Books like 'The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands'
Readers who enjoyed The Man Who Would Not Shake Hands by Stephen King also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
horror fantasy mystery dark tragedy grief
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The Fabric of our Souls by K.M. Moronova
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsI’m twenty-six years old, and I want to die.So when I wake up at the hospital with my brother weeping over me, I know my life is about to change. What I didn’t expect was to get a nurse with cruel eyes and a morbid sense of humor that surpasses my own... -
Stirring the Sheets by Chad Lutzke
Rated: 4.30 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsAn elderly funeral home worker, struggling with the loss of his wife, finds an unnatural attraction to a corpse at work resembling his late bride in her younger years. A story of desperation, loneliness and letting go... -
The Thief Who Wasn't There by Michael McClung
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsBellarius, saved from utter destruction, is now plunged into vicious civil war. Amra has vanished, and while Holgren has a plan to find her and bring her back, his plan teeters between impossibility and insanity... -
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The Raven Scholar by Antonia Hodgson
Rated: 4.28 of 5 stars · 9 ratingsFrom an electrifying new voice in epic fantasy comes The Raven Scholar, a masterfully woven and playfully inventive tale of imperial intrigue, cutthroat competition, and one scholar’s quest to uncover the truth. Let us fly now to the empire of Orrun, where after twenty-four years of peace, Bersun the Brusque must end his reign... -
Donn's Hill by Caryn Larrinaga
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratings"Grief can change us... shift the way we look at the world..."Mackenzie Clair needs a fresh start. The death of her father and a broken relationship rendered her old life unlivable. What better place to build a new one than Donn's Hill, the most haunted town in America and her favorite childhood vacation spot?But returning to Donn's Hill awakens more than nostalgia... -
Whispers in the Dark by Laurel Hightower
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsRose McFarland is a trained killer--a Memphis S.W.A.T. sniper with a secret. Her team knows about the burn scars that lurk under her clothes, a legacy of the house fire that killed her father and brother sixteen years before. Her supervisors know that she spent two years in a rehabilitative facility, healing and learning to cope with the emotional trauma of the fire... -
Fierce as a Tiger Lily by Kendra Moreno
Rated: 4.33 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsTo die is no adventure. . .Tiger Lily knows that better than anyone. Death and the Tribes of Neverland have an intimate relationship, if only because their magic feeds the deity. Tiger has always walked in the darkness, and as a Daughter, she calls Death a friend.But Neverland is in trouble and Tiger finds herself in the middle of darkness she knows and a new insanity she doesn't... -
Best Friends Forever by P.J. Night
Rated: 4.25 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsKatie’s getting a new BFF—whether she likes it or not—in this scary You’re Invited to a Creepover tale.Katie Walsh is majorly bummed when her BFF moves away. But her hopes soar when the new girl at school, Whitney, befriends her right away and invites her to spend the night at her house for a sleepover. Katie loved sleepovers with her old BFF, so she’s sure she will have a great time... -
Great Tales and Poems by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 12 ratingss/t: 21 Short Story Masterpieces plus 34 Narrative & Lyric Poems Born to an unfortunate heritage, orphaned, unsympathetically raised, and then abandoned, Edgar Allan Poe struggled for greatness in an adverse social and economic climate -- a setting not improved by his fiery temperament and caustic criticism of others... -
The Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Works (Halcyon Classics) by Oscar Wilde
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThe Picture of Dorian Gray and Other Short Stories is a compilation of short stories by Oscar Wilde, along with his only novel, The Picture of Dorian Gray. It was originally published in 1888 under the title Stories: Oscar Wilde... -
Selected Writings by Edgar Allan Poe
Rated: 4.18 of 5 stars · 27 ratings'And much of Madness and more of Sin And Horror the Soul of the Plot'This selection of Poe's critical writings, short fiction and poetry demonstrates his intense interest in aesthetic issues, and the astonishing power and imagination with which he probed the darkest corners of the human mind... -
Stephen King's The Dark Tower: A Concordance, #2 by Robin Furth, Stephen King
