Books like 'The Open Curtain'
Readers who enjoyed The Open Curtain by Brian Evenson also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror mystery psychological supernatural crime literary-fiction religion dark noir
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The Complete Stories and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.39 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsThis single volume brings together all of Poe's stories and poems, and illuminates the diverse and multifaceted genius of one of the greatest and most influential figures in American literary history... -
![Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King]()
Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption by Stephen King
Rated: 4.48 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsAndy Dufresne, a banker, was convicted of killing his wife and her lover and sent to Shawshank Prison. He maintains his innocence over the decades he spends at Shawshank during which time he forms a friendship with "Red", a fellow inmate.Source: stephenking...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction suspense 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book classics -
![The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Edgar Allan Poe Audio Collection by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.46 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsUniversally acclaimed as the maestro of horror and the morbid, Edgar Allan Poe's dark gift has for more than a century and a half set the standard for the genre.Now, Caedmon Audio presents a classic collection of Poe's most terrifying tales performed by two of the most brilliant interpreters of his work ever to be recorded: Vincent Price and Basil Rathbone... -
![The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Raven by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 65 ratingsIn Gustave Doré, one of the most prolific and successful book illustrators of the late 19h century, Edgar Allan Poe's renowned poem The Raven found perhaps its most perfect artistic interpreter. Doré's dreamlike, otherworldly style, tinged with melancholy, seems ideally matched to the bleak despair of Poe's celebrated work, among the most popular American poems ever written... -
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![The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas]()
The Room in the Attic by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsA child who does not know her name…In 1903 fishermen find a wrecked boat containing a woman, who has been badly beaten, and a young girl. An ambulance is sent for, and the two survivors are taken to All Hallows, the imposing asylum, hidden deep on Dartmoor... -
![The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 58 ratingsJust one line from the short story says it all: "Presently I heard a slight groan, and I knew it was a groan of mortal terror .. the low stifled sound that arises from the bottom of the soul." A man confronts himself and an unknown listener with his desire to murder an old man... -
![The Tell-Tale Heart, Plus 3 other Tales of Mystery, Suspense by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Tell-Tale Heart, Plus 3 other Tales of Mystery, Suspense by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 71 ratingsThe Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan PoeAdventures of the Noble Bachelorby Sir Arthur Conan DoyleThe Kitchen Table by Alan KingSight Unseen by Dorothy DavisIn the first volume of Mystery Theatre we present the "Tell Tale-Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. It is a frightening story of a troubled man's conscience driving him insane... -
![The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Thing on the Doorstep and Other Weird Stories by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsA definitive edition of stories by the master of supernatural fictionHoward Phillips Lovecraft's unique contribution to American literature was a melding of traditional supernaturalism (derived chiefly from Edgar Allan Poe) with the genre of science fiction that emerged in the early 1920s... -
![The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIncantations of black magic unearthed unspeakable horrors in Providence, Rhode Island... -
![The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Fall of the House of Usher and Other Tales by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 57 ratingsThe eerie tales of Edgar Allan Poe, from the 1830s and 40s, remain among the most brilliant and influential works in American literature... -
![More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz]()
More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 25 ratingsAll those who enjoyed shuddering their way through Alvin Schwartz's first volume of Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark will find a satisfyingly spooky sequel in this new collection of the macabre, the funny, and the fantastic... -
![The Masque of the Red Death - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Masque of the Red Death - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThe story follows Prince Prospero's attempts to avoid a dangerous plague known as the Red Death by hiding in his large converted abbey home. He and many other wealthy nobles, hold a masquerade ball using seven rooms in the abbey, each decorated with a different color. The last one is velvet black... -
![The Ghost Tree by Barbara Erskine]()
The Ghost Tree by Barbara Erskine
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBefore you follow the path into your family’s history, beware of the secrets you may find…The new novel from the Sunday Times bestselling author.Ruth has returned to Edinburgh after many years of exile, left rootless by the end of her marriage, career and now the death of her father. She is now faced with the daunting task of clearing his house... -
