Showing results by author "Jeremy Bates" in All Categories

Just outside of Tokyo lies Aokigahara, a vast forest and one of the most beautiful wilderness areas in Japan...and also the most infamous spot to commit suicide in the world. Legend has it that the spirits of those many suicides are still roaming, haunting deep in the ancient woods. When bad weather prevents a group of friends from climbing neighboring Mt. Fuji, they decide to spend the night camping in Aokigahara. But they get more than they bargained for when one of them is found hanged in the morning - and they realize there might be some truth to the legends after all.

It's the ultimate haunted house challenge. A crumbling stone mansion nestled in the Gothic Quarter of Barcelona, it may be the best-kept secret in Europe—a little-known attraction featuring nine escape rooms to explore, nine puzzles to solve, and a large cash prize for anyone who makes it to the end. There's just one catch: no one makes it to the end of The No-End House . . . When Joe Hadfield hears about the house from a pair of backpackers, he's intrigued but not interested. He's trying to escape a nightmare of his own.

In 1954, at the start of the Cold War, the Soviet military offered four political prisoners their freedom if they participated in an experiment requiring them to remain awake for 14 days while under the influence of a powerful stimulant gas. The prisoners ultimately reverted to murder, self-mutilation, and madness. None survived. In 2018, Dr. Roy Wallis, an esteemed psychology professor at UC Berkeley, is attempting to recreate the same experiment. What begins innocently enough, however, morphs into a nightmare.

Fact: During the night of February 1, 1959, in the remote reaches of Siberia, nine Russian hikers slash open their tent from the inside and flee into a blizzard in subpolar temperatures. Fact: By morning all are dead, several having suffered gruesome, violent deaths. What happened to them has baffled investigators and researchers to this day.

Paris, France, is known as the City of Lights, a metropolis renowned for romance and beauty. Beneath the bustling streets and cafés, however, exists the Catacombs, a labyrinth of crumbling tunnels filled with six million dead. When a video camera containing mysterious footage is discovered deep within their depths, a group of friends venture into the tunnels to investigate. But what starts out as a lighthearted adventure takes a turn for the worse when they reach their destination - and stumble upon the evil lurking there.

A cave-diving expedition on a mysterious island goes horribly wrong for a renowned marine biologist and his fellow divers when they become hunted by a deadly breed of predators that, until then, had only been known in myths and legends.

Are you a fan of Stephen King and Dean Koontz? If you're looking for something fresh and new, join the millions of readers/listeners who have already taken the journey to the World's Scariest Places. An isolated region is plagued with rumors of dark and deadly forces—the locals call it Helltown. Since the 1980s there have been numerous reports of occult activity and other possibly supernatural phenomena within certain villages and townships of Summit County, Ohio—an area collectively known as Helltown.

Ever been to Taured before? No? In fact, you’ve never heard of it? Well, neither had the rest of the world when in July of 2020, a European businessman showed up at Tokyo International Airport claiming not only to hail from a non-existent country, but showing a legitimate passport to prove it.

Many people consider it a cauldron of creativity due to the numerous writers, musicians, artists, and actors who have called it home over the years. But Hotel Chelsea is perhaps best known for being one of the most haunted places in the country. When a magazine reporter is tasked with writing a story about the Hotel Chelsea's never-ending renovations, he befriends some of the hotel's eccentric characters. As the days go by, he experiences increasingly abnormal events in his life, and he begins to wonder if there's more to the Hotel Chelsea - and its residents - than meets the eye.

Los Angeles, 1985. Never was the motto sex, drugs, and rock n' roll more apt than the scene on the legendary Sunset Strip with the arrival of the underground Hollywood glam bands. While Mick Freeman, a record executive with a major label, works tirelessly to sign five toxic rockers whom he believes might flip the entire music world on its head, his wife, Jade, spends her days bored and alone at home, struggling with a midlife crisis that threatens to topple their 20-year marriage.

