Jennifer Hillier - Creep, An Awesome Psychological Thriller Novel

Jennifer Hillier has written an amazing debut novel, Creep, with an exciting plot, and believable, flesh-and-blood characters.



Dr. Sheila Tao is a professor of psychology, she is in her mid-thirties and loves sex. When one of her students approaches her, she cannot resist him. Ethan Wolfe is attractive, talented, and good between the sheets. However, Sheila is already engaged to a fair (for me, boring) gentleman, and she does not want to risk her career, thus she turns Ethan down. He does not take it well: He threatens and blackmails her with a sex tape that could indeed ruin her career. And the worst is yet to come: Someone murders young girls in the area, and Sheila has a terrible suspicion...

Linwood Barclay - Lone Wolf, A Zack Walker Crime Thriller Novel

Linwood Barclay, former journalist and present best-seller author, is mostly known for his Zack Walker novels. is the third book of the Zack Walker series.



Journalist Zack Walker learns that a mutilated corpse was found at his father's lakeside camp. The police believes that a bear attacked the victim, but Zack suspects that a political extremist hate group is a more likely alternative. It seems that he is right: another dead body turns up, and things quickly turn worse...

Justin Evans - The White Devil, A Novel: A Scary Gothic Story

Justin Evans is a best-selling American thriller author who lives in New York City - and for a year he was a student of Harrow School, which is the setting of his novel, The White Devil.



Andrew, the protagoist of The White Devil, is a disturbed seventeen years old boy; his father sends him to Harrow School, a prestigious boarding school in Great Britain. Soon one of his friends die from a severe illness - and others believe that he has to do something with it. Worst of all, a pale boy appears in his dormitory room: an unearthly visitor.
One of Andrew's schoolmates, Piers, writes a play about Byron who was also a student of Harrow. Andrew himself is to play Byron, and he notices that there are several similarities between the two of them. The mysteries of Byron's life seem to affect his present time...
This is, like the school's name suggest, a harrowing story, atmospheric and eerie, with an insight of the lives of élite school students. Highly recommended to fans of supernatural thrillers and Gothic literature.

Stephen Leather - The Basement, An Awesome Serial Killer Mystery Novel

Stephen Leather's plotting of his mystery thriller novel, The Basement, is familiar from several stories: A serial killer is on the loose, he abducts, torments, and murders young girls. However, this subject is an evergreen for mystery/dark fiction fans.



Stephen Leather does have a distinctive way to tell his story: He creates a gloomy atmosphere and palpable tension that would make J. A. Konrath jealous.
The setting of The Basement is New York City; Detectives Turner and Marcinko are about to find the sadistic murderer before he kills a kidnapped young woman whom he tortures in a basement. The story is told from the perspectives of the detectives' main suspect (an unsuccessful, distressed screenwriter) and the murderer. Perhaps the two of them are the very same person, but, as the story progresses, the detectives have their doubts about it...

P. D. James - Death Comes to Pemberley, An Awesome Sequel of Pride and Prejudice

P. D. James, an awesome contemporary crime author, has written a riveting sequel of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. It was a brilliant idea: Death Comes to Pemberley turned out fine.



Elizabeth and Darcy could not be any happier: they are still fond of one another, they live in their cosy home, Pemberley (Pemberley rhymes with Manderley...), in the circle of loving friends and family members. However, one day a not so welcomed relative appears: Lydia, Elizabeth's younger sister. She stumbles out of her carriage, screaming that someone has just shot her husband, Wickham (an ill-famed gentleman) somewhere in Pemberley's forests...

The atmosphere of Death Comes to Pemberley is great - both the warm and friendly start, and the air of mystery somewhat later. The familiar characters are also fine. My favourite one is, of course, Lydia, with all the real, believable, likable human frailties of her egocentric persona.

John Harwood - The Ghost Writer, A Supernatural Thriller Novel

John Harwood, an Australian poet, made an impression with his first novel, The Ghost Writer.



Gerald Freeman, a little boy from Australia, finds a secret diary hidden in his mother's drawer; the diary belonged to an early ancestor of his, a lady named Viola Hatherley who lived in the 1890's and wrote Gothic stories. Gerald's mother happens to notice him as he lays his hands on the book, and beats him up as she never did before - she goes frantic with fear and worry. Gerald's mother, Phyllis, who has grown up in England, looks haggard and thin anyway, as if she was always afraid of something or someone.
Gerald finds a penfriend in England, Alice Jessel, a girl at his age. They write letters to one another throughout the years.
Years later the grown-up Gerald goes to England and meets Alice. He finds that Viola's peculiar stories has to do something with his present life...

