Southern Thrillers

A haunted call. A decaying mansion. A darkness that refuses to die. Father Gomez has spent years battling the supernatural, but nothing prepares him for the chilling summons that draws him to Belle Palm—a once-grand Louisiana estate shrouded in secrets and shadow. Joined by his loyal partners, Hibbs and Dr. Ling, Gomez is thrust into a labyrinth of ghostly apparitions, cryptic symbols, and a haunting that defies all reason. As the team delves deeper into the mansion’s history, reality itself begins to unravel. Sinister forces stalk the halls, trust frays, and the boundary between past ...

Family meant everything to Ayden Stratton. It always had even when he didn’t always allow it to show. Because of that, he understood the fury in Tobias Blaise’s eyes when they learned that his sister had been dragged out the backdoor of her restaurant despite every effort to stop her from being kidnapped. Fury didn’t begin to describe what he saw in his brother’s face. Cassidy Blaise might be Tobias’s sister, but she was Benjamin’s entire world. Tobias Blaise never expected to find any woman he wanted to spend his life with, let alone one who looked at him the way Ellis did, ...

Women’s rights activist, Lynn Cummings, switches up churches like shoes. As soon as her anointing is exposed, she runs – that is, until she finds a pew at First Baptist Church, where Lynn is anchored by the wiles of the debonair Pastor Stewart. Lynn, becomes the woman on Stewart’s arm, and with that, becomes the target of women who are always up in Pastor Stewart’s face, namely, his quote-unquote friend Bianca, the skin-bleaching, man-worshipping teen choir director who’ll stop at nothing to become Stewart’s first lady. Even Nay, the wife of Stewart’s right hand man, Associate...

There are two days until Christmas. Bob Ashworth, a young associate attorney at the Haunted Law firm, and his wife Samantha are on their way to spend the holiday with Big Jim Tompkins, one of the firm’s major clients, at the Tompkins mansion deep in the North Carolina mountains. In the meantime, Mitch and Diana McCaffrey and Diana’s sons are preparing to celebrate Christmas with their friends Ben Callahan and Alyssa McCormick, a couple of mountain ridges over from the Tompkins place. The most severe snowstorm in thirty years is moving in. The quiet holiday takes an unexpected turn when ...

Ruby Mae Jewell's talents to pick the best bargains for her family's business are hotter than the hinges on the gates of Hades! But when one of her friends gets stabbed at his own wedding reception, her abilities to solve the mystery go completely cold. There are a lot more questions than answers, and with more than the groom's life in the balance, Rue might need a lot of help to stitch things back together. Will Ruby Mae's five-alarm fire powers help her find the culprit who hurt her friends or will they disappear in a puff of smoke?

In Murder Gets a Life, middle-aged sisters Mary Alice and Patricia Ann are sleuthing their way through a mystery that is hotter than Alabama in August. Mary Alice’s son has married Sunshine, a petite blond who is cute as a button. Her family, however, lives in a junk-filled trailer compound dotted with rusty engines and pit bulls. When Mary Alice and Patricia Ann pay a call on the family, the sisters hardly have time to meet Sunshine’s spirit-channeling grandmother before they stumble over a large corpse on her floor. The local sheriff just can’t seem to get moving in the summer heat.

When former prosecutor Penn Cage returns to his hometown of Natchez, Mississippi, he doesn't find the peace he desperately craves. He finds that his own father is being blackmailed by a corrupt ex-cop. And when Penn investigates, he uncovers a murderous secret - and the small town's violent past.

Keith Michaels sits on Georgia's death row convicted of the brutal murder of the wife of an Atlanta dentist-a crime he did not commit. Keith's sister Diane is determined to see her brother freed and hires the Atkinson Detective Agency to find evidence that Keith did not commit the crime. Mike and Linda Atkinson, along with Linda's brother Tommy Cevilli set out to disprove the overwhelming evidence that led to Keith's conviction. Their search leads them to the actual brutal killer and more of his heinous crimes, but he is determined to not have his crimes uncovered and is willing to do ...

The Akashic Noir series’ forensic study of Southern California sharpens its focus on one of Los Angeles’ most recognized neighborhoods.