Rated: 4.24 of 5 stars · 15 ratingsThe Dark Tower is now a major motion picture starring Matthew McConaughey and Idris ElbaA Concordance, Volume II is the definitive guide to the many worlds, argots, characters, and cross-references— within Stephen King’s bestselling epic Dark Tower series and among the rest of King's work—that appear in Books V through VII: Wolves of the Calla, Song of Susannah, and The Dark Tower... -
Stray Fears by Gregory Ashe
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsElien Martel is a survivor, but surviving, he’s beginning to discover, isn’t the same thing as living. In the house he shares with his much older boyfriend, Elien spends his days trying to stay as far away from living as possible. Living, he has learned, means that sooner or later you’ll get hurt... -
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Band of Demons by Rob Blackwell
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe highly anticipated sequel to the Kindle bestseller A Soul to StealThe past is always at your heels…Quinn O’Brion and Kate Tassel, two community journalists, tapped into a dark power last Halloween in order to stop a vicious serial killer. But they are still grappling with their new abilities—and wondering if what they unleashed may soon consume them... -
Looking Glass Sound by Catriona Ward
Rated: 4.14 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsIn a lonely cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow begins the last book he will ever write. It is the story of a sun-drenched vacation of his youth, of the terrible tragedy that forever bonded him with his friends Nat and Harper in unknowable ways, and of the killer that stalked the small New England town where they spent their summers... -
Dead Wolf Falling by Rory Miles
Rated: 4.13 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsDon’t let the darkness consume you. Easier said then done when facing off with death. I was so close to escaping and making it back to Aunt Lou, but my heart got in the way. Now I’m trapped inside of an academy full of ghosts who want to consume me. I have seven days to claim my harem and defeat the evil spirits before we’re all dead... -
Dark Carnival by Ray Bradbury
Rated: 4.10 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsOver 50 years out of print the October release of DARK CARNIVAL by RAY BRADBURY will be the literary event of the year for Bradbury fans. After many years Ray Bradbury has agreed to allow this classic to be published in a LIMITED edition, with bonus material, edited by his long-time bibliographer Donn Albright... -
Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon
Rated: 4.08 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOne of our most iconic childhood games receives a creepy twist as it becomes the gateway to a nightmare world.I went up the hill, the hill was muddy, stomped my toe and made it bloody, should I wash it?Justin knows that something is wrong with his best friend. Zee went missing for a year. And when he came back, he was . . . different. Nobody knows what happened to him... -
Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.07 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSongs of a Dreamer was Thomas Ligotti’s first collection of supernatural horror stories. When originally published in 1985 by Harry Morris’s Silver Scarab Press, the book was hardly noticed. In 1989, an expanded version appeared that garnered accolades from several quarters... -
Skeleton Crew: The Jaunt. Travel by Stephen King, Allen Hoaglund
Rated: 4.17 of 5 stars · 18 ratings"The Jaunt" is a science fiction horror short story by Stephen King first published in The Twilight Zone Magazine in 1981, and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew... -
Her Heart Beats for Ancient Beasts by Calvin Demmer
Rated: 4.50 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsAncient beings, merciless monsters, unearthly creatures, and other beasts roam these pages.A short story collection... -
Noctuary by Thomas Ligotti
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsThis collection of horror stories, many previously unpublished, includes "The Medusa," "Conversations in a Dead Language," and "Mad Night of Atonement." By the author of Grimscribe... -
Paper Dolls by Anya Allyn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsThe DARK CAROUSEL series is a heart-stopping mix of American Horror Story and the fantastical elements of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. ~In Book One, Cassie, Ethan and Lacey sought their missing friend, Aisha, in the deep of the forest... -
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A Tiny Upward Shove by Melissa Chadburn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 10 ratings“Wild and ambitious . . . [with] something ablaze at its core. It burns.” ― The New York Times Book ReviewA Tiny Upward Shove is inspired by Melissa Chadburn's Filipino heritage and its folklore, as it traces the too-short life of a young, cast-off woman transformed by death into an agent of justice―or mercy.Marina Salles’s life does not end the day she wakes up dead... -
The Rain Dancers by Greg F. Gifune
