Dan Padavona's Blog

Stephen King, the mastermind of the thriller and horror genres, has captivated readers for decades with his unique knack for storytelling. When I first held a Stephen King novel in my hands (“The Shining”, in case you’re wondering), I remember being drawn into a world of suspense and terror that sent me scrambling under the covers. Now decades later, I still consider him a leading authority on the thriller genre. That’s why when King recommends a thriller book, we, as fans, sit up and take notice. So, let’s embark on a journey through the dark corridors of the top 10 Stephen King recommended thriller books.

Stephen King’s Approach to Thriller Books
Known for his uncanny ability to bring the unimaginable to life, King has a specific taste in thrillers. The elements that make his books captivating – palpable suspense, psychological depth, and the human struggle with evil – are the same he values in other authors’ works. Like a true dark thriller enthusiast, King isn’t merely about ghostly apparitions and gory murders. It’s the psychological terror that intrigues him the most – the terrors that lurk within the human mind.

Oh, and if you’re searching for a psychological thriller to start reading right away, I recommend you download “Dead and Buried”, the prequel to the bestselling Darkwater Cove series. It’s free.

Our Definitive List of Stephen King Recommended Thriller Books
Delving into King’s recommended reading list gives us a glimpse into the books that meet his high standards. In many cases, you will be familiar with the movie version. But have you read the book? Let’s unravel these gems one by one.

“The Exorcist” by William Peter Blatty
A classic horror tale, “The Exorcist” grapples with the terror of demonic possession. King acknowledged Blatty’s masterpiece in his non-fiction book “Danse Macabre”, calling it a great supernatural thriller. And who can argue with that? The book had me sleeping with the lights on for a week.

“The Silence of the Lambs” by Thomas Harris
“The Silence of the Lambs” is a chilling exploration of the mind of a serial killer. King admires how Harris crafts a sinister world that brings the readers face-to-face with pure evil. Having read this one based on King’s recommendation, I can tell you it’s a journey not for the faint-hearted.

I consider the movie version of “The Silence of the Lambs”, starring Anthony Hopkins and Jodie Foster, to be one of the greatest movies of the twentieth century. As difficult as it is to believe, the book is even better.

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Obsessed by T.R. Ragan

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Another terrific entry in the Lizzy Gardner series. T.R. Ragan brings us another depraved killer, and the cause of his psychosis is understandable and (unfortunately) believable. When a prominent radio talk show psychologist creates a fake stalker to increase ratings, a real stalker emerges. Once the scam is revealed and the danger becomes real, the psychologist becomes the "woman who cried wolf." Then her friends start dying, one by one.

Ragan builds tension slowly and weaves a second story line with the main plot. By the time you near the end, you'll be flipping pages fast enough to burn out your Kindle.

Ragan also nails us with the ultimate cliffhanger. It doesn't bother me because I'm a series reader, and book 5 is already waiting in my queue. But I can see where some readers were put off, having to wait for the next release to discover what happened.

By the way, one of the violent scenes made me flash back to Friday the 13th. I kid you not. Ragan's thrillers border on horror with lots of deranged twists. Just my cup of tea.



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A Dark Mind by T.R. Ragan

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


T.R. Ragan outdid herself with "A Dark Mind", book three in the Lizzy Gardner thriller series.

Lizzy has a knack for attracting dangerous serial killers, and this time it's "The Lovebird Killer" stalking Lizzy through the shadows. Ragan furthers the character arcs of Lizzy, Jared, Jessica, and Hayley, with one of the supporting characters stepping into the spotlight in a big way. The scenes are well-composed and tense, and Ragan had me guessing who the killer was for a good portion of the book.

Ragan introduces a new style to the series by leading each chapter with a quote from an infamous serial killer. Some of the passages are truly disturbing and set a dark mood for the forthcoming scenes.

The Lovebird Killer exhibits traits which remind me of Buffalo Bill in "Silence of the Lambs" and Norman Bates in "Psycho". Ragan infuses him with a preternatural ability to pop up when you least expect it while avoiding the authorities.

