Books like 'Just Like Mother'
Readers who enjoyed Just Like Mother by Anne Heltzel also liked the following books featuring the same tropes, story themes, relationship dynamics and character types.
contemporary horror mystery psychological thriller new-york-state urban religion cults fundamentalism
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After the Fire by Will Hill
18 ratingsThe things I've seen are burned into me, like scars that refuse to fade.Before, she lived inside the fence. Before, she was never allowed to leave the property, never allowed to talk to Outsiders, never allowed to speak her mind. Because Father John controlled everything—and Father John liked rules. Disobeying Father John came with terrible consequences... -
The Exorcist by William Peter Blatty
44 ratingsFour decades after it first terrified the world, William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist is back! An extraordinary classic work of horror and dark paranormal suspense. In this stunning 40th Anniversary Edition, a desperate mother and two priests fight to free the soul of a little girl from a supernatural entity of pure malevolence... -
Bitter Falls by Rachel Caine
24 ratingsShe’s investigating a cold case no one else could—by going places no one else would dare.In spite of a harrowing past still haunting her, Gwen Proctor is trying to move forward. Until a new assignment gives her purpose: the cold-case disappearance of a young man in Tennessee. Three years missing, no clues. Just Ruth Landry, a tortured mother in limbo... -
A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo
24 ratingsA deadly fire exposes the dark side of Amish life in this harrowing new thriller in the New York Times bestselling series.When a historic barn burns to the ground in the middle of the night, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called in to investigate. At first, it looks like an accident, but when the body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found inside—burned alive—Kate suspects murder... -
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Stranded by Sarah Goodwin
16 ratingsEight strangers.One island.A secret you'd kill to keep.When eight people arrive on the beautiful but remote Buidseach Island, they are ready for the challenge of a lifetime: to live alone for one year.Eighteen months later, a woman is found in an isolated fishing village... -
In the Barren Ground by Loreth Anne White
18 ratingsIn the Barrens, a vast wilderness in northern Canada bordering the Arctic Circle, night consumes every hour of the winter. Humans are scarce; ferocious predators roam freely. Locals say spirits do, too. Rookie cop Tana Larsson doesn’t mind the dark and quiet. Five months pregnant and hoping to escape the mistakes of her past, she takes a post in Twin Rivers, population 320... -
Small Spaces by Sarah Epstein
14 ratingsWe don’t pick and choose what to be afraid of. Our fears pick us.Tash Carmody has been traumatised since childhood, when she witnessed her gruesome imaginary friend Sparrow lure young Mallory Fisher away from a carnival. At the time nobody believed Tash, and she has since come to accept that Sparrow wasn’t real. Now fifteen and mute, Mallory’s never spoken about the week she went missing... -
Seven by Anthony Bruno
16 ratingsMismatched partner cops Somerset and Mills are on the trail of a psychotic murderer who intends to avenge the seven deadly sins, starting with gluttony... -
Notes on an Execution by Danya Kukafka
28 ratings9 hours, 42 minutes In the tradition of 'Long Bright River' and 'The Mars Room', a gripping and atmospheric work of literary suspense that deconstructs the story of a serial killer on death row, told primarily through the eyes of the women in his life - from the best-selling author of 'Girl in Snow'.Ansel Packer is scheduled to die in twelve hours... -
The Couple at No. 9 by Claire Douglas
28 ratingsIt was the house of their dreams. Until the bodies were found . . . BODIES FOUND UNDER PATIOWhen pregnant Saffron Cutler moves into 9 Skelton Place with boyfriend Tom and sets about renovations the last thing she expects is builders uncovering a body - two bodies, in fact.POLICE INVESTIGATEForensics indicate the bodies have been buried at least thirty years. Nothing Saffy need worry herself over... -
The Zombie Room by R.D. Ronald
32 ratingsA darkly transgressive tale of criminality and sex-trafficking, but overall a coming together of characters from different worlds, uniting against a common enemy, and fighting for survival and what they believe to be right... -
The Magus of Hay by Phil Rickman
12 ratingsWhen a man's body is discovered in the picturesque town of Hay-on-Wye, his death appears to be "unnatural" in every sense. Merrily Watkins, parish priest, single mother, and exorcist, is drafted in to investigate, in this 12th installment A man's body is found below a waterfall. It looks like suicide or an accidental drowning—until DI Frannie Bliss enters the dead man's home... -
