Books like 'When the Stars Go Dark'
Readers who enjoyed When the Stars Go Dark by Paula McLain also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical mystery psychological horror thriller historical-fiction suspense crime law-enforcement literary-fiction
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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 drama historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense thriller 20th-century -
![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...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense action-adventure -
![The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult]()
The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsSome stories live forever . . .Sage Singer is a baker. She works through the night, preparing the day’s breads and pastries, trying to escape a reality of loneliness, bad memories, and the shadow of her mother’s death. When Josef Weber, an elderly man in Sage’s grief support group, begins stopping by the bakery, they strike up an unlikely friendship... -
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![And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie]()
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.27 of 5 stars · 86 ratingsFirst, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction realistic suspense -
![And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie]()
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 87 ratingsFirst, there were ten—a curious assortment of strangers summoned as weekend guests to a little private island off the coast of Devon. Their host, an eccentric millionaire unknown to all of them, is nowhere to be found. All that the guests have in common is a wicked past they're unwilling to reveal—and a secret that will seal their fate. For each has been marked for murder...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction realistic suspense -
![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... -
![None Left to Tell by Noelle W. Ihli]()
None Left to Tell by Noelle W. Ihli
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThree women, connected by one of the most brutal mass slayings in US history.Lucy is sick of turning the other cheek. Ten years ago, an anti-Mormon mob drove her family and friends from their homes in Illinois. But now, the tables have turned. Rumor has it, some of those same men are traveling through Utah on their way to California. And this time, Lucy won’t run... -
![The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis]()
The Murderess by Alexandros Papadiamantis
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Murderess is a bone-chilling tale of crime and punishment with the dark beauty of a backwoods ballad. Set on the dirt-poor Aegean island of Skiathos, it is the story of Hadoula, an old woman living on the margins of society and at the outer limits of respectability. Hadoula knows about herbs and their hidden properties, and women come to her when they need help...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction literary-fiction tragedy 20th-century adult audiobook -
![The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Pit and the Pendulum - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 48 ratingsGet set for true terror in one of Edgar Allan Poe's most famous short stories.We enter the mind of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. The dank prison room is without light and he begins to feel his way around the walls...Categorized as:
crime dark historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense anthologies audiobook classics -
![Bryant & May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler]()
Bryant & May and the Burning Man by Christopher Fowler
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsNo case is too curious for Arthur Bryant and John May, London’s most ingenious detectives. But with their beloved city engulfed in turmoil, they’ll have to work fast to hold a sinister killer’s feet to the fire. In the week before Guy Fawkes Night, London’s peaceful streets break out in sudden unrest...Categorized as:
crime law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
![The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell]()
The Caretakers by Eliza Maxwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the isolated estate she’s found the perfect getaway. But there’s no escaping the past in this chilling novel from the bestselling author of The Unremembered Girl. 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... -
![Qb VII by Leon Uris]()
Qb VII by Leon Uris
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn Queen’s Bench Courtroom Number Seven, famous author Abraham Cady stands trial. In his book The Holocaust—born of the terrible revelation that the Jadwiga Concentration Camp was the site of his family’s extermination—Cady shook the consciousness of the human race. He also named eminent surgeon Sir Adam Kelno as one of Jadwiga’s most sadistic inmate/doctors...Categorized as:
crime drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century -
![The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Elaine Hedges]()
The Yellow Wall-Paper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Elaine Hedges
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 67 ratingsA woman and her husband rent a summer house, but what should be a restful getaway turns into a suffocating psychological battle. This chilling account of postpartum depression and a husband's controlling behavior in the guise of treatment will leave you breathless...Categorized as:
dark drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction realistic suspense thriller -
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![The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker]()
The Cherry Robbers by Sarai Walker
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsSarai Walker has done it again. With The Cherry Robbers she upends the Gothic ghost story with a fiery feminist zeal. --Maria SempleThe highly anticipated second novel from Sarai Walker, following her "slyly subversive" (EW) cult-hit Dietland--a feminist gothic about the lone survivor of a cursed family of sisters, whose time may finally be up... -
![Sherlock Holmes 35: Der Hund der Baskervilles by Marc Gruppe, Arthur Conan Doyle]()
Sherlock Holmes 35: Der Hund der Baskervilles by Marc Gruppe, Arthur Conan Doyle
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 11 ratingsAus einem alten Dokument geht hervor, dass die Familie Baskerville, deren Stammsitz in Dartmoor liegt, verflucht ist und von einem dämonischen Hund verfolgt wird... -
![The Dollhouse by Sara Ennis]()
The Dollhouse by Sara Ennis
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAlfred needs Dolls. Blonde, blue-eyed human dolls that will help him rewrite his past and change his future.When Peter Baden's daughter Olivia was abducted nearly a year ago, he left his career as a respected journalist to find her... -
