Books like 'The Specimen'
Readers who enjoyed The Specimen by Jaima Fixsen also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
historical horror mystery historical-fiction gothic crime magical-realism suspense thriller medical
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The Two Dead Girls by Stephen King
Rated: 4.52 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsThey were sisters, and the picture-perfect image of innocence. No one understood their brutal deaths, not even the man who killed them. But John Coffey is about to gain a new insight, about his life in prison, and about the one man who will walk him down that green mile . . . toward destiny.Prepare yourself for Stephen King's boldest exercise in nerve-twisting suspense...Categorized as:
crime historical-fiction magical-realism suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
St. Benet's by David Blake
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 18 ratingsA girl thrown from a church tower, a man sacrificed to Satan, and a priest murdered at the hands of the Devil. When the body of an old man is found lying in the ruins of St Benet’s Abbey, his throat cut, a knife resting in his open hand, DI John Tanner and DC Jenny Evans are given no choice but to accept a ruling of death by misadventure... -
Goodnight Lady by Martina Cole
Rated: 4.44 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsA tour-de-force thriller of corruption and violence.In the sixties, Briony Cavanagh ran a string of the most notorious brothels in London. Only Briony knew what went on behind those doors, and she never opened her mouth - unless she stood to benefit. Only Briony knew the painful road she'd travelled to get there...Categorized as:
crime female-mc historical-fiction suspense thriller action-adventure adult audiobook -
Becoming the Dark Prince by Kerri Maniscalco
Rated: 4.35 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn this irresistibly-priced short story, catch a glimpse of the inner struggles and triumphs that drive Stalking Jack the Ripper's endearing but troubled hero. Enigmatic, brooding, and darkly handsome, Thomas Cresswell has always been the one mystery Audrey Rose has never been able to fully solve. As brilliant partners in crime investigation, they understand each other perfectly..Categorized as:
crime dark-academia female-mc gothic historical-fiction 19th-century action-adventure book -
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Mister Slaughter by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe world of Colonial America comes vibrantly to life in this masterful new historical thriller by Robert McCammon... -
The Attic on Queen Street by Karen White
Rated: 4.31 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsReturn to the house on Tradd Street for one last time as the bestselling series featuring psychic medium Melanie Trenholm comes to a hauntingly spectacular finale.After the devastating events of the past few months, the last thing Melanie Trenholm wants is to think about the future... -
Angels and Demons / The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #1-2) by Dan Brown
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 42 ratingsEnter the labyrinthine world of internationally bestselling author Dan Brown with his first two spellbinding thrillers featuring Robert Langdon:Angels and DemonsWhen a groundbreaking scientist is found brutally murdered, world renowned Harvard professor Robert Langdon is summoned to identify the mysterious symbol seared on to the dead man's chest... -
King Stakh’s Wild Hunt by Uladzimir Karatkevich
Rated: 4.40 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsKing Stakh's Wild Hunt tells the tale of Andrey Belaretsky, a young folklorist who finds himself stranded by a storm in the castle of Marsh Firs, the seat of the fading aristocratic Yanovsky family. Offered refuge by Nadzeya, the last in the Yanovskys’ line, he learns of the family curse and terrible apparitions that portend her early death and trap her in permanent, maddening fear... -
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 Secret by the Lake by Louise Douglas
Rated: 4.19 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsAmy's always felt like something’s been missing in her life, but as a nanny for the Laurent family - Julia, Alain, Viviane - she feels complete.So Amy wouldn’t think of leaving them when a sudden tragedy forces them to move from France to the small lakeside cottage in the isolated Somerset village where Julia grew up.But there’s something strange about the cottage by the lake... -
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... -
Bright Young Women by Jessica Knoll
Rated: 4.16 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsAn extraordinary novel inspired by the real-life sorority targeted by America's first celebrity serial killer in his final murderous spree.January 1978. A serial killer has terrorized women across the Pacific Northwest, but his existence couldn’t be further from the minds of the vibrant young women at the top sorority on Florida State University’s campus in Tallahassee... -
The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe bestselling author of The Witch of Tin Mountain and Parting the Veil mines the subtle horrors of 1950s America in a gripping novel about a woman under pressure—from the living and the dead. The first day of autumn brought the fever, and with the fever came the voices. Missouri, 1955...Categorized as:
historical-fiction suspense gothic thriller magical-realism female-mc horror paranormal -
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... -
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Evil Unveiled by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratings"New York Times" bestselling author Robert McCammon continues his triumphant return with the conclusion of an epic tale of suspense that reinstates him as one of the great storytellers of our time....The Carolinas, 1699: After hearing damning testimony from the townspeople of Fount Royal, magistrate Isaac Woodward sentences the accused witch, Rachel Howarth, to death by burning... -
The Spinster's Fortune by Mary Kendall