The Isle of Sin & Shadows by Keri Lake
14 ratingsThis island alone boasts more ghost stories than all of Louisiana combined.And I'm one of them. In the Louisiana swamplands, ghost stories are as much a part of childhood as chasing fireflies and crawfishing. They never much scared me, though, nor the possibility of evil out to do me harm. Until the night I watched shadows come to life and butcher everything I loved... -
Tell Me You're Sorry by Kevin O'Brien
14 ratingsFirst You'll Say You're SorryA family is wiped out after a burglary gone wrong. An executive accused of embezzling kills himself and his loved ones. A house fire claims the lives of all its inhabitants. Separate incidents with two common threads--a first wife who took her own life, and a secret the victims took to their graves. . -
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Midwinter of the Spirit by Phil Rickman
16 ratingsLibrarian note: an alternate cover for this edition can be found here.The post of Diocesan Exorcist in the Church of England has changed to the preferred term Delivery Ministry. It sounds less sinister, more caring, so why not a job for a woman? When offered the post the Rev. Merrily Watkins cannot easily refuse, having suffered uncanny experiences of her own... -
Sleep Tight by Anne Frasier
18 ratingsWAKE UP, LITTLE DARLING. DO YOU LIKE WHAT YOU SEE?He's looking for the perfect woman. Someone who won't disappoint him, like so many have before. Someone who'll love him ... someone who won't have to die for her mistakes.GIVE UP, LITTLE DARLING....FBI agent Mary Cantrell has been called to Minneapolis to hunt down a killer... -
The Cabin in the Woods by Sarah Alderson
18 ratingsThe unmissable new thriller from the bestselling author and screenwriter of Netflix movie, The Weekend Away.In a cabin in a wood,A woman by the window stood.Glancing out, she thought she heardFootsteps, whistling, something stirred.Hiding here, she fears the night,For what’s done in the dark will come to light... -
What Lies in the Woods by Kate Alice Marshall
21 ratingsThey were eleven when they sent a killer to prison . . .They were heroes . . . but they were liars.Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked... -
Ward D by Freida McFadden
31 ratingsMedical student Amy Brenner is spending the night on a locked psychiatric ward.Amy has been dreading her evening working on Ward D, the hospital’s inpatient mental health unit. There are very specific reasons why she never wanted to do this required overnight rotation. Reasons nobody can ever find out... -
The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James
40 ratingsThe secrets lurking in a rundown roadside motel ensnare a young woman, just as they did her aunt thirty-five years before, in this new atmospheric suspense novel from the national bestselling and award-winning author of The Broken Girls.Upstate NY, 1982. Every small town like Fell, New York, has a place like the Sun Down Motel... -
A Child for the Devil by Conrad Jones
8 ratingsA Child for the Devil is a full length dark thriller based on the novella 'Nine Angels'. When the author Conrad Jones was asked to help the police with the investigation into a double murder by identifying occult symbols, which had been carved into the victims, he is plunged into a nightmare and forced to go on the run... -
My Darling Girl by Jennifer McMahon
8 ratingsA spine-tingling psychological thriller about a woman who, after taking in her dying, alcoholic mother, begins to suspect demonic possession is haunting her family.Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call... -
Three Strikes by Kate Kessler
10 ratingsThree Strikes is the new novel in a thriller series where a criminal psychologist uses her own dark past to help law enforcement catch dangerous killers.Thanksgiving is approaching, and Audrey Harte has a lot to be thankful for -- her mother has recovered from surgery, her relationship with Jake is solid, her father is relatively sober, and her career is evolving in an exciting direction... -
Forget Me Not by Claire Allan
14 ratings‘AMAZING’ Marian Keyes I disappeared on a Tuesday afternoon. I was there one minute and the next I was gone. They’ve never found my body… It’s six in the morning during the hottest summer on record when Elizabeth O’Loughlin, out walking her dog, comes across Clare, a victim of a horrific knife attack, clinging onto life at the side of the road... -
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Closet Full of Bones by A.J. Aalto
14 ratingsEver since they were children, Gillian Hearth has been her sister Frankie’s guardian, her sounding board, and her best friend. Together, the Hearth sisters quietly bury their secrets and form a formidable team during any crisis. Purchasing the old Blymhill house with the hopes of turning it into an artists’ retreat, the sisters are finally living their dream... -
