Books like 'The Orchard'
Readers who enjoyed The Orchard by Charles L. Grant & David Mann also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror small town folk-horror rural pulp gothic
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Fallen by Mia Sheridan
Rated: 4.43 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsScarlett Lattimore arrives at Lilith House, an abandoned mansion built in 1876, that later housed a reform school for troubled girls, to start a new life with her seven-year-old daughter... -
Stranger Danger by Michaelbrent Collings
Rated: 4.67 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHe will teach you the lesson...... he knows you’re dying to learn.Legion is a teacher. An avenging angel. A murderer.A madman.Raised in the underground hideout of an insane father, he searches for those who keep secrets and sins. Then he teaches them how to leave those mistakes behind. Even if it means killing them to do it.Because sometimes murder is the cost of a proper education... -
Still Life With Crows by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA small Kansas town has turned into a killing ground.Is it a serial killer, a man with the need to destroy?Or is it a darker force, a curse upon the land?Amid golden cornfields, FBI Special Agent Pendergast discovers evil in the blood of America's heartland.No one is safe... -
In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn the Barrens, a vast wilderness in northern Canada bordering the Arctic Circle, night consumes every hour of the winter. Humans are scarce; ferocious predators roam freely. Locals say spirits do, too. Rookie cop Tana Larsson doesn’t mind the dark and quiet. Five months pregnant and hoping to escape the mistakes of her past, she takes a post in Twin Rivers, population 320... -
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Shadows in Bloom: A Dark Romance Anthology by Lola Malone, Garry Michael
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLong summer nights, the rustle of leaves and flowers in full bloom.It’s the perfect time of the year to live life the fullest, plan for tomorrow and forget about yesterday. But what happens when the shadows come out to play?After all…you won’t see it coming until it hits you in the Shadows in Bloom... -
Wicked Little Games by A.R. Breck
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsWhen you spark a match in hell, 𝘸𝘪𝘭𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯?Some wonder how deep the curse runs through Castle Pointe.I never realized the malevolent roots are embedded into every fiber of this town.A simple game turned into devastation, wreaking havoc upon us, spreading it’s wickedness through our veins.Haunting us around every turn.Death rises. Evil corrupts. Fear consumes us... -
The Pagan Stone by Nora Roberts, Dan John Miller
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 26 ratings#1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts’ electrifying trilogy comes to an end, as three men and three women join forces—and hearts—to battle the ultimate evil.Years ago, after their blood brother ritual, Gage, Fox, and Caleb each emerged from the woods with a piece of bloodstone. Now, it will become their weapon in the final fight against the demon they awakened... -
Sinister Summer: A Wicks Hollow Book by Colleen Gleason
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsA sexy professor. A logical lawyer. A determined ghost. ...And a very mortal killer. Welcome to Wicks Hollow: a cozy town near Lake Michigan filled with quaint houses, eccentric residents, and more than its share of ghosts, murders, and sexy romance... -
Love and War: Volume Two by Charisse Spiers
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsI’d waited my whole life for this. Nothing and no one was going to stand in my way. From the moment Lux opened her mouth that night I wanted to be pissed at her, but with one outburst she’d given me everything I’d fucking dreamed of since I was a kid. He gave me the chance of a lifetime, despite his known reputation of sitting alone on his throne... -
The Cure of Souls by Phil Rickman
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs high summer bakes the rich earth of north-east Herefordshire, dark shadows gather around a converted hopkiln where the last owner was savagely murdered. Though the local vicar dismisses claims by its current occupants that the place is haunted, their story is soon splashed over a Sunday newspaper—and Merrily Watkins is directed by the Bishop of Hereford to defuse this situation... -
Hollow Heathens: Book of Blackwell by Nicole Fiorina
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsA forbidden, timeless, and haunting love story.Once upon a time, there lived a girl named Fallon who was taken far away from home shortly after she was born. A home that held more than strange traditions and bizarre superstitions... -
The Bottoms by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsThe narrator of The Bottoms is Harry Collins, an old man obsessively reflecting on certain key experiences of his childhood. In 1933, the year that forms the centerpiece of the narrative, Harry is 11 years old and living with his mother, father, and younger sister on a farm outside of Marvel Creek, Texas, near the Sabine River bottoms... -
In the River by Jeremy Robert Johnson
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAn intensely moving tale of survival and madness along the river's edge. A father and son fishing lesson become a nightmarish voyage to the sea in this visionary testament to the lengths we will go for those we love... -
The Midwives by Duncan Ralston
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA killer on the loose. A writer on the run. A town plagued by an ancient evil. On tour with his latest book, true crime writer Martin Savage discovers one of his most-dangerous subjects has escaped. The so-called "Witch Hunter," a delusional murderer of women and their unborn children, holds a deadly grudge. He'll stop at nothing to get his revenge, and destroy everything Martin cares about... -
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VILE - A Dark Bully Romance by Lulu Waters
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsEVERLEE VERA This isn’t the life I’m meant to live—stuck on the arm of a rich asshole while he has a pissing contest with other rich assholes. They’re all puppets, playing a dutiful role that condemns them to hell until death do they part. Hatred pushes me forward. Lust fuels me. And there is only one guy who checks both: Holden Van. My boyfriend’s enemy. The guy who flusters me beyond anything... -
The Quiet Boy by Nick Antosca
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBut there was no Goldilocks in his story. There were only the Wolfs, who lived together in a cave above a town. Big Wolf, Middle Wolf, and Little Wolf. Big Wolf was a brute. Little Wolf was timid. Middle Wolf was the peacemaker... -
The Contortionist by Kathryn Ann Kingsley
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsCome one, come all, to Harrow Faire...and greet your sweetest nightmare.Cora Glass’s humdrum existence as a bank teller flips upside down when a long-abandoned circus mysteriously returns to life. But the entry fee to this big top show is far more than Cora bargained for.A deal struck.A soul...stuck... -
Fairydale by Veronica Lancet
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 17 ratings𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐛𝐥𝐲 𝐠𝐨 𝐰𝐫𝐨𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐫𝐡𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐚𝐢𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐚𝐥𝐞?August 1955,When Miss Darcy O’Sullivan, an orphaned English teacher from Boston, receives a letter that her biological father passed away, she is surprised to find herself included in his will.There is only one condition.She must travel to Fairydale to attend his funeral... -
Come with Me by Ronald Malfi
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA masterful, heart-palpitating novel of small-town horror and psychological dread from a Bram Stoker nominee.Aaron Decker's life changes one December morning when his wife Allison is killed. Haunted by her absence--and her ghost--Aaron goes through her belongings, where he finds a receipt for a motel room in another part of the country... -
Feast of Fools by Rachel Caine
Rated: 4.09 of 5 stars · 50 ratingsThe wait is over. dig into the feast...In the town of Morganville, vampires and humans live in relative peace. Student Claire Danvers has never been convinced, though, especially with the arrival of Mr. Bishop, an ancient, old-school vampire who cares nothing about harmony. What he wants from the town's living and its dead is unthinkably sinister... -
Blackwater 6: The Rain by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsAs the Caskey family and their town of Perdido rode the crest of prosperity in the 60s, matriarch Elinor had good reason to be proud of her domain. But slowly, silently, unimaginable horrors were creeping into their midst.At the height of revelry, at the peak of chaos, in the fearful silence of blackest night, preternatural horror pounced upon the Caskeys... -
Blackwater III: The House by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsThe Depression came hard to most people in Perdido, Alabama, but the town's first family weathered the storm under the guidane of the indomitable Mary-Love Caskey and the increasing influence of her daughter-in-law, Elinor.Strange and malevolent were the ways of Elinor to those who stood in her way. Those she loved would prosper. Those she disliked would die hideously... -
Blood and Water by J. David Osborne
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAfter discovering a body in a local fishing hole, two brothers come to terms with their own poverty as they're inescapably drawn into a surreal world of dangerous criminals.Set against a rural Oklahoma backdrop, Blood and Water is a story of family responsibility, the lure of easy outs and even easier scores, and our own violent impulses... -
Red Station by Kenzie Jennings
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThere is a house overlooking the vast, rolling plains. A home station where a traveler will be welcomed with a piping hot meal and a downy bed.It is a refuge for the weary. A beacon for the lost.A place where blood and bones feed the land.For four stagecoach passengers......a doctor in search of a missing father and daughter......a newlywed couple on the way to their homestead.....Categorized as:
pulp action-adventure adult book fiction graphic-violence historical historical-fiction -
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The Perfect Cover by Charlotte Byrd
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsWhen Tyler McDermott escapes from prison, he takes me hostage.No, I do not fall in love with my captor.Tyler is an innocent man who was framed for a heinous double murder.Of course, I do not know that yet.All that I know is that he has a knife to my throat. All that I know is that if I want to live, I have to let him in... -
The Haunting at Hawke's Moor by Camille Oster
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsVictorian London shows little mercy when divorce leaves Anne Kinelly destitute and abandoned by her husband. Her bleak future is avoided when the merciful actions of her solicitor results in a stroke of luck, finding a house forgotten and left in probate by previous generations... -
The Colour Out Of Space: With The Essay "Supernatural Horror in Literature" by H.P. Lovecraft
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsFirst published in 1927, "The Colour Out of Space" is H. P. Lovecraft's signature science-fiction horror story, finely presented here in a single volume with Lovecraft's landmark essay on "weird" fiction, "Supernatural Horror in Literature" - a must-read for all students and lovers of horror. Quixotic Books are reprints of important classic and historic texts, handsomely formatted and presented... -
The Retreat by Mark Edwards
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsA missing child. A desperate mother. And a house full of secrets. Two years ago, Julia lost her family in a tragic accident. Her husband drowned trying to save their daughter, Lily, in the river near their rural home. But the little girl’s body was never found—and Julia believes Lily is somehow still alive.Alone and broke, Julia opens her house as a writers’ retreat... -
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsThe secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel... -
Blackwater IV: The War by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsWartime in Perdido jolted the sleepy little Alabama town as new people entered the community. Outsiders would invade the comfort of the wealthy Caskeys and take their daughters.This, though, was the part of the master plan of Elinor Caskey, who would see the fasmily flourish amidst the deatruction and death she administered in a fashion more awesome than the war itself... -
The Kingdom by Amanda Stevens
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsDeep in the shadowy foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains lies a dying town.My name is Amelia Gray. They call me The Graveyard Queen. I've been commissioned to restore an old cemetery in Asher Falls, South Carolina, but I'm coming to think I have another purpose here... -
The Craftsman by Sharon J. Bolton
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom bestselling crime writer Sharon Bolton comes a startling tour de force, hailed in the national press as 'Bolton at her best'.OLD ENEMIES... NEW CRIMESThirty years ago, WPC Florence Lovelady's career was made when she arrested coffin-maker Larry Glassbrook for three shocking murders.Larry confessed; it was an open and shut case... -
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... -
Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 38 ratingsIt's the summer of 1960 in Elm Haven, Illinois, and five 12-year old boys are forming the bonds that a lifetime of changes will never erase. But then a dark cloud threatens the bright promise of summer vacation: on the last day of school, their classmate Tubby Cooke vanishes. Soon, the group discovers stories of other children who once disappeared from Elm Haven...Categorized as:
gothic 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book coming-of-age cosmic-horror dark -
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Ghost on Black Mountain by Ann Hite
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsONCE A PERSON LEAVES THE MOUNTAIN, THEY NEVER COME BACK, NOT REALLY. THEY’RE LOST FOREVER. Nellie Clay married Hobbs Pritchard without even noticing he was a spell conjured into a man, a walking, talking ghost story. But her mama knew. She saw it in her tea leaves: death. Folks told Nellie to get off the mountain while she could, to go back home before it was too late... -
Blackwater V: The Fortune by Michael McDowell
Rated: 4.15 of 5 stars · 13 ratingsUnder Elinor's guidance, the Caskey family prospered after the war, not knowing that a dark infernal force was growing in their midst. And Frances, Elinor's favorite daughter, never understood her strange yearning for the Perdido River....until the day her babies were born.Elinor presided over the secret birth, the triumph of her life... -
Eternity by Tamara Thorne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIf you always wanted to see Dexter visit Eureka or Haven, the small town of Eternity is the place for you to be.WELCOME TO ETERNITYA LITTLE BIT OF HELL ON EARTHWhen Zach Tully leaves Los Angeles to take over as sheriff of Eternity, a tiny mountain town in northern California, he's expecting to find peace and quiet in his own private Mayberry. But he's in for a surprise... -
Deadlight Hall by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA long-ago crime continues to menace the present in this spine-chilling tale of supernatural suspense. When Michael Flint is asked by a colleague to investigate a reputedly haunted house, he is intrigued. Leo Rosendale’s childhood was blighted by a macabre tragedy in the grim Deadlight Hall – a tragedy that occurred towards the end of World War II, involving a set of twins who vanished... -
Myers by Zepphora
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFourteen years ago, I killed sixteen people and I'd do it again. Were you expecting something different? Did you think I would be remorseful? No. Each and every one of them deserved to die.Now, I'm back to reclaim what was always supposed to be mine and destroy everyone who has wronged me or her... -
Circle of Freaks by Delilah Croww, Carmen Rosales
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSince I was a little girl, I fell in love with the circus. It's all I ever wanted to see up close or be a part of. There was no room for things like that where I grew up. There was no room for anything except bad memories and bad expectations.Every year around Devil's Night, since we moved to Stockbridge, the Circle of Freaks paranormal circus comes to town... -
The Copper Man by Debra Castaneda
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratings“The horrible figure from the Prestwich Tunnel hovered there. Not a ghost. Something between a badly disfigured man and a monster. There was a limit to what the human mind could comprehend, and the ghastly thing standing before her was beyond that limit.”In 1985, the Copper Man killed Leah Shaw’s twin brother, Liam, in the mining town of Tribulation Gulch... -
The Other by Thomas Tryon
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsEntranced and terrified, the reader of The Other is swept up in the life of a Connecticut country town in the thirties—and in the fearful mysteries that slowly darken and overwhelm it.Originally published in 1971, The Other is one of the most influential horror novels ever written... -
Blood Harvest by Sharon J. Bolton
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsShe's been watching us for a while now...Now you see herGillian is haunted by the disappearance of her little girl two years ago. A devastating fire burned down their home, but she remains convinced her daughter survived.Now you don'tTen-year-old Tom lives by a neglected church... -
Candlenight by Phil Rickman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsJournalist Giles Freeman and his wife Claire are thrilled when they inherit a cottage far from the noise of the city. And though the locals are slow to welcome them, the Freemans believe that in time they will be accepted. But the Freemans have fallen under an ancient Celtic curse--and soon they will learn the truth about what it means to be outsiders. HC: Pan (UK)... -
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A Ghost of a Chance by Josh Lanyon
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOver a century ago Illusionist David Berkeley committed suicide in his mansion by the sea, thus dooming his restless spirit to wander forever. Or so the local legend goes.. -
Children of the Dark by Jonathan Janz
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsWill Burgess is used to hard knocks. Abandoned by his father, son of a drug-addicted mother, and charged with raising his six-year-old sister, Will has far more to worry about than most high school freshmen. To make matters worse, Mia Samuels, the girl of Will’s dreams, is dating his worst enemy, the most sadistic upperclassman at Shadeland High. Will’s troubles, however, are just beginning... -
The Lies we Steal by Monty Jay
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIt’s been months since the day we stood above that empty grave that stunk of burnt flesh and secrets. All of us were dressed to the nines, one of us wearing a wedding dress, a day that was supposed to mark the beginning of a new adventure. It marked the bitter end of our vengeance. We have done things that have marked our souls for eternity.But before we get there, we have to go back... -
Paracosm - Bleath: The Hauntings by Anya Allyn
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsPsychology Student, Zoe Cosgrove, arrives in the West Virginian town of Bleath to study a strange phenomenon--a cluster of children who are experiencing paracosms (beliefs in self-created imaginary worlds). The mayor of Bleath provides Zoe with accommodation at the empty Wilmont house. It's not the friendly farmhouse Zoe was picturing, and worse, the house seems to change day by day... -
Devil's Creek by Todd Keisling
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsGIVE US THAT OLD-TIME RELIGIONAbout fifteen miles west of Stauford, Kentucky lies Devil’s Creek. According to local legend, there used to be a church out there, home to the Lord’s Church of Holy Voices—a death cult where Jacob Masters preached the gospel of a nameless god.And like most legends, there’s truth buried among the roots and bones... -
Salvation by Selena Winters
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsI was the girl who ran from nightmares until Fordhurst promised me a dream.All my life, I’ve been a pawn.A bargaining chip for my family, a trophy for my fiancé.I’m not a person to them, just an asset to own and control.So when I gather the courage to flee on my wedding day, I run hard and fast, hiding in a string of small towns, hoping each one will be my last...
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