Books like 'Cry Father'
Readers who enjoyed Cry Father by Benjamin Whitmer also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary mystery horror crime noir gothic southern-gothic dark drama myths
-
The Works of Edgar Allan Poe, Volume 2 by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.38 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsTHE PURLOINED LETTER THE THOUSAND-AND-SECOND TALE OF SCHEHERAZADE A DESCENT INTO THE MAELSTRÖM. VON KEMPELEN AND HIS DISCOVERY MESMERIC REVELATION THE FACTS IN THE CASE OF M. VALDEMAR THE BLACK CAT. THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER SILENCE—A FABLE THE MASQUE OF THE RED DEATH. THE CASK OF AMONTILLADO... -
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... -
I Hate to See That Evening Sun Go Down: Collected Stories by William Gay
Rated: 4.29 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsWilliam Gay established himself as "the big new name to include in the storied annals of Southern Lit" (Esquire) with his debut novel, The Long Home, and his highly acclaimed follow-up, Provinces of Night. Like Faulkner's Mississippi and Cormac McCarthy's American West, Gay's Tennessee is redolent of broken souls... -
Angelica And Francesca by Kenneth Jarrett Singleton
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAngelica and Francesca are the identical twin daughters of Pellrue, Duke of Doretay. Doretay is a state within a kingdom called Vidien, which Angelica's and Francesca's great uncle, King Oscar, rules. Pellrue attempts to keep control of his wicked, evil daughters as they keep entering his city and raising havoc by torturing and murdering the common citizens within...Categorized as:
crime drama literary-fiction anthologies contemporary fiction historical-fiction horror -
-
Ramonst by A.F. Knott
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsHidden in the mountains of East Tennessee, an eleven-year old goes about the business of being a boy during the summer of 1970. Within a balance of terror and innocence, he bears silent witness to ghosts of the dead and the cruelties of a teenage killer while local justice plays out in a community carved from legacies of coal mining and religion... -
The Dead Won't Sleep by Anna Smith
Rated: 4.21 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe body of a young teenage hooker is found washed up on the beach near Glasgow. This stark event barely captures a headline in the cynical world of tabloid newspapers. This is Glasgow in the 1990s and she's just another dead heroin addict. But Tracey Eadie was only fourteen years old and came from a children's home in Glasgow... -
The Dirty South by John Connolly
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsIn an Arkansas jail cell sits a former NYPD detective, stricken by grief. He is mourning the death of his wife and child, and searching in vain for their killer. Obsessed with avenging his lost family, his life is about to take a shocking turn...Categorized as:
conspiracies crime drama literary-fiction noir political-intrigue action-adventure adult -
No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 66 ratingsIn his blistering new novel, Cormac McCarthy returns to the Texas-Mexico border, the setting of his famed Border Trilogy. The time is our own, when rustlers have given way to drug-runners and small towns have become free-fire zones. One day, Llewellyn Moss finds a pickup truck surrounded by a bodyguard of dead men. A load of heroin and two million dollars in cash are still in the back... -
Wall of Silence by Tracy Buchanan
Rated: 4.12 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHer children have a deadly secret. Can she uncover it before the police do?Melissa Byatt’s life in Forest Grove seems as perfect as can be: a doting husband, three loving children and a beautiful house in a close-knit community. But appearances can be deceiving... -
Hell's Half Acre by Will Christopher Baer
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsKidnapping, snuff films, amputee geeks and a requiem of lost love.Cast adrift after the blood symphony of Penny Dreadful, Phineas Poe is looking for answers in the form of a woman. He tracks Jude to San Francisco, where he finds her involved with John Ransom Miller, a wealthy sociopath with a mysterious hold over her... -
Girl Found by Kate Gable
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsDon’t look for me… A college student is found dead in the apartment of a US Marine who has disappeared.Where is he? Did he kill her and run? And if so, why? Detective Kaitlyn Carr will stop at nothing to find out what happened.The marine’s father is certain that his son would never do anything to harm his friend... -
Polar Vortex by Matthew Mather
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA flight disappears over the North Pole. No distress calls. Vanished into thin air.Mitch Matthews is a writer struggling to make ends meet when his wife's brother Josh offers them a first-class seat on a flight from Hong Kong to New York. When his wife needs to stay behind, it becomes an opportunity for some quality daddy-daughter time with his five-year-old Lilly... -
The Woman in the Woods by John Connolly