Rated: 4.20 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsMoonlit alleys, shadowy tunnels, and buried secrets…Summer of 1929.Of supposed unsound mind without a penny to her name, Blanche Magruder lies alone in a home for the aged and infirm.Meanwhile, her house, a crumbled ruin in the heart of Georgetown, Washington, D.C., is pillaged nightly by thieves looking for treasure rumored to be hidden there... -
The Book of Beloved by Carolyn Haines
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsAs a young woman widowed by World War I, Raissa James is no stranger to ghosts. But when an invitation arrives from Caoin House, her uncle’s estate in Mobile, Alabama, she’s finally ready to cast off the shadows of her past...Categorized as:
gothic historical-fiction magical-realism suspense adult amateur-sleuth audiobook book -
Chinese Whispers by Peter May
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsGRUESOME MURDERSHis victims are young, beautiful and coldly mutilated. He calls himself the Beijing Ripper. Li Yan, head of Beijing's serious crime squad, must stop him.FEARSOME LETTERSJust as pathologist Margaret Campbell finds an insight into the killer's cruel signature, Li receives a letter from the killer, betraying his cruel intentions... -
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...Categorized as:
crime dark-academia gothic historical-fiction magical-realism suspense thriller 21st-century -
Sherlock Holmes & the Ripper of Whitechapel by M.K. Wiseman
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsI am afraid that I, Sherlock Holmes, must act as my own chronicler in this singular case, that of the Whitechapel murders of 1888. For the way in which the affair was dropped upon my doorstep left me with little choice as to the contrary. Not twelve months prior, the siren’s call of quiet domesticity and married life had robbed me of Watson’s assistance as both partner and recorder of my cases... -
An Ancient Evil by Paul Doherty
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsAn Ancient Evil inaugurates an ingenious new series of historical mysteries by P. C. Doherty, each one using characters from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales. In Chaucer's poem, the pilgrims narrate tales to pass the time during their journey to the sacred shrine of Canterbury; Doherty's pilgrims entertain their companions with stories of mystery, terror, and murder... -
The Dismembered by Jonathan Janz
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsIn the spring of 1912, American writer Arthur Pearce is reeling from the wounds inflicted by a disastrous marriage and the public humiliation that ensued. But his plans to travel abroad, write a new novel, and forget his ex-wife are interrupted by a lovely young woman he encounters on a London-bound train. Her name is Sarah Coyle, and the tale she tells him chills his blood... -
House of Shadows by Pamela Hartshorne
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsWhen Kate Vavasour wakes in the hospital, she remembers nothing of the family gathered around her, or of her life before the accident. The doctors diagnose post-traumatic amnesia and say the memories should start returning. Which they do—but these memories are not hers. They belong to Isabel Vavasour, who lived and died at Askerby Hall more than 400 years earlier... -
The River of Souls by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe year is 1703. The place: the Carolina settlement of Charles Town. . Matthew Corbett, professional “problem solver,” has accepted a lucrative, if unusual, commission: escorting a beautiful woman to a fancy dress ball.What should be a pleasant assignment takes a darker turn when Matthew becomes involved in a murder investigation... -
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House of Echoes by Barbara Erskine
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsThe past isn't always dead or buried...When Joss Grant, adopted at birth, inherits Belheddon Hall – a beautiful old house on the East Anglian coast – it is like a dream come true. Eager to begin a new life there with Luke, her husband, and Tom, her small son, she is also impatient to find out about her newly discovered family who lived there for generations... -
A Fine Dark Line by Joe R. Lansdale
Rated: 4.06 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsIt is the summer of 1958 in Dewmont, Texas, a town the great American postwar boom passed by. The kids listen idly to rockabilly on the radio and waste their weekends at the Dairy Queen. And an undetected menace simmers under the heat that clings to the skin like molasses..Categorized as:
crime gothic historical-fiction suspense thriller 21st-century audiobook bildungsroman -
The City of Mist: Stories by Carlos Ruiz Zafón
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsReturn to the mythical Barcelona library known as the Cemetery of Forgotten Books in this posthumous collection of stories from the New York Times bestselling author of The Shadow of the Wind and The Labyrinth of the Spirits...Categorized as:
female-mc gothic historical-fiction magical-realism suspense action-adventure adult anthologies -
The House of Closed Doors by Jane Steen
Rated: 4.05 of 5 stars · 20 ratingsIn Nell Lillington's small Midwestern town of the 1870s, marriage is the obvious fate of a young woman of some social standing. Yet Nell is determined to elude the duties and restrictions of matrimony. So when she finds herself pregnant at the age of 17, she refuses to divulge the name of the father and even her childhood friend Martin is kept in the dark... -
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... -
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 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 gothic historical-fiction suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Inspector of the Dead by David Morrell
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsLEGENDARY THRILLER WRITER DAVID MORRELL TRANSPORTS READERS TO THE FOGBOUND STREETS OF LONDON, WHERE A KILLER PLOTS TO ASSASSINATE QUEEN VICTORIA.The year is 1855. The Crimean War is raging. The incompetence of British commanders causes the fall of the English government. The Empire teeters... -