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsHe arrives in darkness, in the middle of a violent downpour...an affable old man with tales to tell... When Will and Betty Colby return to Betty's hometown to settle her late father's affairs and prepare his house for sale, they assume they'll be faced with some cleaning, basic repairs and making runs to the local dump... -
Remains by Andrew Cull
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsGrief is a black house.How far would you go? What horrors would you endure if it meant you might see the son you thought you'd lost forever?Driven to a breakdown by the brutal murder of her young son, Lucy Campbell had locked herself away, fallen deep inside herself, become a ghost haunting room 23b of the William Tuke Psychiatric Hospital... -
Chaos Unleashed: by Drew Karpyshyn
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe Legacy, a magical barrier protecting humanity from Chaos, has crumbled.Four unlikely champions, each touched with Chaos magic at birth, are all that can stop the return of Daemron the Slayer. Armed with the Talismans of power the four champions, the Children of Fire, must find the Keystone, a fabled place where, or so it is said, the Legacy can be restored... -
The New Black by Richard Thomas, Brian Evenson
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsThe New Black is a collection of twenty neo-noir stories exemplifying the best authors currently writing in this dark sub-genre. A mixture of horror, crime, fantasy, science fiction, magical realism, and the grotesque—all with a literary bent—these stories represent the future of genre-bending fiction from some of our brightest and most original voices... -
The Honeys by Ryan La Sala
Rated: 3.95 of 5 stars · 19 ratingsFrom Ryan La Sala, the wildly popular author of Reverie, comes a twisted and tantalizing horror novel set amidst the bucolic splendor of a secluded summer retreat.Mars has always been the lesser twin, the shadow to his sister Caroline's radiance... -
Survivor Type by Stephen King
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratingsSurvivor Type is a short story by Stephen King, first published in the 1982 horror anthology Terrors, edited by Charles L. Grant, and collected in King's 1985 collection Skeleton Crew.This is a graphic adaptation of the short story, adapted and illustrated by Max Miller... -
The Light is the Darkness by Laird Barron
Rated: 3.90 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsConrad Navarro is a champion of the Pageant, a gruesome modern day gladiatorial exhibition held in secret arenas across the globe. Indentured by a cabal of ultra-rich patrons, his world is one of blood and mayhem, an existence where savagery reigns supreme while mercy leads to annihilation. Conrad's sister has vanished while traveling in Mexico... -
The Crowsmoor Curse by Jan McDonald
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsLibrarian's note: Alternate cover edition of ASIN B0076DHC8M.A Mike Travis Paranormal investigation in haunted CornwallThe dead of Crowsmoor are light sleepers.Some say they sleep with one eye open, keeping watch over the restless ones... -
Black Fairy Tale by Otsuichi
Rated: 3.86 of 5 stars · 7 ratingsBestseller in Japan, this Otsuichi's YA novella defies genre categorization. Dark fantasy at its Japanese best. With bonus material including author's afterword.A raven who has learned to speak from watching movies befriends a young girl whose eyes were ruined in a freak accident... -
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Louisa The Poisoner by Tanith Lee
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratings'There are three things that grow in March Mire,' said the aunt, in a silly sing-song voice, her eyes half closed, 'and that grow nowhere else together, and seldom anywhere. Find them in one spot, take them and make them up. From them comes this dew. Oh Louisa. Listen carefully. This stuff grants the gift of death.'Louisa widened her eyes but she was not actually impressed... -
Communion Blood by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsOlivia Atta Clemens, Saint-Germain's love from the days of Imperial Rome, has died the True Death and left her lavish estates to her servant, Niklos Aurilios, but they have been claimed by a young noble who says he is the long-lost son of Olivia's dead husband. Saint-Germain may not be able to convince a court of Niklos's rights without revealing Olivia's true nature, and therefore, his own... -
Dark Carnival by James A. Moore
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsIt began with a centuries-old curse, Writ in Blood. It gave way to the hellish fury of The Pack. Now, as night descend on Serenity Falls, the fun really begins...A widow is tortured to death - by the husband she killed. A collection of curious dolls has been discovered with a terrifying secret carved in each... -
On the Edge of Twilight: 22 Tales to Follow You Home by Gregory Miller