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen the body of a woman—who apparently died in childbirth—is discovered, Parker is hired to track down both her identity and her missing child.In the beautiful Maine woods, a partly preserved body is discovered. Investigators realize that the dead young woman gave birth shortly before her death. But there is no sign of a baby... -
Blacktop Wasteland by S.A. Cosby
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsLos Angeles Times Book Prize Winner • New York Times Notable Book • NPR’s Best Books of the Year • BookPage’s #1 Mystery and Suspense of the Year • Sun Sentinel’s #1 Best Mystery of the Year “I loved Blacktop Wasteland...[A] fast-paced, bareknuckle thriller.” -Stephen King“A roaring, full-throttle thriller, crackling with tension and charm... -
-
The Blackhouse by Peter May
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsA brutal killing takes place on the Isle of Lewis, Scotland: a land of harsh beauty and inhabitants of deep-rooted faith.A MURDERDetective Inspector Fin Macleod is sent from Edinburgh to investigate. For Lewis-born Macleod, the case represents a journey both home and into his past.A SECRETSomething lurks within the close-knit island community. Something sinister... -
1984: An Audible Original adaptation by Joe White, George Orwell
Rated: 4.22 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the age of uniformity.From the age of solitude and doublethink.From the age of Big Brother.From me, Winston Smith.Greetings.It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith... -
Razor: Fantasy Thriller - Becoming a Hero by Wilkie Martin
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA mourning husband can’t live with his guilt… ... he decides to die, not by his own hand, but in heroically helping the vulnerable. Since the peaceful Cotswold countryside offers limited opportunities for heroism, despite the presence of some weird and dangerous inhabitants, he ventures further afield... -
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... -
River of Ashes by Alexandrea Weis, Lucas Astor
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsSome truths are better kept secret. Some secrets are better off dead. ALONG THE BANKS OF THE BOGUE FALAYA RIVER, sits the abandoned St. Francis Seminary. Beneath a canopy of oaks, blocked from prying eyes, the teens of St. Benedict High gather here on Fridays. The rest of the week belongs to school and family—but weekends belong to the river.And the river belongs to Beau Devereaux... -
The Art of Murder by José Carlos Somoza
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIn 2006, the art world has moved far beyond sheep in formaldehyde and the most avant-garde movement is to use living people as artwork. Undergoing weeks of preparation to become 'canvases', the models are required to stay in their pose for ten to twelve hours a day and, as art pieces, they are also for sale... -
Vicious by Kevin O'Brien
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsNO MOTIVE For more than two years, he held Seattle in a terror grip. A cold-blooded killer who abducted young mothers right in front of their sons and murdered them execution style. Then, as suddenly as the killings began, they seemed to stop.NO MERCY Susan Blanchette is looking forward to a relaxing weekend getaway with her fianc�, Allen, and young son, Matthew... -
Where I End by Sophie White
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsMy mother.At night, my mother creaks. The house creaks along with her.Through our thin shared wall, I can hear the makings of my mother gurgle through her body just like the water in the walls of the house...Teenage Aoileann has never left the island. Her silent, bed-bound mother is a wreckage, the survivor of a private disaster no one will speak about... -
The Past Is Never by Tiffany Quay Tyson
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsA compelling addition to contemporary Southern Gothic fiction, deftly weaving together local legends, magical realism, and the search for a missing child.Winner of the Willie Morris Award for Southern Fiction, the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize, the Mississippi Institute of Arts and Letters Fiction Award, and Mississippi Author Award for Adult fiction... -
My Perfect Daughter by Sarah A. Denzil
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsMost mothers hope their little girl turns out like their dad, but not Zoe. She hopes the apple falls far from the tree.Zoe didn't meet her daughter the way most mothers do. She finds five-year-old Maddie alone and dirty on a countryside road. Frightened for Maddie's safety, she picks her up and takes her back to her father, not knowing what she's about to step into... -
-
You Let Me In by Lucy Clarke
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsSpine-tingling, chilling, and utterly compulsive, YOU LET ME IN is the stunning new novel from Richard & Judy Book Club author, Lucy Clarke Nothing has felt right since Elle rented out her house . . . I’M IN YOUR HOUSE There’s a new coldness. A shift in the atmosphere. The prickling feeling that someone is watching her every move from the shadows... -
Only the Innocent by Rachel Abbott
