In Marcus Kliewer’s stunning debut horror novel, “We Used to Live Here,” a couple moves into a house haunted by a past that turns into a horrifying experience.
Working on serious renovations, Charlie and Eve think they have found their dream house until one evening when Eve answers the door to a man and his family standing on the front porch.
He asks permission to come inside, telling Eve they used to live in the house and that taking one last look around would make his family proud. A people pleaser, Eve caves and invites them in.
“We’ll stay fifteen minutes, tops,” the man tells Eve. Time passes, and the family makes themselves comfortably at home, peppering Eve with questions about the house and its past and traipsing every square inch of the place as if they owned it. Then, strange situations and ghostly presences develop.
To Eve’s horror, one of the daughters goes missing, playing hide and seek in the basement, only to return later, muttering that she had seen a threatening figure watching her from the shadows.
Eve knows something is wrong with the house and the visiting family. Did she make a mistake inviting them in, or are the unusual occurrences just part of her imagination? Either way, it may be too late when all hell breaks loose.
Our Kind of Game
Joanna Copeland’s engaging debut thriller, “Our Kind of Game,” visits two terrifying stories told in two different timelines.
In 2019, Stella Parker lives the life she thought she wanted with a handsome, caring husband, two beautiful daughters she would do anything for, and a thriving law career. She ended up living her best life and being the best mother, residing in the suburbs of Washington, DC.
Behind the glamourous, smiling façade lies a dark secret Stella has been hiding her entire life. One day, everything she had worked hard to protect comes to a head. Adding to her anxieties about being found out, Stella’s neighbor Gwen arrives at her house, hoping to expose Stella’s dark secret.
In 1987, Julie Waits worked tirelessly to be a cheerleader. She struggles with the negative names her headstrong teammates call her behind her back and to her face and the threatening catcalls she receives when her mother’s live-in boyfriend, Kevin, picks her up after rehearsals.
To everybody else, Julie looks like an easy girl who gets around, sleeping with every attractive bad boy. But Julie knows that is not the truth. Julie accepts Kevin’s rides because she knows what Kevin will do to her if she does not get into the car.
In public, Julie is fierce and wears a mask to hide the hurt and pain she has lived with for a long time. Behind closed doors, Julie’s home life is anything but happy.
She, too, lives with a secret. But that secret turns into a violent game of retribution between mother and daughter when Kevin gets in the middle of the two women.
Copeland does a good job of ratcheting suspense between both timelines as the two stories merge, connecting both women’s stories with an arresting exploration of broken families and shocking revelations.
Cold Burn
Writing duo Jon Land and Jeff Ayers make up the pen name A.J. Landau, and they return with a second explosive thriller in the National Park series, “Cold Burn.”
Agent Michael Walker (“Leave No Trace”) hunts a ruthless, shrewd killer and tries to stop a global disaster from occurring before innocent lives are lost.
A U.S. Geological Survey Team has been dispatched to Glacier National Bay and Preserve in Alaska to measure ice thickness. When they arrive, they discover that the sediment has been rapidly melting from warm temperatures precipitated by global warming. In the beginning, fast-paced pages, the scientists find more than they came for. From the unforeseen discovery, a more significant dilemma arises when the team goes missing.
Meanwhile, a body washes ashore in the Everglades National Park, adding another mysterious layer of suspicion to the ongoing investigation of a devastating ecosystem and the case of a sunken U.S. nuclear submarine.
Landau heightens the tension by placing the book’s protagonist, Michael Walker, in immediate danger, placing him in the middle of chaos when a shootout at the Sheldon Jackson Museum kills a tour guide and maims a bystander. The plot thickens when a missing artifact, vital to the investigation, raises stakes.
“Cold Burn” is an excellent crime novel, richly layered with history, memorable characters, and top-shelf entertainment. It is an explosive, taut, unputdownable, and nail-biting reading experience.
Thomas Grant Bruso is a Plattsburgh resident who writes fiction and has been an avid reader of genre fiction since he was a kid. Readers and writers are invited to connect and discuss books and writing at www.facebook.com/thomasgrantbruso