![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...Categorized as:
crime drama family female-mc historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction adult -
![In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, Paula Rabinowitz]()
In a Lonely Place by Dorothy B. Hughes, Paula Rabinowitz
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsPostwar Los Angeles is a lonely place where the American Dream is showing its seamy underside—and a stranger is preying on young women. The suggestively named Dix Steele, a cynical vet with a chip on his shoulder about the opposite sex, is the LAPD's top suspect...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense thriller -
![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... -
![Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood]()
Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsIn Alias Grace, bestselling author Margaret Atwood has written her most captivating, disturbing, and ultimately satisfying work since The Handmaid's Tale. She takes us back in time and into the life of one of the most enigmatic and notorious women of the nineteenth century...Categorized as:
crime drama female-mc historical-fiction literary-fiction suspense true-crime thriller -
![The Cask of Amontillado - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe]()
The Cask of Amontillado - an Edgar Allan Poe Short Story by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 53 ratings"The Cask of Amontillado" (sometimes spelled "The Casque ..") is a short story written by Edgar Allan Poe and first published in the November 1846 issue of "Godey's Lady's Book." It is set in a nameless Italian city in an unspecified year (possibly during the eighteenth century) and concerns the revenge taken by the narrator on a friend who he claims has insulted him... -
![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... -
![The Beast Within by Émile Zola]()
The Beast Within by Émile Zola
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsHis haunting, impressionistic study of a man's slow corruption by jealousy, Emile Zola's The Beast Within (La Bete Humaine) is translated from the French with an introduction and notes by Roger Whitehouse in Penguin Classics.Roubaud is consumed by a jealous rage when he discovers a sordid secret about his young wife's past... -
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![Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald]()
Cape Fear by John D. MacDonald
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsHow far would you go to save your family? In John D. MacDonald's iconic masterwork of suspense, the inspiration for not one but two Hollywood hits, a mild-mannered family is tormented by an obsessed criminal--and with the authorities powerless to protect them, they must take the law into their own hands... -
![The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen]()
The Bone Garden by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsPresent day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil–human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time. . .Categorized as:
crime drama female-mc historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense whodunit -
![The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin]()
The Boys from Brazil by Ira Levin
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsAlive and hiding in South America, the fiendish Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele gathers a group of former colleagues for a horrifying project—the creation of the Fourth Reich. Barry Kohler, a young investigative journalist, gets wind of the project and informs famed Nazi hunter Ezra Lieberman, but before he can relay the evidence, Kohler is killed...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense thriller -
![Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind]()
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer by Patrick Süskind
Rated: 4.01 of 5 stars · 46 ratingsAn acclaimed bestseller and international sensation, Patrick Suskind's classic novel provokes a terrifying examination of what happens when one man's indulgence in his greatest passion—his sense of smell—leads to murder.In the slums of eighteenth-century France, the infant Jean-Baptiste Grenouille is born with one sublime gift—an absolute sense of smell... -
![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 Alienist by Caleb Carr]()
The Alienist by Caleb Carr
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 41 ratingsWhen The Alienist was first published in 1994, it was a major phenomenon, spending six months on the New York Times bestseller list, receiving critical acclaim, and selling millions of copies. This modern classic continues to be a touchstone of historical suspense fiction for readers everywhere.The year is 1896. The city is New York...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction police-procedural suspense -
![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... -
![The Bad Seed (P.S.) by William March]()
The Bad Seed (P.S.) by William March
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsNow reissued – William March's 1954 classic thriller that's as chilling, intelligent and timely as ever before. This paperback reissue includes a new P.S. section with author interviews, insights, features, suggested reading and more.What happens to ordinary families into whose midst a child serial killer is born? This is the question at the center of William March's classic thriller... -
![None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney]()
None Shall Sleep by Ellie Marney
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsA psychological thriller about two teenagers teaming up with the FBI to track down juvenile serial killers.In 1982, two teenagers—serial killer survivor Emma Lewis and US Marshal candidate Travis Bell—are recruited by the FBI to interview convicted juvenile killers and provide insight and advice on cold cases... -
![The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier]()
The Scapegoat by Daphne du Maurier
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsBy chance, John and Jean--one English, the other French--meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance to each other is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, Jean has stolen his identity and disappeared... -
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![Litani by Jess Lourey]()
Litani by Jess Lourey
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe Amazon Charts bestselling author of Unspeakable Things and Bloodline explores the darkness at the heart of the rural Midwest in a novel inspired by a chilling true crime.In the summer of ’84, fourteen-year-old Frankie Jubilee is shuttled off to Litani, Minnesota, to live with her estranged mother, a county prosecutor she barely knows... -
![Folly by Laurie R. King]()
Folly by Laurie R. King