![The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell]()
The Poison Thread by Laura Purcell
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsA thrilling Victorian gothic horror tale about a young seamstress who claims her needle and thread have the power to killDorothea Truelove is young, wealthy, and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor, and awaiting trial for murder... -
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![The Broken Girls by Simone St. James]()
The Broken Girls by Simone St. James
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 37 ratingsA breakout suspense novel from the award-winning author of The Haunting of Maddy Clare.Vermont, 1950. There's a place for the girls whom no one wants--the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It's called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it's located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted... -
![City of Ghosts by J.H. Moncrieff]()
City of Ghosts by J.H. Moncrieff
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWinner of the 2018 Kindle Book Review Award for best Horror/Suspense.On the day the villagers were forced to flee Hensu, not everyone got out alive. Jackson Stone is touring the abandoned Chinese city when he slips away from the group to spend the night, determined to publish an account of his ghostly experiences there... -
![The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle]()
The Hound of the Baskervilles, with "the Adventure of the Speckled Band" by Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe Hound of the Baskervilles (1901–02) is Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Sherlock Holmes adventure. At the end of the yew tree path of his ancestral home, Sir Charles Baskerville is found dead. Close by are the footprints of a gigantic hound. Called to investigate, Holmes seems to face a supernatural foe... -
![The Between by Tananarive Due]()
The Between by Tananarive Due
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWhen Hilton was just a boy, his aged grandmother saved him from drowning by pulling him out of a treacherous ocean current, sacrificing her life for his. Now, thirty years later, Hilton begins to think his borrowed time is running out...Categorized as:
literary-fiction paranormal suspense 20th-century adult afrofuturism audiobook black-mc -
![Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edogawa Rampo]()
Japanese Tales of Mystery & Imagination by Edogawa Rampo
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsCollected in this chilling volume are some of the famous Japanese mystery writer Edogawa Rampo's best stories—bizarre and blood-curdling expeditions into the fantastic, the perverse, and the strange, in a marvelous homage to Rampo's literary 'mentor', Edgar Allan Poe... -
![The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James]()
The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA true crime blogger gets more than she bargained for while interviewing the woman acquitted of two cold case slayings in this chilling new novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Sun Down Motel. In 1977, Claire Lake, Oregon, was shaken by the Lady Killer Murders: Two men, seemingly randomly, were murdered with the same gun, with strange notes left behind... -
![The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Call of Cthulhu by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsOne of the feature stories of the Cthulhu Mythos, H.P. Lovecraft's 'the Call of Cthulhu' is a harrowing tale of the weakness of the human mind when confronted by powers and intelligences from beyond our world...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction paranormal suspense 20th-century action-adventure adult aliens -
![The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman]()
The Wine-Dark Sea by Robert Aickman
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 23 ratingsPeter Straub called Robert Aickman 'this century's most profound writer of what we call horror stories'. Aickman's 'strange stories' (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia. His characters are ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds... -
![The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson]()
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 28 ratings&&LDIV&&R&&LDIV&&R&&LI&&RThe Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr... -
![Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb]()
Daughters of the Lake by Wendy Webb
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsAfter the end of her marriage, Kate Granger has retreated to her parents’ home on Lake Superior to pull herself together—only to discover the body of a murdered woman washed into the shallows. Tucked in the folds of the woman’s curiously vintage gown is an infant, as cold and at peace as its mother. No one can identify the woman. Except for Kate. She’s seen her before... -
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![The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Black Cat by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsOne of Edgar Allan Poe's most memorable stories.The tale centers on two matters, a black cat and the deterioration of a man. The man is one who enjoyed family life with his wife and numerous pets, but then he changed radically for the worse. The story is often compared to "The Tell-Tale Heart" because of the profound psychological elements these two works share... -
![The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft]()
The Rats in the Walls by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratings"The Rats in the Walls" is a short story by H.P. Lovecraft. Written in August–September 1923, it was first published in Weird Tales, March 1924.The story is narrated by the scion of the Delapore family, who has moved from Massachusetts to his ancestral estate in England, known as Exham Priory. On several occasions, the protagonist and his cats hear the sounds of rats scurrying behind the walls... -