From USA Today and number-one Amazon best-selling author Jeremy Bates comes the first book in the all-new World's Scariest Legends series. After a woman bangs at the door in the middle of the night and promptly dies from her injury, a couple's remote cabin getaway becomes a psychological night of terror as they are hunted by an unknown assailant. Now they must go far beyond what they thought themselves capable of if they hope to save their young children and survive until morning.

You can run but you can't hide. During a camping trip to the Catskill Mountains, Charlotte's boyfriend Luke, a former soldier suffering PTSD, goes on a rampage, nearly killing Charlotte and her two friends. A year later, Charlotte is a graduate student in the small college town of Ashenville, North Carolina. Yet her new life is shattered when Luke, recently released from prison, shows up.

Im Dschungel hört dich niemand schreien. Die amerikanische Filmschauspielerin Scarlett Cox und ihr Ehemann, der Hotel-Magnat Salvador Brazza, reisen nach Afrika, um ihre angeschlagene Ehe zu kitten. Als man ihnen kurz darauf das Geld und ihre Pässe raubt, suchen sie in der amerikanischen Botschaft in Dar es Salaam Hilfe – am selben Tag, als die Al Qaeda einen Terroranschlag darauf verüben. Binnen weniger Sekunden werden sie als Geiseln genommen und über die Grenze in den Kongo entführt, eine der letzten wilden Gegenden dieses Planeten.

Weit im Süden der heutigen Mexiko-Stadt, in einem Gebiet aus unzähligen Wasseradern und Inseln, liegt die Isla de las Muñecas – ein kleines Stück Land, in dessen Bäumen hunderte verstümmelter Spielzeugpuppen hängen ... Ein Team junger Dokumentarfilmer wird während ihrer Dreharbeiten auf der Insel Zeuge eines brutalen Mordes. Schnell sorgen Angst und Paranoia dafür, dass sich die jungen Leute gegeneinander wenden - und das, obwohl sie in der vielleicht längsten Nacht ihres Lebens von einem unbekannten Killer gejagt werden ...

Seit den 1980er-Jahren kursieren unzählige Gerüchte über okkulte Aktivitäten und möglicherweise übernatürliche Phänomene in einer kleinen Region in Summit County, Ohio – auch Helltown genannt. Da ist die Brücke, auf der man nachts Kinderschreie hören kann, Straßen, die ins Nichts zu führen scheinen, oder ein alter Schulbus, in dem angeblich ein Serienkiller mehrere Kinder tötete. Am bekanntesten aber ist die weiße Kirche im Zentrum von Helltown – an der verstörenderweise mehrere umgekehrte Kreuze prangen. Eine Gruppe von Freunden macht sich auf, den Legenden von Helltown nachzuspüren.

Ein durch Mark und Bein gehender Abstieg in die Tunnel unter Paris. Willkommen im Reich der Toten. Paris ist als die Stadt der Lichter bekannt, eine Metropole berühmt für Romantik und Schönheit. Doch unterhalb der geschäftigen Straßen und Cafés liegen die Katakomben, ein Labyrinth aus zerfallenden Tunneln, angefüllt mit sechs Millionen Toten. Als eine Videokamera mit mysteriösem Bildmaterial auftaucht, wagt sich eine Gruppe von Freunden in die Tunnel, um Nachforschungen anzustellen. Doch was als unbeschwertes Abenteuer beginnt, wird schnell zum Albtraum, als sie ihr Ziel erreichen.

Am Fuße des Mt. Fuji, ganz in der Nähe von Tokyo, liegt der Aokigahara Jukai. Dieser weitläufige, dicht bewachsene Wald ist eines der schönsten urwüchsigen Gebiete Japans – und eines der berüchtigsten. Denn seit den 1960er Jahren gilt der Aokigahara als unheiliger Magnet für Selbstmörder. Ständig durchkämmen Polizeikräfte und die Feuerwehr den Wald auf der Suche nach Leichen, in dem pro Jahr bis zu 100 Menschen verschwinden. Die Behörden gehen jedoch von weitaus mehr Suizidfällen aus, die jedoch aufgrund der teilweise undurchdringlichen Vegetation des Waldes nicht gefunden werden können.