The Man With No Face by Peter May
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsBrussels, 1979. Jaded Edinburgh journalist Neil Bannerman arrives in the capital of European politics intent on digging up dirt. Yet it is danger he discovers, when two British men are found murdered. A CHILD WITH NO FATHER One victim is a journalist, the other a Cabinet Minister: the double-assassination witnessed by the former's autistic daughter... -
A Twist of Fate by Kelley Armstrong
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsFour years ago, Rosalind Courtenay stumbled from the nineteenth century to the twenty-first, where she has been trapped ever since, leaving her husband and infant son behind. Now she’s found her way back.The problem, of course, is how to explain her absence to her husband...Categorized as:
crime female-mc gothic historical-fiction magical-realism suspense action-adventure adult -
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The Listener by Robert McCammon
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratings1934. Businesses went under by the hundreds, debt and foreclosures boomed, and breadlines grew in many American cities. In the midst of this misery, some folks explored unscrupulous ways to make money. Angel-faced John Partlow and carnival huckster Ginger LaFrance are among the worst of this lot... -
A Mask of Shadows by Oscar de Muriel
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsIdols of the theatre Henry Irving and Ellen Terry are preparing to stage Macbeth in Edinburgh. But long before the actors hit the boards the play-house is hit with horror; the piercing, desolate wail of a banshee and a bloody message smeared on the street.Legendary Detective 'Nine-Nails' McGray and disgraced London sceptic Inspector Ian Frey are to investigate... -
The Daemoniac by Kat Ross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsIt's August of 1888, just three weeks before Jack the Ripper will begin his grisly spree in the London slum of Whitechapel, and another serial murderer is stalking the gas-lit streets of New York... -
Entwined by Lynda La Plante
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsNo matter how cruelly twins are separated, their lives will always be entwined.In the newly liberated streets of modern Berlin two women, a pampered, beautiful Baroness, losing control of her mind, and a fearless wild animal trainer, facing the greatest challenge of her career, are drawn together by a series of tragic and extraordinary coincidences... -
Her Sister's Death by K.L. Murphy
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsShe wanted the truth. She should have known better.When her sister is found dead in a Baltimore hotel room, reporter Val Ritter’s world is turned upside down. What’s worse—an empty pill bottle at the scene leads the police to believe the cause of death is suicide. With little more than her own conviction, Val teams up with a retired detective who has his own personal interest in the case... -
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... -
The Candle Man by Alex Scarrow
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLocked in an eerily quiet room on the Titanic, a dying man tells a young girl his life story as the ship begins to sink. It all starts in Whitechapel, London in 1888, as the Ripper murders began... -
The Burial Plot by Elizabeth Macneal
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFrom the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Doll Factory, The Burial Plot is an unstoppable historical thriller about murder, manipulation, and a young woman trying to wrestle power from the hands of a dangerous man. But he’s always one step ahead . . .London, 1839... -
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... -
Spellbinders in Suspense by Alfred Hitchcock, Robert Bloch
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTable of contents:"The Chinese Puzzle Box" by Agatha Christie"The Most Dangerous Game" by Richard Connell"The Birds" by Daphne du Maurier"Puzzle For Poppy" by Patrick Quentin"Eyewitness" by Robert Arthur"Man From The South" by Roald Dahl"Black Magic" by Sax Rohmer"Treasure Trove" by F... -
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The Serpent's Tale by Ariana Franklin
Rated: 3.96 of 5 stars · 24 ratingsAriana Franklin combines the best of modern forensic thrillers with the drama of historical fiction in the enthralling second novel in the Mistress of the Art of Death series, featuring medieval heroine Adelia Aguilar. Rosamund Clifford, the mistress of King Henry II, has died an agonizing death by poison - and the king's estranged queen, Eleanor of Aquitaine, is the prime suspect... -
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... -
Ruler of the Night by David Morrell
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThomas De Quincey is beginning to control his opium addiction when the excitement of his current case threatens to unravel his grip on reality once and for all. On their way home to the Lake District, the De Quinceys become unwitting witnesses to a truly historic murder: the first to take place on one of England's newly constructed railways... -
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 suspense thriller 20th-century action-adventure adult -
Crippen by John Boyne
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsJuly 1910: A gruesome discovery has been made at 39 Hilldrop Crescent, Camden.Chief Inspector Walter Dew of Scotland Yard did not expect the house to be empty. Nor did he expect to find a body in the cellar. Buried under the flagstones are the remains of Cora Crippen, former music-hall singer and wife of Dr. Hawley Crippen. No one would have thought the quiet, unassuming Dr... -
Haunting Jordan by P.J. Alderman
Rated: 3.92 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsRITA-nominated author P. J. Alderman weaves present-day supernatural sleuthery with nineteenth-century intrigue in the first book of an enchanting new mystery series set in picturesque Port Chatham, Washington.Jordan Marsh left L.A. for the quaint Pacific Northwest town of Port Chatham in pursuit of some much-needed R & R...
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