Don't Scream by Wendy Corsi Staub
14 ratingsDon't Tell A Soul. . . In a remote, heavily wooded area near the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Rachel Lorant died on her birthday. But she didn't die alone. That night, her four sorority sisters make a solemn, trembling pledge. They will never reveal what has just happened in those woods--ever. Instead, they will take their terrible secret to their graves. . . Don't Think About The Past. . -
Mirrors by Ted Dekker
14 ratingsThe journey that began with IDENTITY, Book One of Eyes Wide Open, continues with the second episodic book, Mirrors.Who am I? My name is Christy Snow. I'm seventeen and I'm about to die. I'm buried in a coffin under tons of concrete. No one knows where I am. My heart sounds like a monster with clobber feet, running straight toward me... -
No One Saw a Thing by Andrea Mara
20 ratingsTwo children get on the train. Only one gets off...No one saw it happen.You stand on a crowded tube platform in London. Your two little girls jump on the train ahead of you. As you try to join them, the doors slide shut and the train moves away, leaving you behind.Everyone is lying.By the time you get to the next stop, you've convinced yourself that everything will be fine... -
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
41 ratingsRosemary and Guy Woodhouse, an ordinary young couple, settle into a New York City apartment, unaware that the elderly neighbors and their bizarre group of friends have taken a disturbing interest in them... -
Cemetery Dance by Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child
26 ratingsPendergast-the world's most enigmatic FBI Special Agent-returns to New York City to investigate a murderous cult.William Smithback Jr., a prominent New York Times reporter, was killed in a brutal attack in his Upper West Side apartment. His wife, Nora Kelly, an archeologist at the Museum of Natural History, was injured as well... -
A History of Wild Places by Shea Ernshaw
26 ratingsTravis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James—a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books—he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend... -
One Door Away from Heaven by Dean Koontz
26 ratingsMichelina Bellsong is on a mission. She is following a missing family to the edge of America...to a place she never knew existed--a place of terror, wonder, and shattering revelation.What awaits her there will change her life and the life of everyone she knows--if she can find the key to survival...Categorized as:
cults family female-mc friendship fundamentalism spirituality suspense action-adventure -
The Line Between by Tosca Lee
18 ratingsAn extinct disease re-emerges from the melting Alaskan permafrost to cause madness in its victims. For recent apocalyptic cult escapee Wynter Roth, it’s the end she’d always been told was coming...Categorized as:
cults female-mc fundamentalism spirituality suspense thriller action-adventure apocalyptic -
The Stalker by Sarah Alderson
18 ratingsNewly-weds Liam and Laura are spending their honeymoon in paradise: just the two of them on a remote island off the coast of Scotland. But they soon discover that all is not as it seems, and the island has a tragic past. And they can’t shake the feeling of being watched…When one morning, they wake to find a message scratched into the window, their worst fears are confirmed... -
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The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane by Laird Koenig
12 ratingsAlone in the darkened house, with only fire's glow and thirteen flickering candles for illumination, silent except for the mounting chords of a Liszt concerto, Rynn was preparing a solemn celebration. Until a knock at the door shattered sanctuary.Rynn is the little girl who lives in the house at the end of the lane with her father-or so she says... -
Don't Look Back by Christine Kersey
12 ratingsIt is strongly recommended that you read He Loves Me Not (which is FREE) before reading Don't Look Back. The following product description contains spoilers for He Loves Me Not. Hiding from her estranged husband Trevor, Lily Jamison has changed her name and settled in a small town in the California Central Valley... -
Daisy Darker by Alice Feeney
9 ratingsThe New York Times bestselling Queen of Twists returns…with a family reunion that leads to murder.After years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in Nana’s crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. Finally back together one last time, when the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours... -
Wrong Place, Wrong Time by Tilia Klebenov Jacobs
6 ratingsWhen Tsara Adelman leaves her husband and two young children for a weekend to visit her estranged uncle, she little dreams he is holding several local children captive on his lavish estate. Mike Westbrook, father of one of the boys, kidnaps her to trade her life for the children's... -
