Suspense

Richard Franklin has left his Midwestern roots behind to live on the coast of Maine with his family. But in the autumn of the year 2000, he must return to his Illinois birthplace on a sorrowful journey. His wife Michelle has been killed in New England by a hit-and-run driver who is never found, so back home he comes with her cremated remains, to fulfill a final wish and on her birthday scatter her ashes in the park along the river in Blackwater Valley—simply Blackwater Val to locals—the small town where they both grew up and fell in love. With him he brings his six-year-old daughter Katie who still grieves for her lost mother: Katie, who can sometimes guess who’s going to be on the phone before it rings. Who can stop all the clocks in the house, and break up clouds in the sky with her mind, and heal sicknesses, and who sometimes sees things that aren’t there...people who are no longer alive. All gifts she inherited from her mother. Only something isn’t quite right in the Val. Sinkholes are opening up, revealing the plague pits the sleepy hamlet was built over in the 1830s, when malaria and cholera outbreaks ran riot. Mysterious bird and fish die-offs begin to occur, and Katie can see ghosts of the dead gathering all around. But what she can’t see is the charred, centuries-old malevolence which has been waiting for her, and wants her for its very own. Or the pale Sallow Man who haunts the town’s nighttime streets...or the river witch—another Blackwater Val, of sorts—each of whom will be drawn one by one into the nightmarish bloodletting about to take place. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Alacrimia in Layman's terms is the congenital inability to produce tears. Some places in Africa have their norms and beliefs wrapped around age-old, blind superstitions. Especially the rural communities. So when a young girl comes from the city to the village, and it is discovered, through a series of unfortunate events, that she won't cry, even when induced, things take a downward spin for her, as she finds herself from Osun State to Kogi State, and then Enugu State.

Eidolon Avenue: Where the secretly guilty go to die. One building. Five floors. Five doors per floor. Twenty-five nightmares feeding the hunger lurking between the bricks and waiting beneath the boards. The sequel to Eidolon Avenue: The First Feast (“a great read...powerful and jarring” - Cemetery Dance) returns to the voracious Eidolon as it savors The Second Feast. A narcoleptic man in apartment 2A battles a vengeful past determined to rob him of everything as he runs from the barbaric disaster of a delusional love. A woman in 2B, reinventing herself to please a callous boyfriend, discovers the horrors that wait in the shadows of her self-renovation. The man in 2C, a teacher at the nearby Catholic girl’s school, collapses beneath the brutal consequences of his lecherous desires. An older woman in 2D, after decades dedicated to the church, is cornered at last by the grisly carnage beating at the hollow center of her faith. And a college student in 2E, hungry to escape an ignored life of invisible anonymity, finds herself captured between the pages of a ravenous book. All thrown into their own private hell as every cruel choice, every drop of spilled blood, every silent, complicit moment of cowardice is remembered, resurrected and relived to feed the ancient evil that lives on Eidolon Avenue. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Vladimir Perazzo is the devil of Venice. He is everything sin stands for. Ruthless, remorseless, and merciless are the words that do no justice to what he is and what horrifying and monstrous things he has done. Zarina has always been an unordinary girl. Being raised in terrible circumstances, she thinks she has seen the worst of the worst and that no one in the world really cares. When fate intervenes and entwines their lives together, they will learn they have much more in common than they thought. [The PERAZZO Series: Book 1] NOTE: This book contains mystery and suspense elements, and not all the questions will be immediately answered.

In the quiet of the forest, the darkest fears are born. The people of Dunballan, harbour a dark secret. A secret more terrible than the Beast that stalks the dense forests of Dunballan. A secret that holds David McCavendish, last in a long line of Lairds, in its unbreakable grip. It’s down to Sally, David’s lover, to free David from the sinister clutches of the Beast. But, with the whole town against her, she must ally herself with an ancient woodland force and trace Dunballan’s secret back to its bitter origins. Those origins lie within the McCavendish family history, and a blasphemous heresy that stretches back to the beginning of time. Some truths are too terrible to face, and the darkest of these lie waiting for Sally, in the Quiet Places. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

