Books like 'Down and Out in Purgatory'

Readers who enjoyed Down and Out in Purgatory by Tim Powers also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.

fantasy  horror  supernatural  dark fantasy  mystery  urban fantasy  action / adventure  paranormal  ghosts  dark 

  • Call of Cthulhu: Horror Roleplaying by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis

    Call of Cthulhu: Horror Roleplaying by Sandy Petersen, Lynn Willis

    Rated: 4.45 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    CALL OF CTHULHU is Chaosium's classic roleplaying game of Lovecraftian horror in which ordinary people are confronted by the terrifying and alien forces of the Cthulhu Mythos. CALL OF CTHULHU uses Chaosium's Basic Roleplaying System, easy to learn and quick to play. This bestseller has won dozens of game-industry awards and is a member of the Academy of Adventure Game Design Hall of Fame...
  • Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

    Empire of the Vampire by Jay Kristoff

    Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    From holy cup comes holy light;The faithful hands sets world aright.And in the Seven Martyrs’ sight,Mere man shall end this endless night.It has been twenty-seven long years since the last sunrise. For nearly three decades, vampires have waged war against humanity; building their eternal empire even as they tear down our own. Now, only a few tiny sparks of light endure in a sea of darkness...
  • Lies Ripped Open by Steve McHugh

    Lies Ripped Open by Steve McHugh

    Rated: 4.41 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Over a hundred years have passed since a group of violent killers went on the rampage, murdering innocent victims for fun. But even back then, sorcerer Nate Garrett, aka Hellequin, knew there was more to it than simple savage pleasure—souls were being stolen.Nate’s discovery of the souls’ use, and of those supporting the group’s plan, made him question everything he believed...
  • Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer

    Only Ashes Remain by Rebecca Schaeffer

    Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    After escaping her kidnappers and destroying the black market where she was held captive, all Nita wants is to find a way to live her life without looking over her shoulder. But with a video of her ability to self-heal all over the dark web, Nita knows she’s still a prime target on the black market.There’s only one way to keep herself safe...
  • Blood is Thicker by Orlando A. Sanchez

    Blood is Thicker by Orlando A. Sanchez

    Rated: 4.36 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    A Broken Pact. An Ancient Enemy. A Bitter Betrayal. What does a vampire fear more than sunlight? The Cazadoras Sangrientas-Blood Hunters. Michiko Nakatomi has led the Dark Council for over a century, maintaining the uneasy truce between humanity and the supernatural. But when an ancient enemy returns the delicate balance is shattered and vampires start dying...
  • I Am Grimalkin by Joseph Delaney

    I Am Grimalkin by Joseph Delaney

    Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars
    · 34 ratings
    From the publisher:"I'm coming for you, and nothing living or dead can stop me."One witch is the most feared, the most ruthless, and the most deadly of all the witches in the county. If she hunts for you, she will find you. If you have crossed her, you don't stand a chance. She is the witch assassin, and her name is Grimalkin.Grimalkin's one alliance is with Tom Ward, the Spook's apprentice...
  • The Spook's Mistake by Joseph Delaney

    The Spook's Mistake by Joseph Delaney

    Rated: 4.23 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    As danger increases in the County, Tom is sent far north by his master to be trained by Bill Arkwright, another Spook. Arkwright lives in a haunted mill on the edge of a treacherous marsh and his training methods prove to be harsh and sometimes cruel. But he has toughened up many previous apprentices and now he must do the same for Tom and prepare him for the gravest dangers of his life...
  • The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction by Neil Gaiman, Marlon James

    The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction by Neil Gaiman, Marlon James

    Rated: 4.49 of 5 stars
    · 14 ratings
    An outstanding array—52 pieces in all—of selected fiction from the multiple-award-winning, #1 New York Times bestselling author Neil Gaiman, curated by his readers around the world, and introduced with a foreword by Booker Prize-winning author Marlon JamesSpanning Gaiman’s career to date, The Neil Gaiman Reader: Selected Fiction is a captivating collection from one of the world’s most beloved...
  • Wander by Orlando A. Sanchez

