Southern Psychological Thrillers

For 30 years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X - a remote and lush terrain mysteriously sequestered from civilization. After the 12th expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (a.k.a. "Control") is the team's newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than two hundred hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves....

Regarded as a witch by the locals, Lydia bears silent testimony to her Appalachian town’s dark underside. The townspeople might believe the bad luck began when a night of teenage partying led to the preacher’s son falling to his death. But Lydia knows Peculiar’s troubles started when a local child never made it home from school, when an arsonist set the mountains ablaze, and when her own daughter seemingly vanished. The past can’t remain buried forever and now, from the swarming of the bees to the change in the auras she sees, Lydia knows the killer’s hold over the townspeople has...

Savannah doesn’t confess. It keeps records. When a beloved community figure is accused of tampering and obstruction, ex–FBI profiler Elias R. Shaw is pulled into a case that refuses spectacle and demands precision. He rebuilds a crime from the inside out: minutes penned in blue ink that forbid prayer over business, a forged PDF whose kerning betrays the lie, a U-bracket whose nine-inch centers mate to a skiff rack, bank logs that decline “missions” when the memo means defense—and a nineteen-year-old who once carried a box that wasn’t a box. In the Silence of Savannah is a ...

They buried something beneath Cypress Hollow. Now it remembers. Lana Gray keeps to herself—curator of a half-forgotten museum in a swamp town most have already left behind. But when a local widow’s quiet unraveling leads to an unmarked shoe and a floor that seems to breathe, Lana stumbles into a pattern that stretches back decades. Maybe longer. The town is changing. The people are changing. And the roots run deeper than anyone knew. As memory distorts, nature recoils, and the soil begins to hum, Lana must decide whether to resist what’s waking beneath her—or become part of it. The ...

The second novel by Donna Tartt, best-selling author of The Goldfinch (winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize), The Little Friend is a grandly ambitious and utterly riveting novel of childhood, innocence, and evil. The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved. So Robin’s sister Harriet - unnervingly bright and insufferably determined - sets out to unmask his killer.

Best friends Lindsey, Kendra, and Dani endure every parent’s nightmare when a tragic accident befalls their teenage boys, leaving one dead, another in a coma, and a third too traumatized to speak. Reeling from the worst night of their lives, the three mothers plunge into a desperate investigation of the bizarre incident. How could something so horrible happen in their wealthy Southern California suburb? They soon discover that the accident was just the beginning, and troubling discoveries lead to chilling questions: Do they really know their children? Do they even know each other?

Stacey is the dusty air, the cracked soil, the drought. To thirteen-year-old Bethany Sloane, she’s everything. Abandoned by her mother at a remote African boarding school, Bethany will do anything to stay in Stacey’s good graces. And that means learning the rules of each twisted game.

After years of self-exile, Jacinda “Jac” Brodie is back in Brook Haven, South Carolina. But the small cliffside town no longer feels like home. Jac hasn’t been there since the beloved chief of police fell to his death—and all the whispers said she was to blame. That chief was Jac’s father. Racked with guilt, Jac left town with no plans to return. But when her granddad lands in the hospital, she rushes back to her family, bracing herself to confront the past.

How far would you go to feel truly alive? Claire Matthews has everything she’s supposed to want—a loving husband, a beautiful home in the suburbs, and a dependable career. But beneath the polished surface, she’s restless, craving excitement, danger... something real. After a wild bachelorette weekend in Las Vegas, Claire returns home with nothing more than a few playful photos—until an anonymous message threatens to expose them. The blackmailer knows intimate details about her life and demands she obey a series of increasingly daring tasks. At first, it’s terrifying. Then…it ...

Filmmaker Tessa Shepherd helped free a man she believed was wrongly imprisoned for murder. When he kills again, Tessa’s life is upended. She’s reeling with guilt, her reputation destroyed. Worse, Tessa’s mother has unexpectedly passed away, and her sister, Margot, turns on her after tensions from their past escalate. Hounded by a bullying press, Tessa needs an escape. That’s when she learns of a strange inheritance bequeathed by her mother: a derelict and isolated estate known as Fallbrook. It seems like the perfect refuge.