![The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor]()
The Burning Girls by C.J. Tudor
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 39 ratingsAn unconventional vicar moves to a remote corner of the English countryside, only to discover a community haunted by death and disappearances both past and present--and intent on keeping its dark secrets--in this explosive, unsettling thriller from acclaimed author C. J. Tudor.Welcome to Chapel Croft. Five hundred years ago, eight protestant martyrs were burned at the stake here... -
![Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman, Reece Shearsmith]()
Cold Hand in Mine by Robert Aickman, Reece Shearsmith
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsCold Hand in Mine stands as one of Aickman's best collections and contains eight stories that show off his powers as a 'strange story' writer to the full. The listener is introduced to a variety of characters, from a man who spends the night in a Hospice to a German aristocrat and a woman who sees an image of her own soul... -
![Dark Voyage by Helen Susan Swift]()
Dark Voyage by Helen Susan Swift
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn alternate cover edition can be found here.It’s 1914, and fear and paranoia rule the high seas.Iain Cosgrove is newly married to Jennifer Manson, daughter of a wealthy Scottish merchant. But Iain must soon leave for a research trip aboard the Lady Balgay, last of Dundee’s once-grand sealing fleet...Categorized as:
literary-fiction paranormal spirituality suspense action-adventure adult book female-author -
![The Devil's Prayer by Luke Gracias]()
The Devil's Prayer by Luke Gracias
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA nun commits suicide in front of thousands in Spain. In Australia, Siobhan Russo recognises that nun as her mother, Denise Russo, who disappeared six years ago. In search of answers, Siobhan travels to the isolated convent where her mother once lived... -
![Onyx Webb: Book One by Richard Fenton, Andrea Waltz]()
Onyx Webb: Book One by Richard Fenton, Andrea Waltz
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWho can she trust? What is the truth? Every decision has consequences. What you thought you knew about ghosts is wrong. Sometimes they can walk among the living. In Onyx Webb, the silk of time weaved between lives is generations apart. Follow a billionaire playboy who’s hit rock bottom in 2010, a girl off to prom in 1979, and Onyx Webb in 1906 on her sixth birthday... -
![Playing Saint by Zachary Bartels]()
Playing Saint by Zachary Bartels
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRising mega-pastor Parker Saint was wrapped up in his ratings and his book deal. But that was before the cops and the serial killer, the Vatican operatives, and the centuries-old plot to conceal an ancient relic. Now he's just trying to stay alive.Parker Saint is an up-and-coming superstar pastor on the verge of achieving everything he's wanted--including a national TV program and major book deal... -
![The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick]()
The Three Stigmata of Palmer Eldritch by Philip K. Dick
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIn the overcrowded world and cramped space colonies of the late 21st century, tedium can be endured through the drug Can-D, which enables users to inhabit a shared illusory world. When industrialist Palmer Eldritch returns from an interstellar trip, he brings with him a new drug, Chew-Z...Categorized as:
dark literary-fiction paranormal religion spirituality 20th-century action-adventure adult -
![The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke]()
The Lighthouse Witches by C.J. Cooke
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsTwo sisters go missing on a remote Scottish island. Twenty years later, one is found--but she's still the same age as when she disappeared. The secrets of witches have reached across the centuries in this chilling Gothic thriller from the author of the acclaimed The Nesting... -
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![The House on Foster Hill by Jaime Jo Wright]()
The House on Foster Hill by Jaime Jo Wright
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsOutstanding Debut Novel from an Author to Watch Kaine Prescott is no stranger to death. When her husband died two years ago, her pleas for further investigation into his suspicious death fell on deaf ears. In desperate need of a fresh start, Kaine purchases an old house sight unseen in her grandfather's Wisconsin hometown... -
![The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman]()
The Suicide Motor Club by Christopher Buehlman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratings“Rising horror star”* Christopher Buehlman, author of The Lesser Dead, returns with a chilling and thrilling tale of dark evil lurking on the lonely, open road... Bram Stoker, quoting the ballad “Lenore,” said, “The dead travel fast.” Those words have never rung more true.. -
![Rovers by Richard Lange]()
Rovers by Richard Lange
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsTwo immortal brothers crisscross the American Southwest to elude a murderous biker gang and protect a young woman in this “utter triumph and delight” from award-winning author Richard Lange (Jonathan Ames, author of A Man Named Doll ). Summer, 1976. Jesse and his brother, Edgar, are on the road in search of victims... -
![Night After Night by Phil Rickman]()
Night After Night by Phil Rickman
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA spooky supernatural thriller by the author of the Merrily Watkins seriesLiam Defford doesn't believe in ghosts. As the head of a production company, however, he does believe in high-impact TV. On the lookout for his next idea, he hires journalist Grayle Underhill to research the history of Knap Hall—a Tudor farmhouse turned luxury hotel, abandoned by its owners at the height of its success... -