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsEvery moment of Sir Hugo Fletcher’s life has been chronicled in the British press: his privileged upbringing, his high-profile charity work to end human trafficking, even his two marriages. But when the billionaire philanthropist is discovered murdered in his London home, tied naked to a bed, the scandal is only a shadow of the darkness lurking off-camera... -
The Good Samaritan by John Marrs
Rated: 4.04 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsShe’s a friendly voice on the phone. But can you trust her?The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn’t want them to hope. She wants them to die.Laura hasn’t had it easy: she’s survived sickness and a difficult marriage only to find herself heading for forty, unsettled and angry... -
What She Forgot by S.W. Vaughn
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratings* This is an updated edition of this Kindle edition. *She'll do anything to get her daughter back. But can she uncover the dark secrets of her past in time to save her child? A gripping psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist. Madeline was sixteen when she was taken by the Singing Woods Killer, slated to become his fifth victim. She escaped, killing him in the process...Categorized as:
political-intrigue vigilante justice crime conspiracies mystery psychological fiction -
Hell's Horizon by D.B. Shan, Darren Shan
Rated: 4.11 of 5 stars · 21 ratingsWhen Al Jeery is seconded by The Cardinal from guard duties at Party Central to investigate the murder of a woman at a hotel he little suspects that the dead woman will turn out to be his girlfriend. Soon he is involved in a terrifying mystery... -
Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 26 ratingsHow far would you go to hold on to the people you love?When Olivia Brookes calls the police to report that her husband and children are missing, she believes she will never see them again. She has reason to fear the worst; this isn’t the first tragedy that Olivia has experienced... -
Revenge: Eleven Dark Tales by Yōko Ogawa
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAn aspiring writer moves into a new apartment and discovers that her landlady has murdered her husband. Elsewhere, an accomplished surgeon is approached by a cabaret singer, whose beautiful appearance belies the grotesque condition of her heart. And while the surgeon’s jealous lover vows to kill him, a violent envy also stirs in the soul of a lonely craftsman... -
Knockemstiff by Donald Ray Pollock
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this unforgettable work of fiction, Donald Ray Pollock peers into the soul of a tough Midwestern American town to reveal the sad, stunted but resilient lives of its residents. Spanning a period from the mid-sixties to the late nineties, the linked stories that comprise Knockemstiff feature a cast of recurring characters who are woebegone, baffled and depraved but irresistibly, undeniably real... -
A Feast of Snakes by Harry Crews
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsFrom the acclaimed author of such novels as "Blood and Grits" and "Childhood" comes a wildly weird and breathtakingly original visit to the rural South that reveals the exotic subculture that erupts in all its glory at the Rattlesnake Roundup in Mystic, Georgia. "No number of adjectives in the thesaurus can do full justice to the dazzlingly bizarre nature of Crews' creations"... -
Magpie Lane by Lucy Atkins
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsWhen the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers... -
-
Clean by Alia Trabucco Zerán, Sophie Hughes
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsINTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER!From a global star and International Booker Prize finalist, a razor-sharp, unforgettable novel about a maid who’s seen too much and a family at a breaking pointA young girl has died and the family’s maid is being interrogated. She must tell the whole story before arriving at the girl’s death... -
North American Lake Monsters by Nathan Ballingrud
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNathan Ballingrud's Shirley Jackson Award winning debut collection is a shattering and luminous experience not to be missed by those who love to explore the darker parts of the human psyche. Monsters, real and imagined, external and internal, are the subject. They are us and we are them and Ballingrud's intense focus makes these stories incredibly intense and irresistible.These are love stories... -
The Truth About Unspeakable Things by Emily A. Myers
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn an emotional, thought-provoking journey filled with secrets and regret, a young woman has a second chance at love after abuse.Emma Marshall is haunted by the trauma of her past. The night she ended her engagement to cheating fiancé, Beaux, was meant to be the night she took back control, but it was only the beginning of his true hold over her... -
The Night Visitor by Dianne Emley
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIn bestselling author Dianne Emley’s chilling new paranormal thriller, a beautiful woman’s romantic past comes back to haunt her in the form of an otherworldly visitor seeking justice. Gorgeous and successful, Rory Langtry seemed to have it all. Daughter of a movie star and sister of a supermodel, Rory was engaged to sexy artist, Junior Lara... -