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAn acclaimed master of suspense creates a heroine you will never forget in this superbly chilling novel of a woman who begins a desperate undertaking that may transform her life--or end it.WHAT HAPPENS IF YOUR WORST FEARS AREN’T ALL IN YOUR MIND?Rae Newborn is a woman on the edge: on the edge of sanity, on the edge of tragedy, and now on the edge of the world...Categorized as:
crime dark family female-mc historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction suspense -
![Your Beautiful Lies by Louise Douglas]()
Your Beautiful Lies by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe trouble with secrets is that they never stay secret for long…Annie Howarth is living an anxious life in an anxious town. Her mining community in South Yorkshire is feeling the pinch and tensions are running high. Then a murdered girl is found on the moors and the agitation in the community is pushed to a dangerous breaking point...Categorized as:
historical-fiction thriller female-mc family mystery historical fiction psychological -
![The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon]()
The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the New York Times bestselling author of The Drowning Kind comes a genre-defying new novel, inspired by Mary Shelley’s masterpiece Frankenstein, that brilliantly explores the eerie mysteries of childhood and the evils perpetrated by the monsters among us.1978: At her renowned treatment center in picturesque Vermont, the brilliant psychiatrist, Dr... -
![Angel Street: A Victorian Thriller in Three Acts by Patrick Hamilton]()
Angel Street: A Victorian Thriller in Three Acts by Patrick Hamilton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA Broadway hit first produced on the West End under the title Gaslight and filmed twice, Angel Street tells the story of the Manninghams who live on Angel Street in 19th Century London. As the curtain rises, all appears the essence of Victorian tranquility. It is soon apparent however, that Mr... -
![Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry]()
Orpheus Builds a Girl by Heather Parry
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsBased on a true story, Orpheus Builds a Girl is a novel of sisterly love, sinister obsession, and the battle for control of the story. A dark, chilling debut novel from award-winning writer Heather Parry.German doctor Wilhelm Von Tore shares with the reader the story of his one true ove; a love written in the stars, decades in the making, a love so strong it transcended death itself...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction dark horror fiction gothic retellings historical -
![The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase]()
The Daughters of Foxcote Manor by Eve Chase
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsTHE INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER, "A captivating mystery: beautifully written, with a rich sense of place, a cast of memorable characters, and lots of deep, dark secrets."--Kate Morton, New York Times bestselling author of The Clockmaker's Daughter "Extraordinary...Absolutely her best yet."--Lisa Jewell, New York Times bestselling author of The Family Upstairs Three generations... -
![Steel Breeze by Douglas Wynne]()
Steel Breeze by Douglas Wynne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA BLACK WIND BLOWS AND LIFE HANGS IN THE BALANCE. It’s been a year since novelist Desmond Carmichael's wife Sandy was brutally murdered. Now, with someone stalking him and his four-year-old son, he fears that the wrong man has been imprisoned for the crime...Categorized as:
crime kidnapping law-enforcement police-procedural suspense thriller action-adventure adult -
![The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr]()
The Angel of Darkness by Caleb Carr
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsIn The Angel of Darkness, Caleb Carr brings back the vivid world of his bestselling The Alienist but with a twist: this story is told by the former street urchin Stevie Taggert, whose rough life has given him wisdom beyond his years. Thus New York City, and the groundbreaking alienist Dr. Kreizler himself, are seen anew. It is June 1897. A year has passed since Dr...Categorized as:
crime dark drama historical-fiction law-enforcement literary-fiction realistic suspense -
![The Mad Wife: A Novel by Meagan Church]()
The Mad Wife: A Novel by Meagan Church
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWith odes of The Bell Jar comes a searing historical suspense following a 1950s housewife who, when a mysterious new wife moves across the way, begins to unearth dark secrets about her neighborhood and her own mind. In the 1950s, nothing is valued more than conformity, and Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the ideal housewife...Categorized as:
historical-fiction literary-fiction thriller suspense drama female-mc family fiction -
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![La otra bella durmiente by Phillip Margolin, Eduardo Iriarte]()
La otra bella durmiente by Phillip Margolin, Eduardo Iriarte
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAfter a serial killer murdered the parents of Ashley Spencer and left Casey Van Meter in a coma, Ashley wonders why her quiet, loving family was targeted by a madman and decides to go into hiding in Europe. Returning years later to bear witness when the suspect is finally apprehended and tried, her pain also resurfaces in a true crime novel written by Miles Van Meter, Casey's twin brother... -
![The Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley]()
The Unclaimed Victim by D.M. Pulley
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLiving decades apart, two women get caught in the web of an infamous serial killer. In 1938, at the height of the Great Depression, a madman hunts his victims through the hobo jungles of Cleveland, terrorizing the city...Categorized as:
crime female-mc historical-fiction law-enforcement police-procedural suspense true-crime thriller -
![My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier]()
My Cousin Rachel by Daphne du Maurier
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsPhilip Ashley's older cousin Ambrose, who raised the orphaned Philip as his own son, has died in Rome. Philip, the heir to Ambrose's beautiful English estate, is crushed that the man he loved died far from home. He is also suspicious. While in Italy, Ambrose fell in love with Rachel, a beautiful English and Italian woman... -
![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 Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman]()
The Lost Girls of Willowbrook by Ellen Marie Wiseman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsFact, fiction, and urban legend blend in this haunting story about a young woman mistakenly imprisoned at Willowbrook State School, the real-life institution later shuttered for its horrendous abuses.Sage Winters always knew her sister was a little different even though they were identical twins...
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