Horror Mystery Crime

In The Meaning of Blood: and Other Tales of Perversity, award-winning author and Edgar Allan Poe scholar Chuck Caruso combines his deep roots in the American Gothic with his own contemporary sense of macabre humor. These 15 stories of dark fiction range from crime thrillers to western noir to grotesque horror. Each twisted tale displays Caruso's unique blend of wry prose, feverish storytelling, and tragically flawed characters discovering that even the most innocent encounter can lead to death. Or sex. Or both.

Rae faces a dilemma when her brother, Kenan, announces a man wants to buy their log cabin in Virginia. A place abandoned after they helplessly watched their parents tortured and killed inside. Reluctantly, Rae agrees to sign over the deed once Kenan mentions their six friends are taking a road trip with them for moral support. The next morning, two of their friends have disappeared. And worse, someone has sabotaged their two rented Jeeps, leaving them stranded. Alone in the woods, 30 miles from civilization with no cell phone reception, the weekend turns into a deadly game.

Zoey wusste nicht, was echter Schmerz ist. Nachdem sie in Manhattan entführt wurde, wird Zoey in einen Bunker verschleppt und Opfer der abartigen Fantasie eines kranken Mannes. Doch sie ist nicht die einzige Gefangene, in Käfigen vegetieren dutzende Frauen vor sich hin. Täglich werden sie gequält... Doch sie lernt schnell: Echter Schmerz ist etwas zwischen Ekstase und Pein.

You can buy anything on the Internet these days. Books, electronics, and Chinese takeout are just a few clicks away. If you're after something more illicit, all you need is a special browser and some bitcoin to spend. Every drug you might want is readily available on the darknet markets. You can also hire a hitman, get a fake ID made, or have an illegal bug delivered to your door. Ben Samsa is a small-time weed dealer and amateur entomologist. He can't resist buying a mysterious bug he finds on one of the black market sites where he gets his inventory. The splurge leaves him with only enough bitcoin to purchase lower quality marijuana than he normally sells. Unfortunately, Ben doesn't realize one of his customers has been flipping his product to a murderous, one-eyed Nazi. He's soon sucked into a hellish nightmare of dread, drugs, and death.

Disgraced in the psychiatric hospital where he'd practiced for nearly 30 years, Dr. Walter Freeman has taken to traversing the country and proselyting about a very new kind of salvation: the transorbitol lobotomy. With an ice pick and a hammer, Freeman promises to cure depression and catatonia, delusions and psychosis, with a procedure as simple and safe as curing a toothache. When he enters the backwater Oklahoma town of Burnwood, however, his own sanity will be tested.

While traveling from New Orleans to Chicago for a rock concert, five college students decide to take a detour. While in Mississippi, they travel a remote highway into the Delta region of the state to visit the infamous Crossroads: the place where blues legend Jack Johnson supposedly sold his soul to the devil. Lost on the old highway, they stop at a rundown gas station to get directions from the creepy attendant that runs the place. But one wrong turn leads to a night that they will never forget....

Ever since a drunken one-night stand gone wrong, single mother Meredith Banks can't seem to shake Christian Morgan, the hypnotically attractive and dangerously obsessive intern from her office. It started with the late-night phone calls, the hang-ups, the unwanted visits to her row home in Detroit. Now her son, Troy, all that matters in her world, has gone missing after school.

When a traveling carnival stops in the sleepy countryside, 16-year-old Josie Crowley is psyched to go with her new friend, Freya. But what started out as a fun-filled night of games, candied apples, and Ferris wheel rides quickly spirals into a gut-wrenching encounter with one of the carnival attractions. Once the excitement is over, Lamison is missing one of its residents. When Freya is nowhere to be found, Josie suspects the carnival has something to do with her disappearance.

I had to do the unthinkable—and now I've discovered that every move I've made has been part of a villain's maniacal plan. All this time I believed I'd found my freedom, I've still had someone pulling my strings. Those days are over. The man who considers himself my master is the worst monster I've ever known. My crew and I won't let him get away with his manipulations or the even more disturbing crimes we uncover. But no matter how talented we are in our killer skills, we're just five people up against a crime lord with more connections than I can count.