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsGregory Miller writes: "...time fades old frights." A clever line yet not quite true, if one is to believe these stories, many of which feature the departed and their undiminished entanglement with the living... -
The Whispering by Sarah Rayne
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsFosse House, home of the reclusive Luisa Gilmore, harbours curious secrets - secrets that stretch back almost a century, to the ill-fated Palestrina Choir in its remote Belgian convent. When Oxford don Michael Flint travels to the house to trace the origins of the long-dead Choir, he is at once aware of the house's eerie menace... -
Dark Side of Sunset Pointe by Michael Allan Scott
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsLibrarian Note: Alternate Cover Edition for ISBN10: 193870195X / ISBN13: 9781938701955.“An intriguing hook and a sympathetic protagonist in a world that, while seemingly depraved and dark, is clearly recognizable and believable. A well-built mystery…” Kirkus Reviews"You see the crime through the eyes of the victims . . -
Dead of Winter by Brian Moreland
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA predator stalks the frozen woods. At a fort deep in the Ontario wilderness in 1878, a ghastly predator is attacking colonists and spreading a gruesome plague—his victims turn into ravenous cannibals with an unending hunger for human flesh. Inspector Tom Hatcher has faced a madman before, when he tracked down Montreal’s infamous Cannery Cannibal... -
Thirteen by Anya Allyn
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA short story prequel set in the thrilling world of Anya Allyn’s The Dark Carousel. This free story also includes five chapters of DOLLHOUSE, the first book in the bestselling horror series tinged with gothic romance. (less)A hidden mansion. A silent carousel. Missing girls... -
The Staircase in the Woods by Chuck Wendig
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 6 ratingsA group of friends investigates the mystery of a strange staircase in the woods in this mesmerizing horror novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Book of Accidents.Five high school friends are bonded by an oath to protect one another no matter what. Then, on a camping trip in the middle of the forest, they find something a mysterious staircase to nowhere... -
Ghosts: The Complete Series by Amy Cross
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsFor the first time, the entire Ghosts series is available in one book. Total word count is more than 150,000, approximately 500 pages of a printed book.When Beth Keneally is murdered by her father, her story should be over. Instead, she wakes up on the edge of town. Beth is a ghost, but her father is still on the loose and is determined to kill Beth's little sister Elise... -
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Flying in Place by Susan Palwick
Rated: 4.00 of 5 stars · 8 ratingsOnce in a while, a first novel arrives like a bolt of lightning, commanding attention with an explosion of power, grace, and light. Flying in Place is such a book. As unflinching as The Lovely Bones, as startling as Beloved, it is a work to bear witness--with bravery and compassion--for the experience of millions of readers and their loved ones... -
The Things She's Seen by Ambelin Kwaymullina, Ezekiel Kwaymullina
Rated: 3.88 of 5 stars · 16 ratingsNothing's been the same for Beth Teller since the day she died.Her dad is drowning in grief. He's also the only one who has been able to see and hear her since the accident. But now she's got a mystery to solve, a mystery that will hopefully remind her detective father that he is still alive, that there is a life after Beth that is still worth living... -
Sometimes They Come Back by Stephen King
Rated: 3.93 of 5 stars · 14 ratings"Sometimes They Come Back" is set in Stratford High School in Stratford, Connecticut... -
Mrs. Todd's Shortcut, from Skeleton Crew by Stephen King, David Purdham
Rated: 3.83 of 5 stars · 12 ratingsOphelia Todd is always looking for a shorter distance between two points, so she just wrinkles the map a little--until she gets caught in one of the wrinkles.Description: 1 audiocassette (78 min.) : analog, Dolby processed... -
In Silent Graves by Gary A. Braunbeck
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsRobert Londrigan seems to have it all. He is a newscaster with a rising career. He has a beautiful wife, Denise, and a new baby on the way. But in just a few short hours Robert's world is turned upside down. And the torment only gets worse when his daughter's body is stolen from the morgue by a strange, disfigured man... -
Demonsong by F. Paul Wilson
Rated: 3.80 of 5 stars · 10 ratingsThe first meeting between Glaeken and Rasalom, back in the dim recesses of the First Age. Written in the 1970s, and in a style geared more toward fantasy than the hardboiled prose of the Repairman Jack novels, "Demonsong" kicks off Wilson's massive Secret History of the World...
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