In her small hometown, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar.

A Texas summer. A buried town. And a whisper from the past that won’t stay quiet. Tobi Sloan thought the worst was behind her. Rescued from the hands of kidnappers and trying to rebuild her life in the quiet town of Minera Springs, she's finally finding peace—thanks to the unwavering love of her grandparents, the healing power of a garden, and the steady presence of Riley, the boy who once stole her heart. But when a desperate call from her estranged mother sends Tobi and her best friend on a cross-country road trip, long-buried family secrets begin to surface—some darker than she ...

Dunia Ahmed lives an ordinary life—or she definitely used to. Now she’s the subject of a true crime podcast. She’s been missing for over a year, and no one knows if she’s dead or alive. But her story has listeners obsessed, and people everywhere are sporting merch that demands “Find Dunia!” In the days before her disappearance, Dunia is a successful pharmacist living in New York. The daughter of Pakistani immigrants, she’s coping with a broken engagement and the death of her mother. But then something happens that really shakes up her world: someone tries to murder her.

A Long-Awaited Romantic Interlude Turns Deadly…At long last Alex has returned to Wyndley Farm, her childhood home, with her infant child and the love of her life, undercover operative Jacob Stark. Her happiness is short-lived and abruptly ends as CIA agent Digger Stildove gathers intel that suggests trouble from the other side of the globe. Digger and Jacob leave Virginia for the Middle-East but danger escalates quickly on the homefront as the Secret Service detect terrorist activity near the farm. updated 10.9.2020

Even good men have blood on their hands. Hilrey Higgins, a retired detective with a past soaked in blood, has done everything to bury the monster he once was. Once a killer, now a man chasing redemption, he’s spent years living in the shadows of Sharp County, haunted but forgotten. Until the murders start again. Each crime is a mirror of his own: the same method, the same precision, the same hunger. Someone out there knows what he did…and they’re daring him to come out of hiding. The Sharp County Slasher is a dark Southern psychological thriller about guilt, redemption, and the ...

For 30 years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X - a remote and mysterious place that's sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (a.k.a. "Control") is the team's newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than 200 hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves - and what they expose pushes Control to confront truths about both himself and the agency he's promised to serve.

Women of Valor The second three of the Alexandra Destephano Psychological Medical thrillers in a digital collection from the Queen of New Orleans Medical thrillersVengeance is the name of the game... Toxic New YearWhat began as rural Virginia’s premier New Year celebration turns into a day of horror when the enemies of Alex Destephano's grandfather, Congressman Adam Patrick Lee, bring the war to his Virginia estate killing, maiming and destroying everything in their path. Evil: Finding St. GermaineMichaela McPherson travels from Richmond with police dog Angel to consult with Commander ...

When the charming and wealthy Tucker walks into Reese's bakery shop, it's not long before their whirlwind romance leads to an engagement. It seems all her dreams are about to come true. Until the chilling threats begin. As Reese's big day approaches, she receives a series of anonymous messages demanding that she call off the wedding… or face the consequences. While the threats mount and sinister events unfold, Reese becomes obsessed with the mystery of Tucker's past.

Carl Herbold enjoys being bad. After all, he is terrifyingly good at it. Stimulated by violence, he and his brother, Cecil, had easily graduated from juvenile delinquents to full-blown killers. And Carl, now serving a life sentence in an Arkansas penitentiary, carries out a daring escape with a fellow inmate and is on his way back to where he began—Blewer County, Texas. Ann Corbett had been widowed right before her son was born. Beset by debt and personal tragedy, she faces the toughest challenge of her life—unaware that she is at the center of Carl Herbold's vengeful plan.

Her fiancé battles terrorists… He's one of America’s elite…Marrying him is a risk – suppose he doesn’t come home?Alex, now living in Virginia and working in Washington, DC for the Institute of Medicine, is recalled to the Big Easy to investigate a series of hospital crimes where she reconnects with her ex-husband Robert, the calm, steady surgeon.She realizes she misses him desperately as guilt consumes her…A series of emergency calls, one from the hospital, another from her home, Twist her heart and her…What will she do? She’s being pulled in so many directions… Evil ...