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...

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 ...

Wilbur and Elouise Saxton are forced to move south after losing their fortune following the Civil War. Hot-headed Wilbur was not happy about the adjustment, but his wife is glad to finally return to her home state. At least she was until they arrive at the home her late uncle left her, and find it in much despair. It also comes with a dark secret, something her family hid from her for good reason.

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 ...

After a brutal assault leaves New York's premier wedding planner Samantha Rutherford shattered, she flees to her Southern roots and purchases Magnolia Grove—a decrepit plantation with a haunted history. As she works to restore the grand estate into a wedding venue, Samantha discovers she's not alone in her new home. The spirit of Eliza Whitley Beauregard, who died in childbirth a century and a half ago, seems determined to communicate with her.

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?

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.

A family drama soaked in secrets, wealth, and betrayal. The Vultures: Bloodline Testament is the explosive first entry in Keith B. Brown’s cinematic trilogy exploring the deadly inheritance of a Southern Black dynasty. When a revered family matriarch falls into a mysterious coma, her children are summoned home. But instead of comfort, they bring greed, suspicion, and the baggage of old rivalries. In a house filled with ghosts—both figurative and literal—each sibling plays their part in a dangerous game for control. A manipulative daughter with buried sins A narcissistic brother who ...

French Quarter P.I. Wyatt Thomas deals with murder and illusion at the Louisiana Hospital of the Insane Secrets fester, and danger lurks in the shadowed depths of Louisiana's bayous. Private investigator Wyatt Thomas is summoned to the sleepy town of Pinebridge by notorious mob boss Frankie Castellano. His mission is to find Frankie’s missing half-sister, Bella Donna Castellano, who vanished from the Louisiana Mental Hospital under suspicious circumstances. On his first night in town, Wyatt stumbles upon a gruesome murder, drawing him into a web of corruption and cruelty. Partnering with ...

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.

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.

“One of my ten best reads of the year. Easy five stars.” — Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of None of This is True A twisty and consuming thriller, Perfectly Nice Neighbors asks: When your dream home comes with nightmare neighbors, how far will you go to keep your family...

"Kreinik effortlessly switches among various accents and emotions, keeping listeners riveted as she reveals the novel’s twists and turns." -- Booklist "Kreinik's range is highlighted as she seamlessly shifts among characters' various accents: a Brit's clipped consonants, a charming...

A marriage on the edge. A desire she can’t ignore. A man who will change everything. Emma and Jake thought joining an exclusive swingers’ club would add spark to their quiet suburban life. For Emma, it’s a chance to explore desires she’s long buried. For Jake, it’s an act of love — a way to keep her happy, even if it means stepping outside his comfort zone. But when they meet Alex, the club’s enigmatic and dominant alpha male, everything changes. Emma is captivated by Alex’s raw power and confidence. With every whispered command, he awakens something in her — a submissive ...

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.

Now a major Lifetime movie event—Book Three of the Dollanganger series that began with Flowers in the Attic—the novel of forbidden love that captured the world’s imagination and earned V.C. Andrews a fiercely devoted fanbase. They hide the shocking truth to protect their children. But...

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 ...

A young attorney is defending her client in a racially charged felony case -- but in a town of old money and hidden secrets, her first trial may be her last in this #1 New York Times bestselling legal thriller. Ruby Bozarth, a newcomer to Rosedale, Mississippi, is also fresh to the State Bar --...

Winning pitch by "America's Next Great Author" Proof of Concept Joi Miner now a full-length novel! If walls could talk...whew chile the stories they'd tell... Manda Felix is a nurse who loves her job. But the recent loss of a patient took its toll on her. At her husband’s urging, she begins therapy to try to get herself together. She’s willing to do anything to keep her marriage and regain the love that she had for her job. But, it may be too late. Dr. Reginald Felix, M.D. is a man full of his own power, and because of it, he demands perfection in every aspect of his life. When his wife...