The Quitter (what could happen when you try and kick the habit), In Dreams (are recurring nightmares more than just dreams, or is someone trying to tell us something?)