Synopsis A Mystery Scene Magazine 2021 Editor’s Pick Trust No One. Especially Your Neighbors. Rachel Drake is on the run from the man who killed her husband. She never leaves her safe haven in an anonymous doorman building, until one night a phone call sends her running. On her way to the garage, she is murdered in […]
Ghosts
Review: BestGhost: A Novelette by C.J. Daley
Just outside the town of Cemetery, two teen YouTubers investigate a past mayor’s mansion because it’s rumored to be the most haunted spot for paranormal activity– and it all goes terribly wrong during their two night investigation.
Review: The Warm Hands of Ghosts by Katherine Arden
I don’t know what kind of otherworldly sorcery Arden imbues her words with to make them feel so visceral, poignant, truthful, beautiful and powerful. I’ve rarely felt with the depth that I have through her writing, even when it’s over extremely simple or seemingly mundane things. But I do know she’ll keep having a space on my shelves any time she writes anything. This latest novel merely cemented that.
Review: The Book of Accidents by Chuck Wendig
Synopsis: Long ago, Nathan lived in a house in the country with his abusive father—and has never told his family what happened there. Long ago, Maddie was a little girl making dolls in her bedroom when she saw something she shouldn’t have—and is trying to remember that lost trauma by making haunting sculptures. Long ago, […]
REVIEW: This Wretched Valley by Jenny Kiefer
SYNOPSIS Take only pictures. Leave only bones. This trip is going to be Dylan’s big break. Her geologist friend Clay has discovered an untouched cliff face in the Kentucky wilderness, and she is going to be the first person to climb it. Together with Clay, his research assistant Sylvia, and Dylan’s boyfriend Luke, Dylan is […]
Review: If You See Her by Ania Ahlborn
Synopsis: The house on Old Mill Road has stood in an open field for longer than Jesse Wells has been alive, its crooked windows and jutting turret tormenting the kids of Warsaw, Michigan the way only a haunted house knows how. Everyone imagines that something terrible lurks within the house’s abandoned rooms—especially Jesse and his […]
Review: The Folly by Gemma Amor
Synopsis: Morgan always knew her father, Owen, never murdered her mother, and has spent the last six years campaigning for his release from prison. Finally he is set free, but they can no longer live in the house that was last decorated by her mother’s blood. Salvation comes in the form of a tall, dark […]
Review: Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes
Synopsis: William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace. Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day’s chance to restore his tarnished reputation […]
Review: Cranberry Cove by Hailey Piper
Synopsis: Bram Stoker Award-winning author Hailey Piper joins Bad Hand Books with a supernatural crime novella. What’s been happening at Cranberry Cove? It’s unspeakable. It’s unspoken. Emberly Hale is about to take a dark journey inside the derelict hotel—and inside her own past—to find out the horrible truth. Review: Hailey Piper’s Cranberry Cove begins with […]
Review: The Haunting of Velkwood by Gwendolyn Kiste
Synopsis: From Bram Stoker Award–winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a chilling novel about three childhood friends who miraculously survive the night everyone in their suburban hometown turned into ghosts—perfect for fans of Yellowjackets. The Velkwood Vicinity was the topic of occult theorists, tabloid one-hour documentaries, and even some pseudo-scientific investigations as the block of homes disappeared […]
Review: The Fisherman by John Langan
Synopsis: In upstate New York, in the woods around Woodstock, Dutchman’s Creek flows out of the Ashokan Reservoir. Steep-banked, fast-moving, it offers the promise of fine fishing, and of something more, a possibility too fantastic to be true. When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other’s company and a shared […]
Review: Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman
Synopsis To eight-year-old Bela, her family is her world. There’s Mommy, Daddo, and Grandma Ruth. But there is also Other Mommy, a malevolent entity who asks her every day: “Can I go inside your heart?” When horrifying incidents around the house signal that Other Mommy is growing tired of asking Bela the question over and […]