Recommendations based on "The Headless Horseman"

In the early 80s, after a decade of drug abuse and borderline mental illness, John Burnside resolved to escape his addictive personality and find calm in a 'Surbiton of the mind'. But the suburbs are not quite as normal as he had imagined and, as he relapses into chaos, he encounters a homicidal office worker who is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock and Petula Clark, an old lover, with whom he reprises a troubled, masochistic relationship and, finally, the seemingly flesh-and-blood embodiemnts of all his private phantoms.The sequel to his haunting, celebrated account of a troubled childhood, Waking Up in Toytown is unsettling, touching, oddly romantic and unflinchingly honest.

“The plot twists ingeniously...an engaging, often chilling book.”—The New York Times Book Review   A writer in California. A doctor in Boston. A motel owner and his employee in Nevada. A priest in Chicago. A robber in New York. A little girl in Las Vegas. They’re a handful of people from across the country, living through eerie variations of the same nightmare.    A dark memory is calling out to them. And soon they will be drawn together, deep in the heart of a sprawling desert, where the terrifying truth awaits...

The book version of the thrilling and innovative narrative podcast. On a dark and stormy night ... A pair of ghost-hunting journalists arrive at the most haunted house in Britain - the Hollow Hotel. They're here to interview the Dark King of television magic, Romeo Gideon. Instead, they discover the body of a murdered man hanging from the rafters - the work of a killer who wields actual magic as viciously as he does his blade. With the storm closing in, all exit routes cut off, and the killer taking them out one by one, their only hope lies with the two mysterious Irish detectives who seem quite at home with all this bloodshed ...Skulduggery Pleasant and Valkyrie Cain have only hours to figure out who the killer is in a hotel filled with the tortured spirits of the dead, the anguished wails of the dying, and the relentless whines of the living.

Odd Interlude, Dean Koontz’s New York Times bestselling three-part digital series—now in one volume for the first time.   THERE’S ROOM AT THE INN. BUT YOU MIGHT NOT GET OUT.   Nestled on a lonely stretch along the Pacific coast, quaint roadside outpost Harmony Corner offers everything a weary traveler needs—a cozy diner, a handy service station, a cluster of cottages . . . and the Harmony family homestead presiding over it all. But when Odd Thomas and company stop to spend the night, they discover that there’s more to this secluded haven than meets the eye—and that between life and death, there is something more frightening than either.   “[Odd Thomas is] one of the most remarkable and appealing characters in current fiction.”—The Virginian-Pilot   “An inventive . . . mix of suspense, whimsy and uplift.”—The Washington Post   “Odd Thomas is the greatest character Dean Koontz has ever created. He’s funny, humble, immensely likable, courageous, and just a joy to read about.”—Seattle Post-Intelligencer   “Koontz gives [Odd Thomas] wit, good humor, a familiarity with the dark side of humanity—and moral outrage.”—USA Today

In 1961, a Hollywood movie company came to tiny Polvo, Texas, to film a movie about Pancho Villa. However, the film was dogged with trouble: a man was found murdered on an island in the middle of the Rio Grande and the case was never solved.Now, forty years later, trading post owner Texana Jones is hosting a video crew making a special celebrating the film's anniversary. Most of the townspeople are excited by this event, but some want nothing to do with the project. On the day the townspeople gather to meet the actors, the RV belonging to actor Dane Anthony catches fire and explodes. Is it an accident or arson? And who is the mysterious river watcher in the camouflage suit? While Texana's veterinarian husband Clay fights to save several abandoned horses, Texana searches in the past for a key to the present danger. She makes some startling discoveries about her own family and about the conflicting presence of the movie people forty years earlier. But, when a local child goes missing, Texana relies on a freelance reporter to help her discover who is behind the threats and whether or not the death of the Villista is connected to present day events. As the past and present converge, Texana slowly begins to uncover a motive for all the evil, but has she done it in time to prevent further tragedy?

In New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper's new novel, an SCU team investigates a troubling string of disappearances. But how do you find someone who has vanished without a trace? Something strange is happening in the small mountain town of Serenity, Tennessee. People going on routine errands never reach their destination. It's as if they simply disappear. Over the past few weeks, it's happened to five men and women--and now a child. The local police chief calls the FBI, and a team from the Special Crimes Unit is immediately sent in. Agents Lucas and Samantha Jordan, partners in work and in life, have very different abilities. Samantha is clairvoyant and Lucas possesses a unique ability to find the lost or abducted. With them are new partners Dante Swann, a medium, and Robbie Hodge, a telepath. The town is already on the edge of panic, but the mysterious events take a sinister turn when a body unrelated to the missing persons case surfaces and one of the SCU agents vanishes. Now, the team's hunt for the lost has turned into something very personal...and very dangerous.

An SCU team investigates a string of accidents, only to uncover a deadly and deliberate monster in the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Kay Hooper. In Clarity, North Carolina, the residents have fallen victim to an unfortunate series of events. Seemingly random accidents have taken the lives of several citizens in the small mountain town. But these deadly coincidences are anything but. Something is on the hunt in Clarity, and the only clue as to what is a cryptic note given to the victims 24 hours before they meet their ends: "Wait for dark." Sheriff Mal Gordon knows how to handle his town, but he has no idea how to handle this. Hollis Templeton and her team from the Special Crimes Unit, including her partner and lover, telepath Reese DeMarco, are called in to investigate. But while the SCU has prepared them for the unknown, the incredible evil stalking Clarity shakes the team to its core when one of their own is targeted. Now Hollis, the "cat with nine lives" finds herself facing death again. And this time, not even her partner can protect her...

What happened to a teenager named Lucy one night in 1966 after a Beatles concert? She rushed the stage, kissed Paul, started home with her friends, and was never seen again-until cemetery guide and unintentional PI to the dead Pepper Martin sees her as a ghost. Lucy's spirit can't rest in peace until her body is found and buried. But how will Pepper track down a missing corpse after forty-five years?

As high summer bakes the rich earth of north-east Herefordshire, dark shadows gather around a converted hopkiln where the last owner was savagely murdered. Though the local vicar dismisses claims by its current occupants that the place is haunted, their story is soon splashed over a Sunday newspaper—and Merrily Watkins is directed by the Bishop of Hereford to defuse this situation. Merrily, however, is already contending with a woman's claim that her adopted teenage daughter is possessed by an evil spirit. In both cases Merrily remains unconvinced, but in this summer of oppressive heat and sudden storms, nothing is ever quite what it seems.

At Stanner Hall, a Victorian mansion-turned-hotel, Ben Foley hosts murder-mystery weekends and strives to prove that his hotel is the house on which Arthur Conan Doyle based his immortal Baskerville Hall. As the days shorten and the weather worsens, Foley’s dabbling uncovers more than he can handle. For the history of Stanner Hall is linked not only to the Victorian fascination with spiritualism and the legacy of a terrifying medieval exorcism—but with a chain of deaths that is far from fictional.