Recommendations based on Afraidby Jack Kilborn

* statistically, based on millions of data-points provided by fellow humans

  1. Off Season

    by Jack Ketchum
    A young girl's survival in a lawless, post-apocalyptic world.

    A group of friends from New York City travel to Dead River, Maine for a weeklong vacation by the coastline. Unbeknownst to them a clan of cannibalistic, inbred savages have taken up residency in a ... (Wikipedia)

  2. The Girl Next Door

    by Jack Ketchum
    A teenage girl is subjected to horrific abuse by her aunt and cousins, while her neighbors turn a blind eye.

    Suburbia. Shady, tree-lined streets, well-tended lawns and cozy homes. A nice, quiet place to grow up. Unless you are teenage Meg or her crippled sister, Susan. On a dead-end street, in the dark, ... (Goodreads)

  3. Pet Sematary

    by Stephen King
    A family's terrifying journey of life and death, as the line between the living and the dead blurs.

    Louis Creed, a doctor from Chicago , is appointed director of the University of Maine 's campus health service. He moves to a large house near the small town of Ludlow with his wife Rachel, their two ... (Wikipedia)

  4. Sweetheart

    by Chelsea Cain
    A serial killer is on the loose, and detective Archie Sheridan must work with his captor, the beautiful and twisted Gretchen Lowell, to catch him.

    , Portland detective Archie Sheridan, the former head of the Beauty Killer Task Force, hunted Gretchen Lowell for years before she kidnapped him, tortured him, and then let him go. Now that she is ... (Goodreads)

  5. Whiskey Sour

    by J.A. Konrath
    A serial killer is on the loose and Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels must catch him before he strikes again.

    First in an explosive series, millions sold worldwide... Lieutenant Jacqueline "Jack" Daniels is having a bad week. Her live-in boyfriend has left her for his personal trainer, chronic insomnia has ... (Barnes & Noble)

  6. Power Down

    by Ben Coes
    A terrorist group takes control of a nuclear power plant, and only one man can stop them. Fast-paced action and political intrigue ensue.

    Introducing a major new thriller writer–in the vein of Vince Flynn and Brad Thor--and an electrifying character, Dewey Andreas., A major North American hydroelectric dam is blown up and the largest ... (Goodreads)

  7. The Client

    by John Grisham
    A young boy is thrust into a legal battle, as he tries to protect himself and his family.

    Boyd Boyette, a United States Senator from Louisiana, goes missing. Because of his vocal opposition to a proposed major toxic landfill project by a company known to be Mafia-backed, murder is ... (Wikipedia)

  8. Abandon

    by Blake Crouch
    A woman's search for her missing husband leads her to a mysterious ghost town where time doesn't behave normally.

    A gripping thriller from Blake Crouch, internationally bestselling author of the Wayward Pines trilogy. On Christmas Day in 1893, every man, woman, and child in a remote gold-mining town disappeared, ... (Goodreads)

  9. The Terror

    by Dan Simmons
    A gripping survival story set during the doomed Arctic expedition of the HMS Terror.

    The story begins, in medias res, in the winter of 1847, when HMS, Terror, and HMS, Erebus, have been trapped in ice, 28 miles north-northwest of King William Island , for more than a year. The ... (Wikipedia)

  10. One Shot

    by Lee Child
    A former military investigator must solve a murder case in a short period of time.

    In a small Indiana city, a lone gunman in a parking garage calmly fires into a rush-hour crowd in a public plaza, committing a massacre of five apparently random victims with six shots. The shooter ... (Wikipedia)

  11. Rising Sun

    by Michael Crichton
    A murder mystery set in the world of Japanese business and politics, exploring cultural differences and corporate corruption.

    Nakamoto Corporation is celebrating the grand opening of its new headquarters, the Nakamoto Tower, in Downtown Los Angeles ; the 45th floor of the building is awash with celebrities, dignitaries and ... (Wikipedia)

  12. Live by Night

    by Dennis Lehane
    A young man rises through the ranks of organized crime during Prohibition-era America, facing danger and betrayal along the way.

    By 1926, Prohibition in the United States gives rise to an endless network of underground distilleries, speakeasies, gangsters, and corrupt cops. Joe Coughlin, the youngest son of a prominent Boston ... (Wikipedia)

  13. The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror

    by Christopher Moore
    A bizarre Christmas tale of an angel's misadventure to save a small town.

    An angel named Raziel (previously in Moore's novel, Lamb, ) is sent to Earth to grant the wish of a child; he decides to help a boy who had witnessed the death of a man dressed as Santa Claus . ... (Wikipedia)

  14. Doc

    by Mary Doria Russell
    A tale of a doctor's quest to understand an alien race, and the moral dilemmas he faces.

    The year is 1878, peak of the Texas cattle trade. The place is Dodge City, Kansas, a saloon-filled cow town jammed with liquored-up adolescent cowboys and young Irish hookers. Violence is random and ... (Goodreads)

  15. Summer of Night

    by Dan Simmons
    A group of boys in a small town uncover a sinister force lurking in their midst during the summer of 1960.