The Girl Who Lived by Christopher Greyson
Rated: 3.97 of 5 stars · 33 ratingsTen years ago, four people were brutally murdered. One girl lived. No one believes her story. The police think she’s crazy. Her therapist thinks she’s suicidal. Everyone else thinks she’s a dangerous drunk... -
No Time for Goodbye by Linwood Barclay
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 28 ratingsFourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family, mother, father, brother had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever. Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truthSometimes better not to know. . . Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over... -
Every Last Fear by Alex Finlay
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 27 ratingsIn one of the year’s most anticipated debut psychological thrillers, a family made infamous by a true crime documentary is found dead, leaving their surviving son to uncover the truth about their final days.“They found the bodies on a Tuesday... -
Girl Missing by Kate Gable
Rated: 3.94 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsDon’t lie to me… When her 13-year-old sister vanishes on her way back from a friend’s house, Detective Kaitlyn Carr must confront demons from her own past in order to bring her sister home.The small mountain town of Big Bear Lake is only three hours away but a world away from her life in Los Angeles. It’s the place she grew up and the place that’s plagued her with lies, death and secrets... -
Confessions About Colton by Olivia Harvard
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsSeven clues, seven steps closer to a killer . . .Bringing us into a world of unrelenting suspense, Olivia Harvard’s astonishing debut explores the ravages of grief and betrayal through the eyes of a teenage boy coping with a heartbreaking loss and its revelations . . .The unthinkable has happened: Colton Crest is dead. And Elliot, Colton’s best friend, is the one who finds him brutally murdered... -
The Summer that Melted Everything by Tiffany McDaniel
Rated: 3.98 of 5 stars · 32 ratingsFielding Bliss has never forgotten the summer of 1984:the year a heatwave scorched the small town of Breathed, Ohio.The year he became friends with the devil.When local prosecutor Autopsy Bliss publishes an invitation to the devil to come to the country town of Breathed, Ohio, nobody quite expected that he would turn up... -
-
Denizen by James McKenzie Watson
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsA gothic thriller exploring rural Australia’s simultaneous celebration of harsh country and stoic people – a tension that forces its inhabitants to dangerous breaking points.On a remote property in western NSW, nine-year-old Parker fears that something is wrong with his brain... -
Gone South by Robert McCammon
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 30 ratingsFlooded by memories, poisoned by the deadly fallout of Agent Orange, and desperate for work, Dan Lambert kills a man in a moment of blind fear and fury. It is an act he cannot excuse--a mistake that will change his life forever. Now Dan is on the run, heading south toward the Louisiana bayous... -
The Cleanup by John Skipp, Craig Spector
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe "angel" gave Billy Rowe the power to wipe out crime in the streets of New York City. And now, even though the streets are free of muggers, rapists, and pimps, there is one thing left to fear . . . Billy Rowe... -
Poe: New Tales Inspired by Edgar Allan Poe by Ellen Datlow, Gregory Nassif St. John
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTo coincide with the 200th anniversary of the birth of Edgar Allan Poe, this anthology celebrates the depth and diversity of one of the most important figures in literature. Compiled by multi-award winning editor Ellen Datlow, it presents some of the foremost talents of the genre, who have come together to reimagine tales inspired by Poe.Sharyn McCrumb, Lucius Shepard, Pat Cadigan, M... -
The Schwarzschild Radius by Gustavo Florentin
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRachel, an 18-year-old Columbia University student, descends into the netherworld of runaways and predators to find her sister, Olivia, who has suddenly disappeared.After getting a job in a strip joint where Olivia worked, then doing private shows in the homes of rich clients, Rachel discovers that Olivia has been abducted by a killer who auctions the deaths of young girls in an eBay of agony... -
Vantage Point by Sara Sligar
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsSuccession meets Megan Abbott in this seductive Gothic suspense novel about the dramatic downfall of one of America’s most affluent families.The old-money Wieland family has it all—wealth, status, power. They’re also famously cursed. Clara and her brother Teddy grew up on a small island in Maine in the shadow of their parents’ tragic deaths, haunted by rumors and paparazzi...
Or - use our amazing romance book finder to get recommendations based on your favorite content tropes and themes. Mix and match at will.