Obitelj s gornjeg kata by Lisa Jewell
42 ratingsAn alternative cover edition for this ISBN can be found here.Soon after her twenty-fifth birthday, Libby Jones returns home from work to find the letter she’s been waiting for her entire life. She rips it open with one driving thought: I am finally going to know who I am... -
The Sacred Lies of Minnow Bly by Stephanie Oakes
24 ratingsA hard-hitting and hopeful story about the dangers of blind faith—and the power of having faith in yourself The Kevinian cult has taken everything from seventeen-year-old Minnow: twelve years of her life, her family, her ability to trust. And when she rebelled, they took away her hands, too... -
The Girl Before by Rena Olsen
24 ratingsIn this powerful psychological suspense debut, when a woman’s life is shattered, she is faced with a devastating question: What if everything she thought was normal and good and true . . . wasn’t? Clara Lawson is torn from her life in an instant. Without warning, her home is invaded by armed men, and she finds herself separated from her beloved husband and daughters... -
Carrie by Stephen King
47 ratingsA modern classic, Carrie introduced a distinctive new voice in American fiction -- Stephen King. The story of misunderstood high school girl Carrie White, her extraordinary telekinetic powers, and her violent rampage of revenge, remains one of the most barrier-breaking and shocking novels of all time.Make a date with terror and live the nightmare that is.. -
The Butcher by Jennifer Hillier
18 ratingsA rash of grisly serial murders plagued Seattle until the infamous "Beacon Hill Butcher" was finally hunted down and killed by police chief Edward Shank in 1985. Now, some thirty years later, Shank, retired and widowed, is giving up his large rambling Victorian house to his grandson Matt, whom he helped raise... -
The Stranger Within by Kathryn Croft, Lisa Coleman
18 ratingsBe careful what you wish for. On the surface, Callie Harwell has it all. Newly married to James, she finally gets the family she has longed for and becomes a mother to his two sons. So why is she arrested for murder?Things are not as Callie hoped they would be and she struggles to be accepted as part of James' family, and to keep hidden the secrets that could destroy her future... -
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Problem Child by Victoria Helen Stone
18 ratingsShe’s cold, calculating, and can deceive with a smile. Jane Doe is back in the Amazon Charts bestselling series - and this time she's met her match.After a brutal childhood, Jane Doe has been permanently wired to look after herself and only herself. Now, looking next to normal, Jane has a lover and a job. But she hasn't lost her edge. It sharpens when she hears from her estranged family... -
How to Lead a Life of Crime by Kirsten Miller
17 ratingsA meth dealer. A prostitute. A serial killer.Anywhere else, they’d be vermin. At the Mandel Academy, they’re called prodigies. The most exclusive school in New York City has been training young criminals for over a century. Only the most ruthless students are allowed to graduate. The rest disappear.Flick, a teenage pickpocket, has risen to the top of his class...Categorized as:
family friendship new-york-state suspense urban thriller action-adventure boarding-school -
Just Like the Other Girls by Claire Douglas
16 ratingsAn electrifying tale of psychological suspense in which an unsuspecting young woman finds herself trapped in an increasingly sinister web of mystery and lies.CARER/COMPANION WANTED FOR ELDERLY LADYYOUNG FEMALE PREFERRED COMPETITIVE SALARYROOM AND BOARD INCLUDEDShe thought she was safe. So did the others . . -
Eyes Wide Open by Ted Dekker
16 ratingsWho am I?My name is Christy Snow. I’m seventeen and I’m about to die. I’m buried in a coffin under tons of concrete. No one knows where I am. My heart sounds like a monster with clobber feet, running straight toward me. I’m lying on my back, soaked with sweat from the hair on my head to the soles of my feet. My hands and feet won’t stop shaking.Some will say that I’m not really here... -
Sundial by Catriona Ward
14 ratingsAll Rob ever wanted was a normal life.Nothing like her childhood, growing up in the lonely, wild Mojave Desert on her family's ranch, Sundial. Surrounded by dogs, coyotes, and research assistants.For a while, it seemed like Rob got her wish: A husband, two daughters, the white picket fence, and margaritas with the neighbors... -
The Skeleton Key by Erin Kelly
14 ratingsA reunion leads to tragedy, and the unravelling of dark family secrets . . .It is the summer of 2021 and Nell has come home at her family's insistence to celebrate an anniversary. Her father, Sir Frank Churcher, is regarded as a cult figure by many. Fifty years ago he wrote The Golden Bones...
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