Hanggang saan ka magsisikap na maabot ang iyong layunin? Nagawa mo bang ipagkanulo ang iyong mga kaibigan- kahit na hindi ka kamukha ng taong gagawa ng ganoong bagay? Gutom sa tagumpay at papuri, si Lily Jenkins ay tumanggap ng alok mula sa isang napakatagumpay na paaralan. Dahil sa kasakiman at pananabik ay nagawa niya ang mga bagay na hindi niya dapat gawin, na kung saan ang kanyang pagkakasala ay aatake sa kanya mamaya. Papayagan ba niya ang isang punong guro na ayusin ang kanyang kapalaran? O subukang umasa sa kanyang mga kaibigan kahit na hindi sila masyadong mapagkakatiwalaan? Alamin sa SCHOLAR, isang memoir kung paano makukuha ng paaralang ito ang kanilang mga estudyante sa kanilang mga marahas na bersyon. Batay sa totoong buhay na mga sitwasyong pang-akademiko, dadalhin ka ng maikling novella na ito sa isang kapanapanabik na paglalakbay nang walang mga bobong karakter, ngunit may mga taong mapaglihim na maaaring maging ang pangunahing tauhan, o maging ang may-akda mismo. Is she really a psychopath?

History student Alex Palmer is thrilled when his girlfriend, Claire Ryan, buys an apartment in Belle Vue Manor, formerly a Victorian lunatic asylum. But as Alex begins to discover the dark truth about the asylum’s past, he, Claire, and their friend Marianne find themselves on a nightmarish journey. Each will face the deadly consequences of the evil that began with the construction of the first Belle Vue Manor by an aristocratic French émigré in 1789, as well as the cruelty and satanic practices that continued when it became an asylum for the insane. As the two strands—past and present—unfold, Alex uncovers a supernatural mystery where revenge is paramount and innocence irrelevant—without being aware of the price he, and those around him, will pay. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

There are monsters in this world. And they used to be us. Now it's time to euthanize to survive in a hospice where Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. Post-infection Chicago. Christmas. Inside The Hospice, Emily and her fellow nurses do their rounds. Here, men and women live out their final days in comfort, segregated from society, and are then humanely terminated before fate turns them into marrow-craving monsters known as ‘Smilers.’ Outside these imposing walls, rabid protesters swarm with signs, caught up in the heat of their hatred. Emily, a woman haunted by her past, only wants to do her job and be the best mother possible. But in a world where mortality means nothing, where guns are drawn in fear and nobody seems safe anymore – at what cost will this pursuit come? And through it all, the soon to be dead remain silent, ever smiling. Such is their curse. It won't be long before that snow-speckled ground will be salted by blood. ©️ Crystal Lake Publishing

**Strong language and sexual and violent situations** Lexi goes to Dallas to spend the weekend with her old high school friend, Brock Lockhart. However, the fun weekend turns into a death trap that Lexi might not walk away from. Will Lexi, Brock, and the other guests survive?

Run for the money. It’s part of the show. If he catches up, he won’t let go. Anya I’m in trouble—the kind that comes from a mobster and my irresponsible father. He killed himself and left me—and my underage sisters—holding the bag. Dmitri Ivanov wants half a million within two weeks, or he’s going to force us into the sex trade and keep my sweet little sister for himself. I’m desperate, so when I see the twisted reality TV show, “The Island,” I decide to compete. It’s only one weekend, and if the hunters don’t catch me, I get a million dollars. If they do, I still get paid—and extra for being a virgin. I just have to avoid getting trapped. But when I meet Spencer, maybe I don’t mind him catching and claiming me… Spencer My brother tricks me into coming with him for a weekend of hunting. I’m not into the outdoors and have never hunted an animal before. When I find out we’re supposed to hunt women instead, I’m ready to walk out. Until Anya walks in. One look at her, and I know she’s mine. I can’t fight the primal, possessive need to catch and claim her. There’s just one problem. If I have her for the weekend, how will I ever let her go? This is a contemporary romance with suspense and dark themes. While consensual, certain fantasy elements acted out between Spencer and Anya can be triggering to sensitive readers.