Recommendations based on "The Raw Shark Texts"

"Wrenching . . . powerfully sensuous." — New York Times"As searing and unforgettable as an electric shock." —Kirkus ReviewsAt the age of eight Brian Lackey is found bleeding under the crawl space of his house, having endured something so traumatic that he cannot remember an entire five–hour period of time.During the following years he slowly recalls details from that night, but these fragments are not enough to explain what happened to him, and he begins to believe that he may have been the victim of an alien encounter. Neil McCormick is fully aware of the events from that summer of 1981. Wise beyond his years, curious about his developing sexuality, Neil found what he perceived to be love and guidance from his baseball coach. Now, ten years later, he is a teenage hustler, unaware of the dangerous path his life is taking. His recklessness is governed by idealized memories of his coach, memories that unexpectedly change when Brian comes to Neil for help and, ultimately, the truth.

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.

John Taylor's the name. I'm a PI, working that small slice of mystical real estate in the hidden centre of London that's called the Nightside. It's a place where the sun refuses to rise, where monsters and men walk side by side, and where you can fulfill your every dark and depraved desire. What I do there, better than anybody else alive (or dead) is find things - for the right client, for the right price.My new client can certainly afford me. The editor of the Unnatural Inquirer, the Nightside's most notorious gossip rag (the one everyone pretends not to read), has offered me one million pounds to find a man named Pen Donavon, who claims to have evidence of the Afterlife - picked up on a television broadcast and burned onto DVD. The Inquirer made Donavon a sweet deal for exclusive rights. Then both he and the disc vanished.I don't know if the disc is on the level, but a job's a job (and a million pounds is a million pounds). Trouble is, not only are all of the usual suspects pretty dangerous individuals, but it's beginning to look like someone else - someone very powerful - is on the trail, too. And who - or what - ever it is, is deadly determined to find the disc first.

Introducing the Collins Modern Classics, a series featuring some of the most significant books of recent times, books that shed light on the human experience - classics which will endure for generations to come. 'You can turn your back on a person, but never turn your back on a drug - especially when it's waving a razor-sharp hunting knife in your eyes' Roaring down the desert highway, Raoul Duke and his attorney Dr. Gonzo are seeking out the dark side of the American Dream. Armed with a drug arsenal of stupendous proportions, they confront casino operators, police officers and assorted Middle Americans, in surreal, chemically enhanced encounters. Hilarious, hallucinogenic and subversive, Hunter S. Thompson's semi-autobiographical novel is a cult classic and a masterpiece of gonzo journalism. 'A scorching epochal sensation' Tom Wolfe

Dean Koontz has been called "America's most popular suspense novelist,"* but that only begins to describe the rich variety and endless invention that characterize his work. Critics hail his impeccable craft and the artistry that has inspired the devotion of millions of fans around the world. He is unique among contemporary writers, venturing far beyond traditional boundaries to explore our deepest fears and most transcendent aspirations.Now, in From the Corner of His Eye, Koontz brings together his most powerful themes to draw readers into a spellbinding world made by a master at the top of his form -- a story rich in triumph and tragedy, joy and terror, love, hate, and profound meaning, played out by perhaps the most unforgettable cast of characters he has yet created.Bartholomew Lampion is born in Bright Beach, California, on a day of tragedy and terror, when the lives of everyone in his family are changed forever. Remarkable events accompany his birth, and everyone agrees that his unusual eyes are the most beautiful they have ever seen.On this same day, a thousand miles away, a ruthless man learns that he has a mortal enemy named Bartholomew. He doesn't know who Bartholomew is, but he embarks on a search that will become the purpose of his life. If ever he finds the right Bartholomew, he will deal mercilessly with him.And in San Francisco, a girl is born, the result of a violent rape. Her survival is miraculous, and her destiny is mysteriously linked to the fates of Barty and the man who stalks him.At the age of three, Barty Lampion is blinded when surgeons reluctantly remove his eyes to save him from a fast-spreading cancer. As the growing boy copes with his blindness and proves to be a prodigy, his mother, an exceptional woman, counsels him that all things happen for a reason, that there is meaning even in his suffering, and that he will affect the lives of people yet unknown to him in ways startling and profound.At thirteen, Bartholomew regains his sight. How he regains it, why he regains it, and what happens as his amazing life unfolds results in a breathtaking journey of courage, heart-stopping suspense, and high adventure. His mother once told him that every person's life has an effect on every other person's, in often unknowable ways, and Barty's eventful life indeed entwines with others in ways that will astonish and move everyone who reads his story.People magazine has said that Dean Koontz has the "power to scare the daylights out of us." In this, perhaps the most thrilling, suspenseful, and emotionally powerful work of his critically acclaimed career, Koontz does that and far more. He has created a compulsive page-turner that will have you at the edge of your seat, a narrative tour de force that will change the way you yourself look at the world.

Starting this month, John Saul offers readers his ultimate tale of terror--one piece at a time. Beginning with "An Eye for an Eye: The Doll", the "Blackstone Chronicles" brings to eerie life the small New England town of Blackstone--and the dark secrets and sins that lay buried there.

John Saul, author of nineteen bestselling novels of chilling suspense, now gives us a serial thriller set in the small New England town of Blackstone, where the inhabitants are caught in the grip of unrelenting evil. Strange gifts are appearing in the most unlikely places: on doorsteps, in cars, glittering on a flea market table. Each object bears an unspeakable history. Each brings an ominous power to harm. Each reveals another thread in the tightly woven web of . . . THE BLACKSTONE CHRONICLES, PART 5 When attorney Ed Becker spots the carved antique dresser in a dusty attic, he takes it to restore. Then his young daughter, Amy, makes a curious discovery: Inside one of the drawers she finds a set of old pictures and a stereoscope, an old-fashioned device that allows you to see images in three dimensions. Oddly, one of the photos resembles their house, where Eds grandmother lived long ago. But the scenes inside the stereoscope also bring to vivid life some terrifying memories, eerie images that seem all too real. . . .

Readers face a hair-raising array of decisions when their cruise ship bound for Bermuda encounters a freak storm and a whirlpool, which plunges them into the deep

During a Communion service at a village church, the teenage son of the vicar brutally attacks his father while the horrified congregation watch helplessly. A frantic police search for the boy follows and rumours circulate that he was involved in devil worship. Atheist ex-minister Professor Matt Hunter is brought in to advise, yet he quickly suspects the church attack may have had a far more complex cause.Elsewhere, a ten-year-old boy, Ever, grows up in a small cult who believe they are the only true humans left and that the world is filled with demons. Harnessing the powers of a bizarre ritual they hope to bring peace and paradise to the world. Soon the worlds of Matt and Ever will collide in one terrifying and murderous night...

It's no walk in the park for a Drood, a member of the family that has protected humanity from the things that go bump in the night for centuries. They aren't much liked by the creatures they kill, by ungrateful humans, or even by one another. Now their Matriarch is dead, and it's up to Eddie Drood, acting head of the family, to figure out whodunit. Unpopular opinion is divided: it was either Eddie's best girl, Molly. Or Eddie himself. And Eddie knows he didn't do it.