Psychological Thriller Short Stories

My husband is dead. I attended his funeral. I watched his casket be lowered six feet into the ground. (Actually, it may have been only five feet, but that still seems like more than enough.) And then we ate an array of finger sandwiches and deviled eggs and miniature beef wellingtons that cost more than my first car. My point is, Grant is gone. And so are all his many, many deep, dark secrets which I never really ever bothered to ask him about. He is never coming back.

From the world's number one best-selling writer - three pulse-pounding novels in one audiobook! This collection includes The Family Lawyer, Night Sniper, and The Good Sister.

It's been twenty years since the night Jake Marcott was brutally murdered at St. Elizabeth High School. It's a night that shattered the lives of Lindsay Farrell, Kirsten Daniels, and Rachel Alsace. It's a night they'll never forget. A killer will make sure of that....

Spring Break, 1997. A group of college friends sets out for an unforgettable trip to Mexico, but their adventure takes a horrific turn when they are abducted by a satanic cult in the Tucson desert. Their captor? Zeena Graves—a strikingly beautiful yet merciless cult leader who commands her followers from the darkness of an abandoned church. As midnight strikes on Easter night, she prepares to enact a ritual drenched in blood and terror that can only be completed After the Pink Moon. Bound by fear, surrounded by zealots, and with time slipping away, the captives must find a way to escape ...

Blair Martin’s days rarely vary: she gets up, goes for a run, and then heads to work at a Manhattan literary agency where she nurtures authors through the publishing process. Her nights, spent alone in her too-large apartment, are similarly predictable. Then on an ordinary Wednesday, Blair enters her office building and spies a lost wallet. When Blair tracks down the owner, they arrange for a simple exchange. But the young woman, Maya, seems so vulnerable, much like Blair’s own daughter, Faith, who died tragically just last year, and Blair is unable to simply walk away.

If you hear the whistle… it’s already too late. Park ranger Caleb Mercer has spent a decade watching over Bitterroot Ridge — a remote national park known more for its silence than danger. But now, hikers are vanishing without a trace, and only Caleb hears the strange high-pitched whistle that seems to follow him deeper into the trees. When wildlife biologist Dr. Naomi Voss joins him to investigate, the pattern becomes disturbingly clear: the whistle isn’t random. It’s a call — and it’s been echoing through these woods for decades. As the disappearances mount and the whistle ...

Ella's life takes a horrifying turn when she encounters a crazed man in a dark cave. As she fights for her survival, she discovers a shocking truth about her own past. Can she escape the clutches of her own twisted memories? Prepare for heart-pounding suspense and mind-bending twists as you delve into the depths of Ella's fractured psyche. Beware, for not everything is as it seems. Will you dare to uncover the secrets hidden within the "Cave of Terror"?

In his three novellas, In Short Measures, Strong Conspirators, and Sally Forth, Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love - and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity - what are one's obligations toward one's spouse, one's family, and one's heart?

A bloodthirsty sheriff is terrorizing a small Texas town where justice has been buried with his victims. Until Nameless arrives - a vigilante whose past is a mystery and whose future is written in blood. Anyone who crosses Sheriff Russell Soakes is dead, missing, or warned. One of them is a single mother trying to protect her children but bracing herself for the worst. Nameless fears the outcome. He’s seen it in his visions. Now it’s time to teach the depraved Soakes a lesson in fear. But in turning predators into prey, will Nameless unearth a few secrets of his own?

A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan’s terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore.

Three friends go on a foodie road trip to the Scottish Highlands and Islands to celebrate their pending retirement, expecting stunning scenery, great food, fine wines, and a chance to reminisce about the good old days. When they somehow secure a reservation at a remote and extremely exclusive restaurant set on a private island in Loch Broom, they know they’re in for a once-in-a-lifetime dining experience.

After a devastating heartbreak, McKenzie Bishop swears off love to focus on her career as a branding consultant. But when her parents convince her to try the dating app, A Dime A Dozen, a seemingly harmless connection resurrects buried trauma and ignites dangerous desires. What starts as a reluctant search for companionship quickly spirals into a twisted game of deadly revenge. As McKenzie’s obsession deepens, fears are weaponized, secrets are uncovered, and no match is safe. Yet, someone has been watching her every move and is determined to expose her darkest truths. Can McKenzie ...

Seven Rooms. Seven Rules. One Book You Won’t Forget. The Seventh Room and Other Hauntings is a chilling collection of modern horror stories where nothing is as it seems, and the echoes of the past refuse to stay silent. From cursed architecture to sentient towns, haunted seas to fractured reflections, these tales explore the places we aren’t meant to go—and the things that wait for us there. Step aboard a derelict vessel that rewrites the names of its crew. Stand beneath a nesting tree that feeds on grief. Explore a collector’s basement where stories aren’t written in ink. Stare ...

She married for money. She plotted for more. But the insurance policy had other ideas... Chantel Fletcher’s specialty is husbands. Her problem is cash. When her third husband turns out to be worth $2.5 million dead, she makes the leap from trophy wife to cold-blooded conspirator. With a mountain of debt and a dangerous past catching up to her, Chantel enlists her teenage daughter and a dim-witted ex-con to help pull the trigger on the perfect murder. But this is St. Isidore—a town that chews up second chances and spits out twisted endings. And when the cops come knocking, Chantel ...

A lifelike dummy. A strange dinner party. A soul that won’t stay dead. When struggling actor/waiter Luke Barrett is assigned to serve a bizarre memorial dinner, he doesn’t expect the guest of honor to be a creepy carpool dummy—or for the night to follow him home. But soon, Luke begins blacking out. Seeing things. Becoming someone else. As his reality unravels, he realizes the dummy isn’t just a lifeless prop. It’s watching. Waiting. And it wants in. From bestselling author William Massa comes a chilling short story of possession and occult terrors. A quick read that can be read or...

Are you ready to get locked away in a maximum security mental hospital? Go inside the mind of a criminal, along with an innocent man. There will be violence, injections, psychosis, and murder.

Behind a wall of amnesia, he can’t remember anything. Maybe he can’t bear to. Nameless knows only the mission: Directed by the mysterious Ace of Diamonds, he travels the country, turning predators into prey. But the pain in his past can’t hold him back when dark visions of the future lead him toward his greatest test yet. Nameless is closing in on a revelatory endgame in this collection of short thrillers from #1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz.

A classic of alienation and horror, The Birds was immortalized by Hitchcock in his celebrated film. The five other chilling stories in this collection echo a sense of dislocation and mock man's dominance over the natural world. The mountain paradise of "Monte Verità" promises immortality, but at a terrible price; a neglected wife haunts her husband in the form of an apple tree; a professional photographer steps out from behind the camera and into his subject's life.

A collection of four chilling novels, ingeniously wrought gems of terror from the brilliantly imaginative number one New York Times best-selling author of The Fireman, Joe Hill.

It's been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories—a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there's something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers.