Books like 'Wicked Stepmother'
Readers who enjoyed Wicked Stepmother by Axel Young & Michael McDowell also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror mystery 20th century psychological pulp crime true-crime royalty medical
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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 historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book classics drama -
![Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Sally Beauman]()
Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, Sally Beauman
Rated: 4.26 of 5 stars · 80 ratingsLast night I dreamt I went to Manderley again...Working as a lady's companion, the heroine of Rebecca learns her place. Her future looks bleak until, on a trip to the South of France, she meets Max de Winter, a handsome widower whose sudden proposal of marriage takes her by surprise... -
![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...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure audiobook book dark -
![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... -
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![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... -
![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... -
![Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith]()
Only Forward by Michael Marshall Smith
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsStark lives in Colour, a neighbourhood whose inhabitants like to be co-ordinated with their surroundings – a neighbourhood where spangly purple trousers are admired by the walls of buildings as you pass them. Close by is Sound, where you mustn’t make any, apart from one designated hour a day when you can scream your lungs raw... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler]()
Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick, Harvey Wheeler
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsSomething has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination—Moscow.In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult apocalyptic audiobook book classics -
![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...Categorized as:
crime humor 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook children children-books -
![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... -
![Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories by Shirley Jackson]()
Just an Ordinary Day: The Uncollected Stories by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAcclaimed in her own time for her short story “The Lottery” and her novel The Haunting of Hill House—classics ranking with the work of Edgar Allan Poe—Shirley Jackson blazed a path for contemporary writers with her explorations of evil, madness, and cruelty... -
![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... -
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![Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton]()
Hangover Square by Patrick Hamilton
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsHamilton captures the edgy, obsessive and eventually murderous mindset of a romantically frustrated British man in this WWII-era novel. London 1939, and in the grimy publands of Earls Court, George Harvey Bone is pursuing a helpless infatuation with Netta who is cool, contemptuous and hopelessly desirable to George... -
![A Rose for Emily and Other Stories by William Faulkner, Washington Irving]()
A Rose for Emily and Other Stories by William Faulkner, Washington Irving
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsEmily is a member of a family in the antebellum Southern aristocracy; after the Civil War, the family has fallen on hard times...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure anthologies audiobook classics coming-of-age dark -
![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... -
![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... -
![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 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 historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult alternate-history audiobook book -
![The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman]()
The Yellow Wallpaper and Other Stories by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 61 ratingsBest known for the 1892 title story of this collection, a harrowing tale of a woman's descent into madness, Charlotte Perkins Gilman wrote more than 200 other short stories. Seven of her finest are reprinted here...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century anthologies audiobook classics dark drama female-author -
![Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson]()
Let Me Tell You by Shirley Jackson
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsFrom the peerless author of 'The Lottery' and 'We Have Always Lived in the Castle', this is a spectacular new volume of unpublished and uncollected stories, essays, lectures, letters and drawings... -
![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 historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
![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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century adult anthologies audiobook classics cosmic-horror dark -
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![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century adult animals anthologies audiobook classics cosmic-horror -
![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...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book classics -
![Ripper by Michael Slade]()
Ripper by Michael Slade
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsFrom the bestselling author of Cutthroat comes a nerve-shattering thriller combining the legend of Jack the Ripper, the terrifying secrets of the Tarot, and a "mystery weekend" on a secluded Canadian island, whereurder becomes all too real... -
![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... -
![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... -
![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... -
![Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle]()
Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle
Rated: 3.99 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsBefore you see the movie, read the original novel! First published more than thirty-five years ago, Pierre Boulle's chilling novel launched one of the greatest science fiction sagas in motion picture history, from the classic 1968 movie starring Charlton Heston and Roddy McDowell, through four sequels and two television series . . . and now the newest film adaptation directed by Tim Burton...Categorized as:
historical-fiction humor 20th-century action-adventure animals apocalyptic audiobook book -
![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 historical-fiction true-crime 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book -
![A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan]()