    Set in Elm Haven, Illinois, in 1960, Summer of Night recounts its five pre-teen protagonists' discovery that eerie, terrifying events are unfolding in the Old Central School. Operatives, including a ... (Wikipedia)

  16. The Halloween Tree

    by Ray Bradbury
    A group of children embark on an adventure through time, exploring the origins of Halloween.

    A group of eight boys set out to go trick-or-treating on Halloween , only to discover that a ninth friend, Pipkin, has been whisked away on a journey that could determine whether he lives or dies. ... (Wikipedia)

  17. A Painted House

    by John Grisham
    A young boy's journey of growing up on an Arkansas cotton farm, learning life lessons along the way.

    "The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked ... (Goodreads)

  18. Calico Joe

    by John Grisham
    A former professional baseball player confronts his past while his son faces a career-ending injury.

    Author Grisham once dreamed of a career as a professional baseball player for the St. Louis Cardinals . , This, his first baseball novel, is about a beanball that ends the career of a promising ... (Wikipedia)

  19. Garden Spells

    by Sarah Addison Allen
    A tale of family secrets and magical powers, set in a small Southern town.

    Claire Waverley lives alone in small Bascom, North Carolina. The only person she's close to is an elderly relative named Evanelle, who has the gift of giving people exactly what they need before they ... (Wikipedia)

  20. The Brass Verdict

    by Michael Connelly
    Defense attorney Mickey Haller inherits a high-profile murder case from a colleague, but soon realizes he may be in over his head.

    Since the events of the previous novel, attorney Mickey Haller has spent a year recuperating from his wounds and a subsequent addiction to painkillers. He is called back to the practice of law when ... (Wikipedia)

  21. Duma Key

    by Stephen King
    A man moves to a remote island to recover from a traumatic accident and discovers his artistic talent has a dark power.

    Wealthy Minnesotan building-contractor Edgar Freemantle barely survives a severe work-site accident wherein his truck is crushed by a crane. Freemantle loses his right arm, and suffers severe head ... (Wikipedia)

  22. 61 Hours

    by Lee Child
    An ex-military cop races against the clock to uncover a sinister plot and protect a witness in small-town South Dakota.

    Jack Reacher is hitching a ride on a senior citizen's tour through South Dakota in the middle of winter when the bus skids out on the interstate, disabling it. Together with the bus driver and the ... (Wikipedia)

  23. Without Fail

    by Lee Child
    An ex-military investigator takes on a secret mission to locate a missing person.

    Jack Reacher arrives in Atlantic City after hitching a ride cross-country with a couple of aging blues musicians who dream of playing at B.B. King 's club in New York City . He is approached there by ... (Wikipedia)

  24. Patriot Games

    by Tom Clancy
    A former CIA analyst must protect his family from domestic terrorists, while thwarting a major international conspiracy.

    A kidnapping attempt on the Prince and Princess of Wales and their infant son occurs at the Mall in London . The attack is orchestrated by members of the Ulster Liberation Army , an ideologically ... (Wikipedia)

  25. Shutter Island

    by Dennis Lehane
    A U.S. Marshal investigates a psychiatric hospital on a remote island, uncovering chilling secrets and an unexpected truth.

    In 1954, widower U.S. Marshal Edward "Teddy" Daniels and his new partner, Chuck Aule, go on a ferry boat to Shutter Island, the home of Ashecliffe Hospital for the criminally insane, to investigate ... (Wikipedia)

  26. The Beach House

    by James Patterson
    A family's summer holiday turns into a life-or-death struggle when their beach house is targeted by a ruthless criminal.

    Jack Mullen is a driven student of the law. His brother Peter is a servant of the rich, parking the cars of the Hamptons' elite –- and perhaps satisfying their more intimate needs as well. Then ... (Goodreads)

  27. The Lincoln Lawyer

    by Michael Connelly
    A defense attorney navigates the legal system and unravels a conspiracy that could destroy him.

    Moderately successful criminal defense attorney Mickey Haller operates around Los Angeles County out of a Lincoln Town Car (hence the title) driven by a former client working off his legal fees. ... (Wikipedia)

  28. Joyland

    by Stephen King
    A young man's investigation into a mysterious amusement park, uncovering secrets and discovering his own identity in the process.

    The novel is set at a North Carolina amusement park in 1973 and involves a carny who must confront the "legacy of a vicious murder and the fate of a dying child". Devin Jones, age twenty-one, who ... (Wikipedia)

  29. The Exorcist

    by William Peter Blatty
    A priest's battle against a powerful demon possessing a young girl.

    An elderly Jesuit priest named Father Lankester Merrin is leading an archaeological dig in northern Iraq and is studying ancient relics. After discovering a small statue of the demon Pazuzu (an ... (Wikipedia)

  30. World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War

    by Max Brooks
    A collection of interviews recounting tales of the zombie apocalypse.

    It has been nearly twenty years since the start of the apocalyptic worldwide pandemic known as the Zombie War, and about ten years since the war has ended in humanity's victory. The framing device ... (Wikipedia)