    Wander by Orlando A. Sanchez

    Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    He’s not the hero you want. He’s the monster you need. When a new strain of the deadly drug, Redrum creates UV resistant vampires, the streets of New York City are flooded with the mindless creatures searching for blood—human blood. The NYTF and Dark Council refuse to deal with menace and contact the Night Wardens expecting results. What they get is a dark mage with nothing to lose...
  • The Spook's Sacrifice by Joseph Delaney

    The Spook's Sacrifice by Joseph Delaney

    Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    As the Spook's apprentice Tom's first duty is to protect the County from the dark. But now Mam needs his help in her homeland of Greece. One of the most dangerous of the old gods, the Ordeen, is about to return there, bringing slaughter and devastation. Meanwhile, the Devil himself is still loose and if he and the Ordeen join forces, a new age of darkness will descend...
  • Immortal Hearts by Ellen Schreiber

    Immortal Hearts by Ellen Schreiber

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    Athena "Stormy" Sterling is coming to Dullsville, and Raven is both excited and panicked in anticipation of Alexander's little sister's visit. Alexander tells Raven that she and his sister have a lot in common, but can the mini-Raven be everything she hopes for? Alexander calls her Stormy for a reason. Stormy's visit stirs up the perfect immortal whirlwind...
  • Death's Shadow by Darren Shan

    Death's Shadow by Darren Shan

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 20 ratings
    The apocalypse came and the world burned. But it wasn't the end, and out of the destruction, new life has emerged. Bec is back to face the Demonata. After centuries of imprisonment, she's more powerful than ever, but the demons no longer stand alone.Something has crawled out of the darkness with her. Lord Loss is no longer humanity's greatest threat..
  • Demon Thief by Darren Shan

    Demon Thief by Darren Shan

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    The second novel in this bonechilling series by Darren Shan, author of the New York Times bestselling Cirque Du Freak series is sure to give you goosebumps. Kernel Fleck has always known he's weird. He sees lights. Strange, multi-colored patches of light, swirling through the air. But it's not until a window opens into a demon world, with horrific consequences, that Kernel discovers his powers...
  • Donn's Hill by Caryn Larrinaga

    Donn's Hill by Caryn Larrinaga

    Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    "Grief can change us... shift the way we look at the world..."Mackenzie Clair needs a fresh start. The death of her father and a broken relationship rendered her old life unlivable. What better place to build a new one than Donn's Hill, the most haunted town in America and her favorite childhood vacation spot?But returning to Donn's Hill awakens more than nostalgia...
  • Slawter by Darren Shan

    Slawter by Darren Shan

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    Lights. Camera. Slawter!Grubbs Grady and his half-brother Bill-E are thrilled to join their uncle Dervish as onset consultants for the newest movie by cult horror producer David A Hayms. Shot in a deserted town renamed Slawter, the demon-themed movie is to be Hayms's masterpiece. But as strange incidents disrupt the set, Grubbs begins to wonder whether more than filming is afoot...
  • Dark Calling by Darren Shan

    Dark Calling by Darren Shan

    Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    The Disciples are being manipulated by beings older than time. Only Kernel Fleck knows that something is wrong. But he is in the grip of a creature who cares nothing for the fate of humanity. Voices are calling to him from the darkness and he's powerless to resist. Kernel has already been to hell and back, now he's about to go further...
  • The White Night by Desmond Doane

    The White Night by Desmond Doane

    Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars
    · 10 ratings
    Yes, you should be afraid of the dark…A mighty demon sits at the right hand of Satan, and he knows paranormal investigator Ford Atticus Ford by name. Mike Long, too, but what the vile creature covets most lies with little Chelsea Hopper.As Ford wrestles with the uncertain nature of his future, a different kind of evil storms into his world, proving that not all demons are inhuman...
  • Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near

    Fairytales for Wilde Girls by Allyse Near

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    A deliciously dark bubblegum-gothic fairytale from a stunning new Australian talent.‘He's gone the same way as those little birds that bothered me with their awful songs! And you will too, you and your horrible heart-music, because you won't stay out of my woods!'There's a dead girl in a birdcage in the woods. That's not unusual. Isola Wilde sees a lot of things other people don't...
  • Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things by Martina McAtee

    Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things by Martina McAtee

    Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Three reapers. Two worlds. One prophecy.Seventeen-year-old Ember Lonergan has made an art of isolating herself. She prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in old cemeteries and her nights hiding from her alcoholic father at the funeral home where she works. When her own father dies, Ember learns her whole life is a lie...
  • Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

    Tales of the Peculiar by Ransom Riggs

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 38 ratings
    Before Miss Peregrine gave them a home, the story of peculiars was written in the Tales. Wealthy cannibals who dine on the discarded limbs of peculiars. A fork-tongued princess. The origins of the first ymbryne...
  • Weaveworld by Clive Barker

    Weaveworld by Clive Barker

    Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars
    · 43 ratings
    Clive Barker has made his mark on modern fiction by exposing all that is surreal and magical in the ordinary world --- and exploring the profound and overwhelming terror that results...
  • The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey

    The Curse of the Wendigo by Rick Yancey

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 31 ratings
    While attempting to disprove that Homo vampiris, the vampire, could exist, Dr. Warthrop is asked by his former fiancé to rescue her husband from the Wendigo, a creature that starves even as it gorges itself on human flesh, and which has snatched him in the Canadian wilderness...
  • The Haunted by Jessica Verday

    The Haunted by Jessica Verday

    Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    An impossible truth. An impossible love. After a summer spent reclaiming her sanity and trying to forget the boy she fell in love with--the boy who must not exist, cannot exist, because she knows that he is dead--Abbey returns to Sleepy Hollow, ready to leave the ghosts of her past behind...
  • Kill City Blues by Richard Kadrey

    Kill City Blues by Richard Kadrey

    Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    James Stark, aka Sandman Slim, has managed to get out of Hell, renounce his title as the new Lucifer, and settle back into life in LA. But he's not out of trouble yet. Somewhere along the way he misplaced the Qomrama Om Ya, a weapon from the banished older gods who are also searching for their lost power...
  • Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance

    Curse the Dawn by Karen Chance

    Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    Cassandra Palmer may be the all-powerful Pythia now, but that doesn’t mean people have stopped trying to kill her. Most of the supernatural power players don’t want the independent minded Cassie as chief clairvoyant—and they’ll stop at nothing to see her six feet under...
  • The Hungry Dreaming by Craig Schaefer

    The Hungry Dreaming by Craig Schaefer

    Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    The discovery of lost letters between Alexander Hamilton and George Washington, describing historical events that never happened, sends shockwaves through the academic world. Meanwhile, a citywide surveillance program is coming to New York on a groundswell of dirty money and dead bodies. To hard-nosed Brooklyn reporter Nell Bluth, the two mysteries couldn't be more different...
  • The Black by D.J. MacHale

    The Black by D.J. MacHale

    Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars
    · 23 ratings
    At the end of The Light, Book One of the Morpheus Road trilogy, Marshall learned the truth about what happened to his best friend Cooper. Now in Book Two, the POV switches to Cooper and we get to see his side of the mystery. What does his story have to do with Marshall and the journey along the Morpheus Road? It's time to learn more . .
  • Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

    Embrace the Night by Karen Chance

    Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    Recently named the world’s chief clairvoyant, Cassandra Palmer still has a thorn in her side. As long as Cassie and a certain master vampire - the sizzling-hot Mircea - are magically bound to each other, her life will never be her own …The spell that binds them can only be broken with an incantation found in the Codex Merlini, an ancient grimoire...
  • Oblivion by Kelly Creagh

    Oblivion by Kelly Creagh

    Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars
    · 26 ratings
    This electrifying conclusion to the Nevermore trilogy takes one last trip to the dream world of Edgar Allan Poe to reveal the intertwined fates of Isobel and Varen.The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends, and where the other begins? —Edgar Allan PoeThe fine line between life and death blurred long ago for Isobel Lanley...
  • Hex and the City by Simon R. Green

