Bestiary – Patrick Rutigliano
Supernatural horror
For a quarter and your silence, the Bestiary is yours to enter… But you may never leave.
Karen was a child when Doctor Cromwell stole everything. She followed her parents to his tent and raced away alone, haunted by the monstrous things she witnessed and the twisted power that commanded them. She has spent her life in pursuit of the man who stole everything from her.
Now, thanks to private investigator Cal Leverone, her revenge is finally within reach.
But Doctor Cromwell is no ordinary predator. His words sculpt flesh more deftly than any scalpel. Wonder is his art, and either Karen or Cal could become his next canvas. Together they’ll discover that monsters aren’t merely born. They’re made. And in the Bestiary, the line between hunter and exhibit has never been thinner.
Caelum Lake – Axl Malton
Psychological horror
When novelist Dean Lachman loses his wife, Haley, his world collapses. Fulfilling her final wish, he returns to Caelum Lake, the place where they spent their happiest times, to scatter her ashes. But beneath the lake’s surface, lies something otherworldly, something that whispers of second chances.
Haunted by his past and urged by his psychiatrist to write his story, Dean begins to uncover not just the truth about his life, but about the lake itself. When vision of Haley blur into reality and a local girl goes missing, Dean is forced to choose between life, death and the fragile space that lies between them.
At Caelum Lake, love never truly dies. But some reflections hide more than memories.
Carry Me To My Grave – Christopher Golden
Supernatural horror
Maggie Wise will take your eyes.
When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law Violet to hold a vigil at her bedside.
But they’re not as alone as they think they are. A dark figure waits and watches from beneath the willow tree across the street. Hundreds of miles away, an ancient evil stirs in its burrow under a farmer’s cornfield. Across the country, other buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm, her youngest child: when she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace in Shediak, Maine.
From the moment she takes her last breath, before her remains are even loaded aboard the baggage car of the Imperial Limited, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise. Violence erupts on the train, evil preys on its passengers, and once the sun goes down, those long-buried things are coming to make Maggie Wise pay for her past. God help anyone who stands in their way.
Funerals are for the Living – Sami Ellis
Supernatural horror
A girl is kidnapped by a racist cult after investigating the supernatural happenings at her sister’s gravesite.
A month ago, Junie Daniels was in a car crash that left her with a dead sister, fragmented memories of the accident, and a mother too checked-out to plan a funeral.
The cheapest grave plot Junie can find is in the next town over. Sure, Williamsville is still proudly named after a slave master who was rumored to dabble in dark magic, but this is North Carolina, after all.
When unexplained occurrences start happening at the graveyard, though, Junie and her best friend, Omari, investigate. And it’s not long before Junie and Omari are taken.
Williamsville wants both Daniels girls. But Junie will do anything to protect her sister, even if it’s only her corpse.
House of Twisted Shadows – J.H. Mann
Ghost horror
Winter 1962. Amelia Tremayne has spent the past ten years in London trying to forget the lonely clifftop house where her father was killed. Tyler House was built shortly before the Second World War on Cornwall’s stormy coast by a wealthy German outsider. Its most unsettling feature is a vast glass dome that bends the light, casting twisted, elongated shadows across the walls.
Amelia’s father, Douglas Tremayne, a noted historian, was researching a controversial book about Tyler House’s Nazi origins and its links to powerful figures in the local community.
As Amelia begins to uncover the truth about her father’s death, she is pulled into a web of buried secrets, and into a forbidden love that could destroy everything she holds dear.
We Sent Them Down Singing – Libby Edwardson
Monster horror
In the small coal camp of Jubilee, West Virginia, Phinnie “Skinny” Caldwell has been plagued with nightmares of the last time she ever saw her mama alive and the man responsible for stealing her away: Zell Dorsey.
When Zell Dorsey returns thirteen years later, alone, Skinny is determined to find out what really happened. As she uncovers disturbing truths about her mama’s fate and Zell’s sinister plan, she turns to Happy Walker, her school bus driver and the closest thing she has to a father. However, nothing can prepare them for what they find: Behind Zell Dorsey’s charming veneer, is a creature both older and far more evil than any devil, and he’s hellbent on turning everyone Skinny loves into oil-slicked monsters.
The Winter Folk – Jen Julian
Gothic horror
This is the story of Moth, who earned her name working for the Winter Folk.
Every year, the mythical Winter Folk gather at a secret lodge, a place known only as Deerhaven.
Moth was a housekeeper there once. A trusted confidant of Mr. Oslin, the enigmatic master of the house.
But Deerhaven is dangerous. The rules are exacting. The consequences for break them are dire.
Moth has not been allowed back in decades. Still, she feels its call. She will finder her way back. She needs to see him again. No matter the cost.