![An Old Friend of the Family by Fred Saberhagen]()
An Old Friend of the Family by Fred Saberhagen
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe Southerland family left the old world to start anew in America, but little did they know that a blood-feud, older than history itself, would follow them through the generations to come.Kate Southerland, the first born of the latest generation of Southerlands, has been murdered, but she is not dead. Her little brother, Johnny, has also vanished, a severed, bloody finger the only clue... -
![1922 by Stephen King]()
1922 by Stephen King
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 25 ratings1922 is a novella by Stephen King, published in his collection Full Dark, No Stars (2010).The story opens with the confession of Wilfred James to the murder of his wife, Arlette, following their move to Hemingford, Nebraska onto land willed to Arlette by her father... -
![The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson]()
The Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsThe narrator of The Gargoyle is a very contemporary cynic, physically beautiful and sexually adept, who dwells in the moral vacuum that is modern life. As the book opens, he is driving along a dark road when he is distracted by what seems to be a flight of arrows. He crashes into a ravine and suffers horrible burns over much of his body... -
![Two Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King, James Woods]()
Two Past Midnight: Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King, James Woods
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsThe second of a four-part audio series from Stephen King's bestselling book, Four Past Midnight. Recently divorced writer Mort Rainey is alone at Tashmore Lake--that is, until a figure named John Shooter arrives, pointing an accusing finger... -
![The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson]()
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Tales of Terror by Robert Louis Stevenson
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 65 ratings"The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde" Stevenson's famous exploration of humanity's basest capacity for evil, has become synonymous with the idea of a split personality. More than a moral tale, this dark psychological fantasy is also a product of its time, drawing on contemporary theories of class, evolution, criminality, and secret lives...Categorized as:
crime literary-fiction paranormal suspense action-adventure anthologies audiobook british-isles -
![Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones]()
Written in the Blood by Stephen Lloyd Jones
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratings"Chilling . . . A neo-gothic treat; original, richly imagined, and powerfully told." --The Guardian (UK) for The String Diaries See the girl. Leah Wilde is twenty-four, a runaway on a black motorbike, hunting for answers while changing her identity with each new Central European town... -
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![Instruments of Night by Thomas H. Cook]()
Instruments of Night by Thomas H. Cook
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsThomas Cook is one of today's most acclaimed writers of psychological thrillers, penning hypnotic tales of forbidden love and devastating secrets. Now he has written an unforgettable novel that weaves one man's tortured life with a deadly mystery that spans five decades....Riverwood is an artists' community in the Hudson River valley, a serene place where writers can perfect their craft... -
![More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon]()
More Than Human by Theodore Sturgeon
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsThere's Lone, the simpleton who can hear other people's thoughts and make a man blow his brains out just by looking at him. There's Janie, who moves things without touching them, and there are the teleporting twins, who can travel ten feet or ten miles... -
![A Study In Red: The Secret Journal Of Jack The Ripper by Brian L. Porter]()
A Study In Red: The Secret Journal Of Jack The Ripper by Brian L. Porter
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA Study in Red - The Secret Journal of Jack the Ripper by Brian L Porter tells the story of Robert Cavendish, a modern day psychiatrist who is bequeathed a strange set of papers which purport to be the journal of the long-dead infamous Whitechapel Murderer whose crimes gripped the hearts and minds and instilled terror on the streets of Victorian London... -
![The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson]()
The Christmas Guest by Peter Swanson
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsNew York Times bestselling author Peter Swanson pens a spectacularly spine-chilling novella in which an American art student in London is invited to join a classmate for the holidays at Starvewood Hall, her family's Cotswold manor house. But behind the holly and pine boughs, secrets are about to unravel, revealing this seemingly charming English village's grim history... -
![The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig]()
The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere... -
![Escape from Asylum by Madeleine Roux]()
Escape from Asylum by Madeleine Roux
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe nightmare is just beginning.Ricky Desmond has been through this all before. If he could just get through to his mother, he could convince her that he doesn’t belong at Brookline. From the man who thinks he can fly to the woman who killed her husband, the other patients are nothing like him; all he did was lose his temper just a little bit, just the once...
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