The idea itself is not a very unique one - a secret diary of a long deceased person and a ghost story which concerns present -, but The Ghost Writer is a special book: Great characters, fine composition, and an ending that shocks the reader always do the trick. Highly recommended for psychological thriller fans who enjoy a well-wriiten, interesting read.

Robert Devereaux: Santa Steps Out, A Magnificent Horror Tale for Adults

Robert Devereaux, writer of Dead Weigh is one of the most talented contemporary horror authors. According to him, his most memorable work is Santa Steps Out.



Santa Steps Out is the first book of The Santa Chronicles.
Santa lives in the North Pole with his elderly and rather boring wife and with his elfin helpers. In each year, at Christmas Eve, he leaves his cosy, warm home to give presents to the children of the world. However, in 1969, he happens to meet the Tooth Fairy, a young, passionate, and dangerous creature who is obviously offering; soon she becomes obsessed with Santa. On the other hand, good old Saint Nick, a cheerful man who loves the pleasures of life (such as good food and hot sex), notices that there is a hidden, darker side of his personality...

Santa Steps Out was written with passion; Robert Devereaux has the gift to create warm, intimate atmosphere and shocking turns at the same time. The book is full of outrageous sex and fearful, sadistic passion. One does not have to wait much for a tragedy to strike...

I love the way Santa is depicted - and I fell for the most awesome female character, the Tooth Fairy, a wild woman who is impossible to break in. And I loved the two adorable little cats in Santa's home.

Robert Bidinotto: Hunter - A Thriller, A Dylan Hunter Novel

Robert Bidinotto is an award-winning mystery and thriller writer. Hunter - A Thriller is an awesome mystery fiction.



Someone helps criminals escape from their prisons; those ones who committed the most heinous crimes. However, soon the same criminals end up murdered. Dylan Hunter, a maverick reporter who covers outrageous crime cases, smells a new story. Annie, a CIA Investigator who works on the case, suspects hidden secrets and skeletons in the cupboard. The two of them - untrusting, hardened, lonely people - feel attracted to one another...

Scott Sigler - Ancestor, An Awesome Science Fiction Thriller

Scott Sigler is a great science fiction thriller writer. In his chilling and riveting sci-fi thriller Ancestor he plays with a familiar idea - scientific experiments get out of hand.



Ancestor is set in a modern-day world. Genada, a firm that experiments with genetics, creates a proto-mammal, a thing that is similar to the species from which all mammalian creatures origin. The scientists of Genada are in a hurry, since the government is about to stop them. Liu Jian Den, the leading scientist, makes a desperate attempt to get a spectacular result, and succeeds too well: the genetically manipulated embryos grow too big, they eat themselves out of the incubators and start hunting down the scientists who stuck on the island of Lake Superior...
Ancestor is highly recommended, and not only for the horror fans who love monster stories like Alligator. Ancestor is a well-written novel, with alive, believable characters and full of tension.

John Buchan - The Thirty-Nine Steps, A Gripping Thriller Novel

John Buchan's magnificent thriller is a fine story about a spy, with a great and highly likable protagonist, Richard Hannay.



Richard Hannay happens to find a corpse - and, naturally, gets in trouble: He becomes a main suspect. Furthermore, he finds himself in the middle of conspiracy and not-so-fair political secrets, and he has a task no less than saving the British fleet...

Tana French - In The Woods, An Awesome Psychological Thriller Mystery

Tana French is an awesome Irish suspense mystery author. Her novels are for readers who enjoy well composed psychological thrillers.



In The Woods is a psychological suspense thriller; it is set in Dublin.
A twelve years old girl is found murdered in a forest near Dublin. Two detectives, Cassie Maddox and Rob Ryan work on the case. They are - fortunately - real, flesh-and-blood figures with frailties (which I like).
The murder of the little girl recalls another peculiar case that occurred two decades ago, in 1984. Back then, three children were attacked - one of them was Rob Ryan himself. His two friends vanished forever. Now Cassie and Ryan try to find connections...

Sarah Rayne - A Dark Dividing, An Awesome Psychological Thriller

Sarah Rayne is an awesome British writer, her novels are favourites of supernatural thriller genre since 1982. A Dark Dividing by Rayne is a scary psychological thriller novel.



The main character of A Dark Dividing is Harry Fitzglen, a journalist. He is about to cover the opening of a new art gallery in London. He finds the new artist intriguing: Simone Anderson is a mysterious lady whose twin sister, Sonia, vanished several years ago. Harry gets closer to Simone's secrets which are connected to an ancient mansion named Mortmain House; a set of conjoined twins born many decades ago, and a certain novel that was published in the early 1900's...
Highly recommended to readers who love suspense, psychological horror, subtle fear, an exquisitely written scary story, and books like Wuthering Heights (so - a scary version of Wuthering Heights).

