Sunshine, green grass, tulips…gravestones, blood splatters, vampires… Ah! Spring has sprung! 

While your aesthetic friends are busy reading Pride and Prejudice as the breeze ruffles the book’s pages, we need you to ask them a very important question: “Can Elizabeth Bennet see the dead?” The answer is no.

This year, we encourage you to balance out your Spring. While you are outside sitting under the shade of a green, full of life tree we suggest you pull a Sunbury Press book out of your tote bag, lean up against the tree trunk, and read about death, darkness, and murder. The theme for this season is Spooky Spring, and to get you in the spirit of the season we have compiled a list of 5 horror books (a starter pack that will have you also purchasing a night light and possibly a baseball bat to keep beside your bed while you sleep).

Let’s explore your new Spooky Spring starter pack books!

The Carousel Man by Stephen Paul Sayers

When the ride ends, the terror begins…

The nightmares and visions are getting worse for crime writer Jack Rainne. He can’t shake the childhood memory of a haunting carousel ride in a desolate Missouri cornfield. The psych ward docs convinced him long ago the frightening images were all in his head. Twenty-five years later, he’s not so sure. He spots the carousel and its grizzled operator a thousand miles away from the Missouri cornfield, captured in a photo taken the night a young family vanishes from a local carnival.

The problem? Jack is in the photo, too.

Did I mention dead people? Jack sees them. And the murders he pens in his novels resemble several unsolved killings in the area. His wife, Sam, begs him to get help—right before she vanishes. With a trail of evidence pointing his way, Jack is forced to go on the run. His only hope for answers is a return to the Missouri cornfield where it all began. There, he uncovers a shocking truth—and a long-forgotten promise he’s condemned to fulfill.

Page Count: 292

Imprint: Hellbender Books

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Horror / Occult & Supernatural / Thrillers

The Keeper of the Crows by Kyle Alexander Romines

No evil can remain buried forever, as disgraced journalist Thomas Brooks discovers when a wave of death grips the rural Kentucky town of Gray Hollow in terror.

Following a very public humiliation, Thomas is looking for a story to get him back on the map—and free of the small town newspaper where he serves out his exile. The apparent murder of a stranger seems to be just what the opportunistic reporter needs, until he discovers the death is merely the start of something bigger.

Also investigating the murder is Sheriff Jezebel Woods, who doesn’t approve of Thomas’ sensationalist intentions. Mounting deaths force the pair to set aside their differences to confront a force that threatens to destroy the entire town.

At the center of the mystery is the disappearance of a boy named Salem Alistair, who designed a series of grotesque scarecrows for his parents’ farm—scarecrows that are turning up at each subsequent crime scene. Thomas begins to doubt his uneasy alliance with the sheriff when he realizes Jezebel has her own secret history with Salem Alistair.

Thomas and Jezebel are completely unprepared to face the supernatural force at odds with Gray Hollow. As the killings continue, and the town slowly begins to yield its dark secrets, the truth will pit Thomas and Jezebel on a collision course with true evil. 

Page Count: 286

Imprint: Hellbender Books

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Horror

Curse of the Bayou Beast (The Watchmaker Revelations: Book 3) by Michael L. Hawley

The Watchmaker is fully aware the most dangerous type of serial killer is one who keeps to the shadows. Unknown to New Orleans one is systematically mutilating and collecting his victims. Young Rob Faulks, protégé to the Watchmaker, has a monumental task; convincing the authorities that their city is plagued by a type of serial offender never before encountered in modern times  – a bloodthirsty terror in control of a monstrous beast. His mentor comes to his aid, but serial killer sleuth Dr. Edward Dunham soon discovers the offender’s wrath may be too much for this city to handle. Scientific naturalism, Cajun folklore, and voodoo spiritualism collide, and within the confusion the Watchmaker discovers an unwanted truth; a reality best denied than embraced. Dunham’s unmatched, almost unnatural skills are put to the test to stop this viscous killer, yet one fact is constantly on his mind – the fiend still owns the shadows.

Page Count: 260

Imprint: Hellbender Books

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Horror / Mystery & Detective / Police Procedural / Thrillers / Crime / Supernatural

Pig by Nancy Williams

Meadville, Pennsylvania is a small college town nestled at the foot of a strange little mountain called Round Top. Some call it Pig Mountain.

Legend has it that a sinister race of people live up there: the Pig People of Round Top, strange and dangerous mutants that steal women. Women have been disappearing from town for years, gone without a trace. Some are convinced it’s The Pig People, taking the women to breed. Nobody really knows. But the town is on edge, gone fearful of the night.

Carrie Owens has heard the story, but doesn’t believe it. She knows terror has other faces, for she volunteers at the local battered women’s shelter. She doesn’t give credence to the boogeyman. Until one night it becomes her reality.

PIG is a poignant story of obsession, love, and the terrible consequences of what happens when reality and fantasy blur. It is a tale of the remarkable power of the mind and how it will do anything to protect itself.

Page Count: 230

Imprint: Hellbender Books 

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Horror / Thrillers / Supernatural

Pink Crucifix by Johnny Strife

Being the First Part of the Passion Plaything Trilogy

Pink Crucifix is a darkly comic romance with horror and fantasy elements. The story of courtship between a vampire and her thrall endeavors to be analogous to that of a young man’s awkward attempts to maintain a relationship with an emotionally distant, much older, much more powerful woman. The story spans one night, but stretches back ninety years into the past, through the recollections of various characters. Ian Raith is an American soldier stationed in the medieval Bavarian town of Bamberg. Since his unit is scheduled to deploy to Afghanistan soon, he and his friend and subordinate, Nikolas Skandalis, take advantage of an Easter training holiday to abscond to the Netherlands. There, they score a large quantity of “Pink Crucifix” ecstasy from the Bosnian drug dealer Omar Amsterdam, in the hopes of selling it to their buddies downrange at a vastly inflated price. While sampling the pills in the Red Light District that night, Ian encounters a lovely German girl named Lorelei Böse, who appears to be surrounded by a glowing red aura. Enchanted and besotted, he follows her into the darkness, and quickly descends into a maelstrom of death and destruction, in which everything he has is taken from him. But Ian might discover that sometimes, one must lose everything in order to find the one thing that matters.

Page Count: 220

Imprint: Hellbender Books

Genre/Themes: Fiction / Horror / Thrillers / Psychological / Supernatural / Crime

Thank you for checking out our list of “Spooky Spring – 5 books to get in the spirit of the season”! Stay tuned for more blog posts like this one coming soon!