A Prayer for the Dying by Stewart O'Nan
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsSet just after the Civil War, A Prayer for the Dying is the story of a small Wisconsin town gripped by a mysterious, deadly epidemic, and one man desperate to save it. Torn between his loyalty to his family, his faith in God, and his terror of this vicious disease, Jacob Hansen struggles to preserve his sanity amid the chaos and violence around him...Categorized as:
historical-fiction medical 20th-century adult american-civil-war apocalyptic book civil-war -
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![The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell]()
The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell
Rated: 4.03 of 5 stars · 17 ratingsPrague, 1935: Viktor Kosárek, a psychiatrist newly trained by Carl Jung, arrives at the infamous Hrad Orlu Asylum for the Criminally Insane. The state-of-the-art facility is located in a medieval mountaintop castle outside of Prague, though the site is infamous for concealing dark secrets going back many generations... -
![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... -
![Once by Patricia Highsmith]()
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![In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka]()
In the Penal Colony by Franz Kafka
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 35 ratingsIn the Penal Colony is a short story by Franz Kafka. This story is set in a penal colony with no name. The book describes the last use of a torture and execution device developed sculpting condemned the judgment against her skin before you let him die, all in the course of twelve hours... -
![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... -
![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...Categorized as:
historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure adult audiobook book dark dark-fantasy -
![The Castle by Franz Kafka]()
The Castle by Franz Kafka
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 49 ratingsTranslated and with a preface by Mark HarmanLeft unfinished by Kafka in 1922 and not published until 1926, two years after his death, The Castle is the haunting tale of K.’s relentless, unavailing struggle with an inscrutable authority in order to gain access to the Castle... -
![Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read With the Lights On by Alfred Hitchcock, Roald Dahl]()
Alfred Hitchcock Presents: Stories to Be Read With the Lights On by Alfred Hitchcock, Roald Dahl
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsContents:Introduction by Alfred HitchcockDeath Out of Season by Mary BarrettWitness in the Dark by Fredric BrownShadows on the Road by Robert ColbyMr. Mappin Forecloses by Zena CollierGranny by Ron GoulartThe Landlady by Roald DahlThree Ways to Rob a Bank by Harold R. DanielsNo Loose Ends by Miriam Allen deFordGoodbye, Pops by Joe GoresPin Money by James CrossSocial Climber by Robert J... -
![The Far Cry by Fredric Brown]()
The Far Cry by Fredric Brown
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOnce upon a time, a girl named Jenny Ames was murdered in a lonely house. No one knew where she had come from, or why she had died, or who killed her. Years later a man moved into the same house and discovered that nothing is more seductive than an unsolved murder... -
![A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell]()
A Dark-Adapted Eye by Barbara Vine, Ruth Rendell
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsFaith Severn has grown up with the dark cloud of murder looming over her family. Her aunt Vera Hillyard, a rigidly respectable woman, was convicted and hanged for the crime, but the reason for her desperate deed died with her. Thirty years later, a probing journalist pushes Faith to look back to the day when her aunt took knife in hand and walked into a child's nursery... -
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![Tokyo by Mo Hayder]()
Tokyo by Mo Hayder
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsWith the redolent atmosphere of Ian Rankin and the spine-chilling characters of Thomas Harris, Mo Hayder's The Devil of Nanking, takes the reader on an electrifying literary ride from the palatial apartments of yakuza kingpins to deep inside the secret history of one of the twentieth century's most brutal events: the Nanking Massacre... -
![Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham]()
Nightmare Alley by William Lindsay Gresham
Rated: 3.89 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsNightmare Alley begins with an extraordinary description of a carnival-show geek—alcoholic and abject and the object of the voyeuristic crowd’s gleeful disgust and derision—going about his work at a county fair. Young Stan Carlisle is working as a carny, and he wonders how a man could fall so low. There’s no way in hell, he vows, that anything like that will ever happen to him... -
![The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell]()
The Most Dangerous Game by Richard Connell
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 44 ratingsThe Most Dangerous Game features a big-game hunter from New York who becomes shipwrecked on an isolated island in the Caribbean and is hunted by a Russian aristocrat...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction 20th-century action-adventure audiobook book children-books classics -
![The Asylum by Karen Coles]()
The Asylum by Karen Coles
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 16 ratings1906: Being a woman is dangerous, being different is deadly.Maud Lovell has been at Angelton Lunatic Asylum for five years. She is not sure how she came to be there and knows nothing beyond its four walls. She is hysterical, distressed, untrustworthy. Badly unstable and prone to violence. Or so she has been told... -
![Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen]()
Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 36 ratingsA beautiful violinist is haunted by a very old piece of music she finds in a strange antique shop in Rome. The first time Julia Ansdell picks up The Incendio Waltz, she knows it’s a strikingly unusual composition. But while playing the piece, Julia blacks out and awakens to find her young daughter implicated in acts of surprising violence...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction medical 20th-century 21st-century action-adventure adult audiobook -
![Asylum by Patrick McGrath]()
Asylum by Patrick McGrath
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsIn the summer of 1959 Stella Raphael joins her psychiatrist husband, Max, at his new posting--a maximum-security hospital for the criminally insane. Beautiful and headstrong, Stella soon falls under the spell of Edgar Stark, a brilliant and magnetic sculptor who has been confined to the hospital for murdering his wife in a psychotic rage...
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