    Hex and the City by Simon R. Green

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 37 ratings
    Lady Luck has hired John Taylor to investigate the origins of the Nightside--the dark heart of London where it's always 3 A.M. But when he starts to uncover facts about his long-vanished mother, the Nightside--and all of existence-- could be snuffed out...
  • Hell to Pay by Simon R. Green

    Hell to Pay by Simon R. Green

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 33 ratings
    In the wake of the war that left the Nightside leaderless, Jeremiah Griffin-one of the last of the immortal human families-plans to fill the power vacuum. But his granddaughter has disappeared, and he wants John Taylor to use his special abilities to find her. Except someone-or something-is blocking Taylor's abilities...
  • Slither by Joseph Delaney

    Slither by Joseph Delaney

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 19 ratings
    "My name is Slither, and before my tale is finished you'll find out why."The dark is full of terrifying creatures. And Tom Ward—the seventh son of a seventh son, and the Spook's last apprentice—hasn't seen all of them. Far from the county, one named Slither has lived for hundreds of years, hunting blood.But a dying father binds the monster to a bargain...
  • Tales From the Hinterland by Melissa Albert

    Tales From the Hinterland by Melissa Albert

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    A gorgeously illustrated collection of twelve fairy tales by the author of The Hazel Wood and The Night Country!Journey into the Hinterland, a brutal and beautiful world where a young woman spends a night with Death, brides are wed to a mysterious house in the trees, and an enchantress is killed twice―and still lives...
  • Demon Road by Derek Landy

    Demon Road by Derek Landy

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 18 ratings
    The mind-blowing new supernatural thriller from bestselling author DEREK LANDY, creator of international sensation Skulduggery Pleasant.Full of Landy’s trademark wit, action and razor-sharp dialogue, DEMON ROAD kicks off with a shocking opener and never lets up the pace in an epic road-trip across the supernatural landscape of America...
  • Last Call by Tim Powers

    Last Call by Tim Powers

    Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    Twenty years ago Scott Crane abandoned his career as a professional poker player and went into hiding, after a weird high-stakes game played with Tarot cards. But now the cards - and the supernatural powers behind them - have found him again.Crane's father killed gangster Bugsy Siegel in 1948 to become the Fisher King, and to keep that power he is determined to kill his son...
  • The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron

    The Imago Sequence and Other Stories by Laird Barron

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    The title story of this collection - a devilishly ironic riff on H. P. Lovecraft's "Pickman's model" - was nominated for a World Fantasy Award, while "Proboscis" was nominated for an International Horror Guild award and reprinted in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 19. In addition to his previously published work, this collection contains an original story...
  • Everville by Clive Barker

    Everville by Clive Barker

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 36 ratings
    On the borderland between this world and the world of Quiddity, the sea of our dreams, sits Everville. For years, it has lived in ignorance of the gleaming shore on which it lies. But its ignorance is not bliss...
  • Dark Awakened by H.D. Smith

    Dark Awakened by H.D. Smith

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 8 ratings
    Last spring Claire’s seemingly normal—if not totally screwed up—life was tossed on its head. For five years she’d been one of the damned—a human that knows the truth about the otherworldly among us. She’d worked for The Boss—the Demon King himself—as his administrative assistant, handling everything from early retirements, to Maintenance’s incessant requests for dental.No one gets dental...
  • Tears of the Furies by Christopher Golden, Thomas E. Sniegoski

    Tears of the Furies by Christopher Golden, Thomas E. Sniegoski

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Behind the facade of a stately Boston brownstone, humanity's last defenses are being marshaled. Called to action by the enigmatic, brilliant man known only as Mr. Doyle, they hail from all planes of existence and are born from an array of supernatural and otherworldly backgrounds and bloodlines..
  • The Elder Ice by David Hambling

    The Elder Ice by David Hambling

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    Lovecraftian weird fiction set in 1920s London.In this atmospheric novella, ex-boxer Harry Stubbs is on the trail of a mysterious legacy. A polar explorer has died, leaving huge debts and hints of a priceless find. His informants seem to be talking in riddles, and Harry soon finds he isn't the only one on the trail -- and what he's looking for is as lethal as it is valuable...
  • Watcher of the Dark by Joseph Nassise

