The Stranger Inside

A woman returns home to find a stranger living in her house in this "suspenseful and moving" psychological drama from an Edgar Award-nominated author (Meg Gardiner) -- perfect for readers of Shari Lapena and Liane Moriarty. There's a stranger living in Kimber Hannon's house. He tells the police that he has every right to be there, and he has the paperwork to prove it. But Kimber definitely didn't invite this man to move in. He tells her that he knows something about her, and he wants everyone else to know it, too. "I was there. I saw what you did." These words reveal a connection to Kimber's distant past, and dark secrets she'd long ago left buried. This trespasser isn't after anything as simple as her money or her charming Craftsman bungalow. He wants to move into her carefully orchestrated life -- and destroy it.

Literature & Fiction

Benedict, Laura

United States

Mulholland Books

A woman returns home to find a stranger living in her house in this "suspenseful and moving" psychological drama from an Edgar Award-nominated author (Meg Gardiner) -- perfect for readers of Shari Lapena and Liane Moriarty. 
There's a stranger living in Kimber Hannon's house. He tells the police that he has every right to be there, and he has the paperwork to prove it. But Kimber definitely didn't invite this man to move in. He tells her that he knows something about her, and he wants everyone else to know it, too. 
"I was there. I saw what you did." These words reveal a connection to Kimber's distant past, and dark secrets she'd long ago left buried. This trespasser isn't after anything as simple as her money or her charming Craftsman bungalow. He wants to move into her carefully orchestrated life -- and destroy it.

“Isabella Moon is a book of secrets and dark miracles. Laura Benedict writes with tender power and understanding, filling the pages with characters whose mysteries and longings will matter to every reader.” –Luanne Rice, author of The Edge of Winter Sometimes the past comes looking for you. . . . Two years ago, in idyllic Carystown, Kentucky, nine-year-old Isabella Moon disappeared on her way home from school. Is it just coincidence that Kate Russell, a young woman with no discernible past, arrived in town just months before Isabella’s disappearance? When Kate walks into Sheriff Bill Delaney’s office to tell him that Isabella’s ghost has led her to the child’s hidden grave, he immediately views her as a suspect. Mystery follows mystery as a local athlete drops dead, inexplicably, on the basketball court, and someone close to Kate is viciously murdered. Quiet Carystown was to be Kate’s salvation, and she’s settled into a comfortable job, a charming cottage, and a blissful romance. But having lied to her boyfriend, Caleb, for so long about the terrors of her past life, she finds she can’t trust him to understand the terror that Isabella Moon has now brought. And Kate’s best friend, Francie, is too wrapped up in her own troubles–particularly a secret affair with a man she at once loves and despises–to give Kate the help she needs. Utterly alone, Kate is torn between finding justice for the dead child and keeping away old ghosts of her own. The unsolved disappearance of Isabella Moon has been the biggest disappointment of Sheriff Delaney’s career. But he senses that Kate is trouble. As he investigates her impossible claims, he also uncovers a series of unsettling truths about Carystown itself. Behind his hometown’s genteel façade is a morass of lies and murder, drugs and destruction. And Carystown’s residents are about to discover that even though the past is buried, it can rise again–with a vengeance. Dark and suspenseful, tense and eerie, tinged with the supernatural, Isabella Moon is an engrossing, beautifully written debut novel, a breathtaking and artful story of the dark mysteries that can lurk in the most bucolic of places–and the ghost of a little girl who watches as evil rises unstoppably to the surface.

Isabella Moon: A Novel

Ballantine Books

Two years ago, in idyllic Carystown, Kentucky, nine-year-old Isabella Moon disappeared on her way home from school. Is it just coincidence that Kate Russell, a young woman with no discernible past, arrived in town just months before Isabella’s disappearance? When Kate walks into Sheriff Bill Delaney’s office to tell him that Isabella’s ghost has led her to the child’s hidden grave, he immediately views her as a suspect. Mystery follows mystery as a local athlete drops dead, inexplicably, on the basketball court, and someone close to Kate is viciously murdered. The unsolved disappearance of Isabella Moon has been the biggest disappointment of Sheriff Delaney’s career. But he senses that Kate is trouble. As he investigates her impossible claims, he also uncovers a series of unsettling truths about Carystown itself. Behind his hometown’s genteel façade is a morass of lies and murder, drugs and destruction. And Carystown’s residents are about to discover that even though the past is buried, it can rise again–with a vengeance.

Three childhood friends. A malicious lie. One hell of a consequence. Growing up, Roxanne, Del, and Alice tested the limits of their friendship with cruel, and often dangerous, games–but they always knew they would be bound together forever. Now, Alice’s marriage is over, and her husband is having a child with another woman. Roxanne, an artist consumed by her work, is losing touch with her friends–and perhaps with reality. And Del is desperate to be a perfect wife and adoring stepmother, but her friends see that her careful façade is crumbling. The instrument of their destruction is a single enigmatic man–Varick. He seems to be a lonely woman’s dream come true, but where has he come from? And what does he want? As he seduces the women in turn, their lives become unrecognizable to them. Varick’s secret lies buried in their shared past. One simple, childish act has brought them, all these years later, to a place where not only their lives but also their souls are at risk. For once upon a time, the three of them agreed to tell a lie–one that ruined the life of a young priest. Defrocked, destitute, and ruined, he hoped with the whole of his shattered heart that he would get revenge. And in that hope he shook hands with the one who promised it. The devil himself. Now they all must live with the consequences. Dark and provocative, Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts will keep readers in its terrifying grip long after the final, chilling page is turned.

Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts: A Novel

Isabella Moon

Contemporary

William Heinemann

SUMMER SECRETS...KIDNAPPING AND MURDER. Erin Walsh arrives home to tiny New Belford, Kentucky from college only to clash with her young stepmother, Shelby Rae. When Shelby Rae is kidnapped and a dear friend of the family is murdered, Erin discovers that both victims had secrets connected to the violent death of her mother seven years earlier. In a small town the pool of suspects is limited, but it also means the danger to Erin’s own life is deathly close.Noah Daly, an old high school friend, is the son of the man everyone blames for the violent death of Erin’s mother. But he’s also the one person Erin feels she can trust to help her find Shelby Rae’s kidnapper and her friend’s murderer. Or is her sudden attraction to him blinding her to his true nature?Enter Trouble, the wise and wily black cat detective. His paws have barely landed in the bluegrass when he realizes Erin is about to put herself in danger. Can he lead Erin to the truth before she becomes a victim herself?

Small Town Trouble (Trouble Cat Mysteries)

Mystery, Thriller & Suspense

Mystery

KaliOka Press

There's an unknown mountain in Appalachia called Devil's Oven, a place where extraordinary, dark things have been happening for centuries. Now, the mountain has given Ivy Luttrell, a lonely seamstress, the power to fashion herself the perfect man. But instead of bringing Ivy happiness, her creation terrorizes the nearby town with brutal single-mindedness that even Ivy cannot understand. The madness quickly touches Bud Tucker, the owner of the local strip club, and his seductive wife, Lila, wrenching apart their marriage, and putting their lives at terrible risk. The only person who may be able to save Ivy and everyone around her is Jolene, a young dancer whose roots and power lie deep within the past, and the soil of Devil's Oven itself. Devil's Oven is the third supernatural thriller from Laura Benedict, author of ISABELLA MOON.

Devil's Oven

Genre Fiction

Gallowstree Press

Looking for a little fright to go with your fa-la-la? Three thrilling horror writers—Lisa Morton, Carolyn Haines (aka R.B. Chesterton), and Laura Benedict—bring you three short, sharp tales of terror to liven up your holiday fireside reading. The Christmas Spirit By Lisa Morton In a last-ditch effort to save their troubled marriage, Elise and Ray decide to get out of London for Christmas and spend time together at the tatty, atmospheric Yorkshire cottage Elise has inherited from her Aunt Priscilla. When Ray surprises Elise with The Christmas Spirit, an old book he’s bought in the village, Elise reads it aloud, anxious to make their stay a success. But the tale of murder and violence transcends time, reaching out for Elise and Ray, threatening not just their marriage, but their lives. The Christmas Ornament By Carolyn Haines (aka R.B.Chesterton) Homesick and stuck at Cornell University over the Christmas holidays, Clair and four of her fellow grad students accept Carlos Ard’s invitation to spend Christmas at his great-uncle’s isolated Victorian summer home deep in the woods. After a Christmas Eve feast, everyone settles in to hear ghost stories, but after Carlos brings out a box containing a family heirloom from Romania—a Christmas ornament that’s so cursed that it cannot even safely be seen—the adventure becomes a nightmare from which Clair may never wake. The Christmas Gnome By Laura Benedict Venus Hansen has a perfect face, a perfect house, a perfect husband and two perfect children. When her mother-in-law in Norway sends them a shabby wooden Christmas gnome, Venus’s perfect husband, Steffan, insists on surprising the children each morning before Christmas with some holiday-themed mischief that the gnome has gotten into, just like a certain elf that lives on a shelf. Venus doesn’t want to have anything to do with it, but when Steffan’s pranks go awry, and the gnome starts telling Venus vicious secrets, Christmas turns deadly, and her perfect life will never be the same. Stick around after the end of the stories, if you dare. Lisa, Laura, and Carolyn have all included thrilling samples from their other, current books as a special treat.

Haunted Holidays: 3 Short Tales of Terror

HAINES, CAROLYN

Morton, Lisa.

Chesterton, R.B.

Eleven celebrated short stories-from the darkly criminal to the twisted depths of the supernatural-by the writer whose work USA Today Bestselling writer Alison Gaylin called "Absorbing, addictive, and chilling." From Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine to PANK, and Strand Magazine, as well as anthologies like Akashic Books' St. Louis Noir Anthology, Lawrence Block's At Home in the Dark, and Press 53's groundbreaking Surreal South series, these stories have been published across literary genres. A Paler Shade of Death (St. Louis Noir) was nominated for an Edgar Award for Short Story, and The Peter Rabbit Killers (Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine) was nominated for an International Thriller Writers Short Story Award.

When I Make Love to the Bug Man: Collected Stories

Short Stories & Anthologies

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Benedict, Laura. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Benedict, Laura

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Benedict, Laura. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

The Stranger Inside

The Stranger Inside

Isabella Moon: A Novel

Isabella Moon: A Novel

Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts: A Novel

Isabella Moon

Small Town Trouble (Trouble Cat Mysteries)

Devil's Oven

Haunted Holidays: 3 Short Tales of Terror

When I Make Love to the Bug Man: Collected Stories