Showing results by author "Tamara Thorne" in All Categories

Its violent, sordid past is what draws best-selling author David Masters to the infamous Victorian mansion called Baudey House. Its shrouded history of madness and murder is just the inspiration he needs to write his ultimate masterpiece of horror. But what waits for David and his 16-year-old daughter, Amber, at Baudey House, is more terrifying than any legend.

There's an island up in Gold Country at the northern end of Snapdragon Lake. It's named Manchester for the family that owns it, but the locals call it Spite Island. There's a single lonely mansion on that island and a group of authors have been invited to write about its ghosts and its mysteries. But the real mystery is, who will survive this luxurious but deadly retreat?

When Zach Tully leaves Los Angeles to take over as sheriff of Eternity, a tiny mountain town in northern California, he's expecting to find peace and quiet in his own private Mayberry. But he's in for a surprise. Curmudgeonly Mayor Abbott is a ringer for long-missing writer Ambrose Bierce. There are two Elvises in town, a shirtless Jim Morrison, and a woman who has more than a passing resemblance to Amelia Earhardt. And that's only the beginning.

The Piper clan emigrated from Scotland and founded the town of Santo Verde, California. The Gothic Victorian estate built there has housed the family for generations and has also become home to an ancient evil forever linked to the Piper name. Now a widower with two children of his own, Rick has returned home to build a new life. He wants to believe the greenjacks don't exist, that they were a figment of his own childish fears and the vicious torment he suffered at the hands of his brother.

Shrouded in fog on a hillside high above an isolated California coastal town, The Candle Bay Hotel and Spa has been restored to its former glory after decades of neglect. Thanks to its new owners, the Darlings, the opulent inn is once again filled with prosperous guests. But its seemingly all-American hosts hide a chilling, age-old family secret.

Priscilla Martin. She’s the diva of Morning Glory Circle, and a driving force in the quaint California town of Snapdragon. Overseer of garage sales and neighborhood Christmas decorations, she is widely admired. But few people know the real woman behind the perfectly coiffed hair and Opium perfume.

Psychologist Will Banning knows how to help his patients, but now his office is overrun. Suddenly, half the town wants his help. One patient is being given very bad advice by a hard-headed part of his anatomy that’s never spoken before. Another man is wearing tin foil hats to keep strange voices at bay, and Will’s receptionist is seeing a pair of bloody ghosts floating around in his living room.

The vampires of Candle Bay and Crimson Cove come together for the Biting Man Festival in Eternity, California, to celebrate a centuries-old tradition that quickly turns murderous as they’re faced with old enemies, uncontrolled bloodlust, and the unpredictable antics of a self-proclaimed vampire slayer who is hellbent on destroying them all.

Tully thinks he’s ready for anything, but he soon learns that when it comes to weird, Eternity has nothing on Fort Charles. He meets the Old Salts, a closed-mouthed league of seamen who are mightily worried about something called the Sailor’s Curse. The group is led by grumpy physician Lazarus Clay and lighthouse keeper Amos Franklin, who talks to seagulls. The old men are favorites among a bevy of drop-dead beauties who the Salts swear aren't really mermaids.

In a remote part of California just above the coastal town of Devilswood, Ravencrest Manor, imported stone-by-stone from England more than two centuries ago, looms tall and terrifying, gathering its dark and unnatural powers, and drawing those it wants as its own.

Moonfall, the picturesque town nestled in the mountains of southern California, is a quaint hamlet of antique stores, cider mills, and pie shops, and Apple Heaven, run by the dedicated nuns of St. Gertrude's Home for Girls, is the most popular destination of all. As autumn fills the air, the townspeople prepare for the Halloween Haunt, Moonfall's most popular tourist attraction. Even a series of unsolved deaths over the years hasn't dimmed Moonfall's enthusiasm for the holiday.

Since 1887, Cliffhouse Lodge has been famous for its luxurious accommodations, fine dining...and its ghosts. Overlooking Blue Lady Lake, nestled among tall pines, Cliffhouse has just been renovated by its owners, Teddy and Adam Bellamy, and their daughter, Sara. Cliffhouse has not always been a place of rest and respite, though. Over the years, it has served many vices, from rum-running to prostitution.

The Brimstone Grand Hotel, owned by reclusive former movie star, Delilah Devine, looms high on Hospital Hill, harboring long-buried family secrets that whisper of unimaginable horrors. Horrors that will echo down through generations.

The Sorority: They are the envy of every young woman - and the fantasy of every young man. An elite sisterhood of Greenbriar University’s best and brightest, their members are the most powerful girls on campus - and the most feared.

Something ancient stirs in the Raven Woods. A creature out of the darkest fairy tales calls to Thad and Cynthia, seducing them with promises of gingerbread and magick. Belinda must keep them safe, but her patience with the children has run thin. Her senses are on overdrive, and her appetites are voracious as she wanders the woods, heeding a siren call only she can hear. Meanwhile, in Ravencrest Manor, new employee Ryan O’Brien is tormented by a trickster spirit that seems harmless, even humorous.

Ravencrest Manor is the most beautiful thing new governess Belinda Moorland has ever seen, but as she learns more about its tangled past of romance and terror, she realizes that beauty has a dark side. Who is the man digging in the garden beyond Belinda’s bedroom window? Who - or what - is watching her from the vents? Belinda is thrust into a world of waking nightmares where there is no distinction between the living and the dead, and there are no limits to the horrors that await.

There’s a little wild west amusement park in California’s high desert. Old Madelyn Ghost Town attracts tourists every weekend. There are all sorts of rides and attractions peppered among the historic buildings. Here, you can take a ride through the Haunted Mine, have an old-fashioned chicken dinner, or watch a Wild West show.... And if you camp out, you just might see a UFO or two.

In the 1920s, Henry Manning ruled Ravencrest with an iron fist. He held debauched parties that would have inspired Jay Gatsby himself. From the Manning fortune to a beautiful wife, the silent-film star known as the White Violet, Henry had it all...including a loyal cult that worshipped the demon Forneus.

Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol is perhaps the most famous ghost story of all. For nearly 200 years, this tale has singlehandedly extended the haunting season from autumn through winter, and ghost lovers everywhere are happy about that. Traditionally, A Christmas Carol is told and retold each year in every form from plays to movies and TV shows. But, originally, the tale was read aloud as folks sat by the hearth, drinking mulled cider or hot cocoa as they warmed their hands at the fireplace. Many of us first heard the tale as children.

There's an island up in Gold Country at the northern end of Snapdragon Lake. It's named Manchester for the family that owns it, but the locals call it Spite Island. There's a single lonely mansion on that island and a group of authors have been invited to write about its ghosts and its mysteries. But the real mystery is, who will survive this luxurious but deadly retreat?