    Watcher of the Dark by Joseph Nassise

    Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars
    · 6 ratings
    A spine-tingling new Jeremiah Hunt dark fantasy thriller.New Orleans was nearly the death of Jeremiah Hunt, between a too-close brush with the FBI and a chilling, soul-searing journey through the realm of the dead that culminated with a do-or-die confrontation with Death himself...
  • High Moor by Graeme Reynolds

    High Moor by Graeme Reynolds

    Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars
    · 17 ratings
    When John Simpson hears of a bizarre animal attack in his old home town of High Moor, it stirs memories of a long forgotten horror. John knows the truth. A werewolf stalks the town once more, and on the night of the next full moon, the killing will begin again. He should know. He survived a werewolf attack in 1986, during the worst year of his life...
  • Possession by Kat Richardson

    Possession by Kat Richardson

    Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars
    · 24 ratings
    When a comatose woman suddenly wakes up and starts painting scenes she’s never witnessed, with a skill she’s never had, medical science has no explanation. As more bizarre phenomena manifest, even her doctors start to wonder if the woman may be possessed...
  • Phantom by Christopher Pike

    Phantom by Christopher Pike

    Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars
    · 16 ratings
    After five thousand years she was again mortal. The dead alchemist's experiment has worked. Alisa is no longer a vampire, but a frail and confused human. Not only that -- she is pregnant. The baby grows in her at supernatural speed. As the stranger watches. The stranger from the past. But what child will Alisa's seed produce? A demon or an angel? Alisa does not know. But the stranger does...
  • Mercenary Magic by Ella Summers

    Mercenary Magic by Ella Summers

    Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars
    · 30 ratings
    The alternate cover edition for this book can be found here.Long ago, the Dragon Born were hailed as the most powerful mages in the world. Today, they are condemned as abominations and have been hunted to near extinction. Sera Dering has spent her entire life hiding her forbidden magic from the supernatural council who would kill her for the crime of being born...
  • Hungry Ghosts by Stephen Blackmoore

    Hungry Ghosts by Stephen Blackmoore

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 13 ratings
    Necromancer Eric Carter's problems keep getting bigger. Bad enough he's the unwilling husband to the patron saint of death, Santa Muerte, but now her ex, the Aztec King of the dead, Mictlantecuhtli, has come back -- and it turns out that Carter and he are swapping places. As Mictlantecuhtli breaks loose of his prison of jade, Carter is slowly turning to stone...
  • The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher

    The Brotherhood of the Wheel by R.S. Belcher

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    R.S. Belcher launches a gritty new urban fantasy series about the mysterious society of truckers known only as, The Brotherhood of The Wheel.In 1119 A.D., a group of nine crusaders became known as the Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon--a militant monastic order charged with protecting pilgrims and caravans traveling on the roads to and from the Holy Land...
  • That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley

    That Which Should Not Be by Brett J. Talley

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 12 ratings
    Miskatonic University has a long-whispered reputation of being strongly connected to all things occult and supernatural. From the faculty to the students, the fascination with other-worldly legends and objects runs rampant. So, when Carter Weston’s professor Dr...
  • Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

    Claimed by Shadow by Karen Chance

    Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars
    · 40 ratings
    Clairvoyant Cassie Palmer has inherited new magical powers-including the ability to travel through time. But it's a whole lot of responsibility she'd rather not have. Now she's the most popular girl in town, as an assortment of vamps, fey, and mages try to convince, force, or seduce her—and her magic—over to their side...
  • Cabal by Clive Barker

    Cabal by Clive Barker

    Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars
    · 25 ratings
    For more than two decades, Clive Barker has twisted the worlds of horrific and surrealistic fiction into a terrifying, transcendent genre all his own. With skillful prose, he enthralls even as he horrifies; with uncanny insight, he disturbs as profoundly as he reveals...
Down and Out in Purgatory by Tim Powers
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