Susan Hill - The Woman In Black, A Subtle Scary Horror Story

Susan Hill is an awesome contemporary author - and many compares her to Jane Austen. However, Hill, fortunately, has a darker side as a writer.



Susan Hill's The Woman In Black starts like a romance from past centuries, and turns into an eerie ghost story.
Arthur Kipps, a Londoner attorney, comes to Crythin Gifford to arrange the legal affairs of an once client of his firm, the deceased Mrs. Drablow. He stays at her peculiar mansion, Eel Marsh House. He hears strange noises from the mist that descended around the house, and, naturally he finds out more than he initially wanted to know...

11/22/63 by Stephen King, An Awesome Suspense Novel from the Horror Master

Everybody knows Stephen King's name. That name is equated with contemporary horror genre and riveting, scary stories. King's newest 2011 novel, 11/22/63 is, however, not a horror fiction but a suspense thriller novel - which is a pity, I love King's chilling ideas. However, tension makes up for the lack of gore and cold fear.



11/22/63 was a sad day in American history: it was the day when Lee Harvey Oswald assassinated John F. Kennedy.
A high school English teacher, Jake Epping (of Lisbon Falls, Maine, a familiar place for King's fans) gets a chance to change history: he can go back in time. No matter how long he stays "over there", in this world, it is only two minutes. He gets a new identity - George Amberson - and travels back in time to save Kennedy...

Stephen King is obviously a left-wing supporter (I have a particular liking for him for THIS). You have been warned.

11/22/63 is, like King's earlier books Dead Zone or Misery, rather a supernatural thriller than hardcore horror. On the other hand, 11/22/63 is all that we ever expected from King: A gripping story, awesome characters (some of them also already known ones from earlier books), and a long book of tension.

John Harwood - The Seance, An Awesome Supernatural Horror Story

John Harwood is an award-winning, awesome Australian supernatural horror author an poet. The Seance is his second novel - a well-written and scary book.



The setting of The Seance is England in the Victorian era.
Wraxford Hall, a dilapidated, remote, and peculiar mansion somewhere in England, has an ill reputation. A family disappeared from here, and the woods around it are shunned by everyone - supposedly they are haunted. The new owner of the mansion is Constance Langston, a young lady who comes from a star-crossed family: Her sister died, thus her grieving mother's mental state deteriorated. Constance, to help her mother, lures her to a seance... however, things turns much worse. As a result, Constance inherits Wraxford Hall...
Highly recommended to every horror fan who loves well-composed, atmospheric books, haunted house stories like Stephen King's The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red or Adam Nevill's Apartment 16.

Hounded: The Iron Druid Chronicles, Book One by Kevin Hearne

Kevin Hearne is an American fantasy author. The first instalment of his new fantasy series The Iron Druids Chronicles was released in May, 2011.



After several centuries of escape from pursuers, the last Druid, Atticus O'Sullivan has a peaceful life somewhere in Arizona. He has a small bookstore and a nice pet: Oberon, the wolfhound.
Atticus also has a magical sword, Fragarach (the Answerer). Bad luck is that a Celtic God wants the sword, too, and still pursues Atticus. On the other hand, the young (?) and nice-looking, tattooed Druid has his helpers, amongst others, a death Goddess who likes him.

Kill Alex Cross - A James Patterson Thriller Novel

Best-selling American thriller author James Patterson has just released his newest mystery thriller book, Kill Alex Cross.



Kill Alex Cross is a worthy (and riveting) follower of the previous Cross instalments.
Zoe and Ethan Coyle, the two teenage children of the American President slipped out of their elite school to smoke a cigarette - and someone abducts them and drives them away in a van; security men, although pursue the vehicle, cannot keep up with it and lose it. In the meanwhile a group of terrorists carries out attacks against Washington D.C. and are about to strike again. Alex Cross should stop them - and find the two teenagers...
Like Christmas presents, several parts of James Patterson are now available for free on the Internet - Kill Alex Cross is one of them.

Simon Bestwick - Tide of Souls, An Awesome Scary Zombie Horror Novel

Simon Bestwick is a British horror writer. His newest 2011 novel Tide of Souls is a delightful masterpiece of zombie horror genre.



Floods threaten several parts of Great Britain - and so do the hordes of zombies: Drowned people come to life and devour the alive throughout the chaos.
Robert McTarn, once a soldier and now enlisted again, is sent to find and save a scientist who stuck in an isolated village somewhere in Lancashire. He also finds another survivor on the run, a woman, Katja Wencewska, an immigrant who was held captive as a sex slave (and, due to her beloved father who was a member of Special Forces, she knows a bit about martial arts and handling weapons). The two of them, with the help of the scientist, Dr Benjamin Stiles, try to cut their way through the voracious zombies...