By day, punk-rock runaway Charity Blake struggles through a stream of dead-end jobs and the haunting memories of her past. But at night she is the Harpy, sprouting wings with black feathers, and claws made for tearing the flesh of her prey. Having survived a lifetime of abuse and torment from a sadistic man who broke her spirit, Charity's physical manifestation of her grief and anger allows her to hunt down those like her abuser. Only this time, Charity isn't a helpless little girl praying for things to end. Now she is the monster, and hell hath no fury like a harpy scorned.

The public and media want to know, is there a serial killer on the prowl? Or is someone just yanking the blindfold off Lady Justice? Who is stepping in as judge, jury, and executioner when criminals escape punishment for horrendous deeds? Is a hero or a villain at work in the Garden City? “The Bible says, ‘If men strive, and hurt a woman...he shall be punished. Thou shalt give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."

She was the puppet. He pulled the strings. Now the death toll is rising - what could this mean? It was all a game…of feelings…of pain. Death is just an illusion, or so they say. She was just a pawn on a piece of his demented board. But there's only one question left to settle the score: Can dead people really stay dead?

Sophia Cova lived a quiet, normal life, shadowed in sadness after the loss of her parents in a tragic airline accident. With her older brother being her only living relative and her anchor, Sophia is sure she’s destined for a brighter future. But that was before she was taken. Stolen from her mundane, orderly life, she was drugged and woke to every woman’s worst nightmare.

Six months ago, Charlotte almost lost everything. Now, she’s determined to keep her daughter, Elle, safe. So when local girls close to Elle in age and appearance begin to go missing, it’s her worst nightmare. Charlotte’s fears are confirmed when a frantic search becomes a shocking murder investigation. The girls’ bodies have been found - half-buried, and with traces of mud and wildflowers under their fingernails. As Charlotte’s obsession with keeping her daughter close pushes her marriage to the brink, local DI Madeleine Wood embarks on a gruelling search for the killer.

Oh, to be a Beloved - one of those lucky people for whom nothing ever goes wrong. Everything falls into their laps without effort: happiness, beauty, good fortune, allure. Betty Stash is not a Beloved - but her little sister, the delightful Gloria, is. She's the one with the golden curls and sunny disposition and captivating smile, the one whose best friend used to be Betty's, the one whose husband should have been Betty's. Then, to everyone's surprise, Gloria inherits the family mansion. Losing what Betty considers her rightful inheritance is the final indignity.

Marion Zetland lives with her domineering older brother, John, in a crumbling mansion on the edge of a northern seaside resort. A timid spinster in her 50s who still sleeps with teddy bears, Marion does her best to live by John's rules, even if it means turning a blind eye to the noises she hears coming from behind the cellar door...and turning a blind eye to the women's laundry in the hamper that isn't hers. For years she's buried the signs of John's devastating secret into the deep recesses of her mind - until the day John is crippled by a heart attack.

John Brandon has quickly become a critical darling thanks to his evocative prose and recognizable, yet quirky, characters. Citrus County introduces teenaged Shelby Register and her offbeat family. Moving to the swampy Citrus County region of Florida, Shelby is quickly confronted by life’s challenges and possibilities.

Populations died in the most devastating plague to ravage the planet in the history of man. Billions are dead, leaving just a handful of people scattered across the world, struggling to live the lives they have left. Some chose to struggle with the land, scratching out a living on a piece of property and hoping to make it from one day through to the next. Others, the vigilantes and brigands, chose to prey on the survivors. They hunt, kill and torture those who want nothing more than to be left alone to live in peace.

There are those who believe demons lurk only in the world of fantasy. Then there are those who see fallen Angels, devils and demons with wings of fire. Vincent sees them, he hears them, and feels their control. He knows all too well how real they are. Daewoo - Trilogy, is a fast-paced complete novel about a cripple, Vincent Vandermel, who sold his soul to a demon called, Marax. Marax wants not only Vincent's soul but young women souls as well.

A serial killer stalks Chicago. A gorgeous cop is on his trail. And someone else is watching, someone who will decide who lives...and who dies. The Angel of Death for Chicago makes sure all his souls meet a fitting end. But when a gruesome serial killer strikes, the Angel must make a startling choice. He falls in love with the cop on the killer's trail, and has to choose between divinity and humanity. But to do that he must face the biggest terror of all - who he really is.