Here’s a dirty little secret. Spirits can kill you. Sandy couldn’t take it anymore. Her work as a psychic for the LAPD was tearing her apart. Murders. Playing out in her head at night and slipping into her thoughts during the day. She quit. Her friend Mary Grace was still in the game, working with the police and running psychic investigations on the side. She had a séance planned. One that was right up Sandy’s alley. All she had to do was convince Sandy to join her. Holding a séance is the psychic’s way of opening doors, and Mary Grace was an expert. Sandy reluctantly said yes, ...

Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. But after years of working as an FBI agent, Titus knows better than anyone that while his hometown might seem like a land of moonshine, cornbread, and honeysuckle, secrets always fester under the surface. Then a year to the day after Titus’s election, a school teacher is killed by a former student and the student is fatally shot by Titus’s deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes.

Meet Jane. Newly arrived to Birmingham, Alabama, Jane is a broke dog-walker in Thornfield Estates—a gated community full of McMansions, shiny SUVs, and bored housewives. The kind of place where no one will notice if Jane lifts the discarded tchotchkes and jewelry off the side tables of her well-heeled clients. Where no one will think to ask if Jane is her real name. But her luck changes when she meets Eddie Rochester. Recently widowed, Eddie is Thornfield Estates’ most mysterious resident.

They took her mother 23 years ago. Now they want Ava. Forced home at Rosegate Farm by fragmented memories, Ava Cade learns her mother didn't abandon her but was murdered by a criminal network hiding secrets in plain sight. From hidden cellars to powerful men and corrupt officials, Ava unearths a conspiracy tied to land, money, and blood. With allies she barely knows and enemies lurking in the shadows, she's in a race against time. Justice is a long shot in the bayou... unless you fight for it!

In the spring of 1954, Dawson, Georgia, is a quiet place. A good place to raise a family. Until one savage act shatters the peacefulness of this small Southern town. Six-year-old Noah McAllister is oblivious to the fact that he is about to set off a chain of events that will lead to the downfall of the McAllister family. As he makes the quarter-mile trek home from school, Noah is unaware that just yards away, hidden behind the solid oaks that line the dirt lane leading to the McAllister farm, someone is watching. At first, lost in a daydream, he doesn’t hear the muffled whimper or see the...

When Charity Penn receives a letter saying she won a trip to Camellia Beach, South Carolina, complete with free cooking lessons at the town's seaside chocolate shop, The Chocolate Box, she's immediately skeptical. She never entered any contest. Her former prep school friend offers to look into the phony prize - only to end up drowned in a vat of chocolate. Struck with guilt, Penn heads to the southern beach town to investigate why he was killed.

An upcoming election shakes up Honeysuckle. When an outspoken resident who opposes the changes to the magical small Southern town turns up dead, it's up to Charli Goodwin and her special talents to get on the case, except her valuable magic doesn't seem to be working. What starts as a simple search uncovers a darker layer of manipulation and sabotage. Will Charli be able to figure out who is pulling the strings before the foundations of the town are destroyed?

Vera Boyett is a master at cracking a case. After tragedy destroyed her career as deputy police chief, she felt lost. Moving back home near her sisters, she put her skills back to use as a crime analyst, and now her star is finally back on the rise. Vera’s work really begins to heat up after the local sheriff, Gray “Bent” Benton, calls to ask her for assistance with a pressing case. Pushing aside their complicated past, Vera agrees to help Bent search for a missing reporter.

With this critically acclaimed debut collection, Frank Bill announces himself as an author of fiercely defined vision. In these vivid tales, Bill’s southern Indiana proves a literary destination of immense nuance, even as his mostly working-class characters cry out in voices that cannot be denied.

Thirteen-year-old Loyal Raines is supposed to stay close to home on a hot summer day in 1934. When he slips away for a quick swim in the river and finds a dead body, he wishes he'd obeyed his mother. The ripples caused by his discovery will impact the town of Beverly, West Virginia, in ways no one could have imagined.

For 30 years, a secret agency called the Southern Reach has monitored expeditions into Area X - a remote and mysterious place that's sequestered from civilization. After the twelfth expedition, the Southern Reach is in disarray, and John Rodriguez (a.k.a. "Control") is the team's newly appointed head. From a series of interrogations, a cache of hidden notes, and more than 200 hours of profoundly troubling video footage, the secrets of Area X begin to reveal themselves - and what they expose pushes Control to confront truths about both himself and the agency he's promised to serve.