Necro Files: Two Decades of Extreme Horror - An Awesome Scary Gory Horror Anthology

Necro Files: Two Decades of Extreme Horror is (easy to guess) a new horror anthology from October, 2001. It contains short stories from twenty different authors: Their most peculiar works over a period of two decades.



Amongst the authors are the writer of the blockbuster fantasy series, A Song of Ice and Fire, George R. R. Martin; horror genius Bentley Little; Edward Lee, a gifted modern Lovecraft fanatic; J. F. Gonzalez; and Graham Masterton.
The book has the subtitle "of Extreme Horror" for a reason, each story is blood-soaked, violent, and sick. Just remember Wrath James White's earlier works or Edward Lee's Lovecraftian nightmares. Some of the stories were banned (wow).

In Extremis: The Most Extreme Short Stories of John Shirley

John Shirley is an award-winning American horror author. His disturbing scary stories are amongst the favourites of the genre's fans. Shirley is also known as the co-writer of The Crow (I have a weak spot for The Crow series since Chet Williamson).



In Extremis is a collection of John Shirley's short stories. More than twenty horror fictions - psychological horror, urban horror, dark fantasy, grotesquely funny, gripping, and, most of all, frightening. Highly recommended one who loves horror and authors like Stephen King or Neil Gaiman.

Reed Farrel Coleman - Innocent Monster, A Great Moe Prager Series Thriller Novel

Reed Farrel Coleman, once the executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America, is a Shamus Award and Anthony Award winning thriller author. His most known novels are the Moe Prager series.



Moe Prager, once a cop, has a tragic memory in his past - which comes into his life again when his estranged daughter Sarah ask him a favour: He should find Sashi, the eleven years old daughter of Sarah's old friend. Sashi, an exceedingly talented young artist was kidnapped from a beach near her home in Long Island. It seems the abductors wants one thing from the little girl: Gaining money from her talent. And an artist's works are the most valuable when the artist herself is already dead... Prager does his best to find Sashi, but he is afraid it will be too late.

Brian Keene - Take the Long Way Home, A Great Apocalyptic Horror Novel

Brian Keene is an awesome American horror fiction writer (known for novels like Urban Gothic which is my favourite book written by him). His 2011 horror story is Take the Long Way Home.



All of a sudden millions of people disappear all over the world. Chaos breaks loose: planes crash, cars and vehicles stop.
A handful of co-workers, on their way home, get stuck in the traffic jam, the driver of the car dies at once; the others need to face an apocalyptic world from which the good ones were saved and the remaining ones turn into savages.
Graphic details, tension, and fear are abundant - we do not expect any less from Brian Keene.

Nate Southard - Just Like Hell, An Awesome Scary Gory Horror Thriller Novel

Nate Southard is an American horror writer, his newest slasher novel, Just Like Hell, is a great horror story. Graphic violence and gore included.



Let me tell you I love the subject of Just Like Hell: gay rights. True that they are expressed in a way a horror author's mind works.
Dillion is a well-loved, successful boy at high school, a star of the football team - however, it turns out that he has a male lover, Randy. Their homophobic team-mates abduct both Dillion and his lover, and take them to a remote house in the woods, humiliate them, torture them - then murder one of them. The survivor avenges himself - and his lover - on their tormentors, one by one...

Edward Lee - Carnal Surgery, An Awesome Scary Horror Short Story Collection

Edward Lee, an American horror writer, is well-admired amongst horror fans for several reasons: His love for H. P. Lovecraft (we do share this love, right?), his gory graphic violence descriptions, his daring and painful sexual fantasies... His short story collection, Carnal Surgery, is a good example for that.




Carnal Surgery is brimmed with gore, sexual slaves, sadism, and nightmares of a twisted mind: That of Edward Lee. In the antology there are eleven short fictions, amongst others Death, She Said, Gut-Shot, and Please Let Me Out. All of the stories gives readers the creeps - the collection is a must-read to horror fans and Lee fans alike.

Michael Crichton - Jurassic Park, A Great Fantasy Science Fiction Classic

Michael Crichton is an American best-selling author and screenwriter. His fantasy sci-fi book Jurassic Park (just like the second part, The Lost World) was a great blockbuster back in the 1990's, both the novel and the movie adaptation. I have read that book as a child, and how I loved it!



Jurassic Park is a fast-paced action thriller fantasy, full of tension and some gore.
A scientist invents a new technique to reproduce clone dinosaurs in a desolate island; planning a theme park of them, named Jurassic Park. Some other scientists visit the place, and they are amazed and frightened to see that even Velociraptors and T-Rexes are there in his bizarre collection. Of course something goes awry and carnivore dinosaurs cause havoc on the island. The visitors needs to flee, but it is dubious whether they will survive...