If you don't like squeamish thrillers, you should give this series a pass. But if you don't mind a little depraved fun, T.R. Ragan delivers a perfect blend of suspenseful thriller and psychological horror. It's clear Ragan knows her horror. I imagine her watching a Wes Craven or John Carpenter movie as much as I do her reading classic thrillers.

Oh, and the ending...

Wow. I won't give it away. But it floored me. Now I can't wait to dive into book four.

If you can handle dark psychological thrillers, this is your book. Great series.





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Rachel Caine's Stillhouse Lake series straddles the line between psychological thriller and serial killer horror. One of this decade's best page-turning thrillers, Stillhouse Lake delivers an airtight plot and characters you will cheer for...and fear.

What would you do if you found out your husband was a serial killer?

That's the hook Caine uses to draw us into the first novel in the series, Stillhouse Lake. This is one of the best opening plot twists I've encountered in many years, and it kept me flipping pages until the final bloody chapter.

Gina Royal is your average mid-western American soccer mom. She's a loyal wife, subservient to her husband, Melvin. And she never questions why Melvin spends so much time locked in the garage. He claims his hobby is woodworking, but Melvin has a dark secret.

Gina Royal's life falls apart in the prologue of book one in the Stillhouse Lake series when a vehicle crashes into her garage and exposes the horrible truth. The bodies of dead women hang like gutted deer in the garage. Melvin's trophies. Believing she was complicit in the murders, the police arrest Gina and Melvin.

Gina is found innocent in the court of law, but the horror is just beginning.

Internet vigilantes believe Gina committed the crimes. They won't stop chasing the Royals until Gina and her two children are dead. The pursuit causes Gina to change their identities, and eventually she settles down with her children as Gwen Procter in Stillhouse Lake.

Then a dead body floats to the surface of the lake.

A Surprising Theme

While most psychological thrillers stop after the plot and character arcs are in place, Rachel Caine's Stillhouse Lake series goes an extra step and gives us plenty to think about.

While the Internet delivers news and information faster than ever before, this speed comes at a price. We react before we uncover the whole truth. We respond to sound bites and fire back at anyone who disagrees. Worse yet, we form social gangs, which drive home our agenda with blunt force.

Read message forums and social media platforms at your peril.

The Internet and its social warriors victimize Gina Royal, and the vigilantes become as monstrous as the evil they war against. Since reading Rachel Caine's Stillhouse Lake series, I look at message forums very differently.

Fight for Rachel

The sad news broke that Rachel Caine is fighting cancer. We've all been touched by this horrible disease. I lost my father to cancer, and my wife survived breast cancer. Please think of Rachel, and consider donating to M.D. Anderson research so we can conquer this disease during our lifetime.

As bits and pieces of our lives return to normal, I'm writing every day. My latest project is The Vanishing Girl, book four in the Darkwater Cove series, which will hit Amazon in mid-July.

Readers occasionally ask for a peek behind the curtain at my methodology for creating stories.

How I Write

The most common question I receive is whether I prefer to write "from the seat of my pants" (make the story up as I go along) or write from an outline.

Neither. I've tried both. Story beats work for me. What I prefer to do is write a brief synopsis of each chapter, key scenes I envision, and clues which help readers zero in on the evil dude causing all this havoc.

This methodology works for me because it keeps me focused and shows me the light at the end of the long tunnel (writing the first draft of a novel takes 60 to 90 days at my pace), while allowing flexibility. If a much better idea or twist occurs to me, I simply alter the notes and carry on. 



I'm completed the first draft of The Vanishing Girl three weeks ago. After I finish the initial draft, I write a second draft and revise the prose, adding description where it is lacking, pulling unnecessary information, cleaning up errors, and generally trying to make the sentences "flow" better. The next step is a strict proofreading draft, after which I turn the novel over to my editor. These revisions typically take two to four weeks to complete. Then I'm ready to publish.

What do I do while the editor reviews my manuscript? I start the next project. This keeps me busy (and out of trouble). Believe it or not, I'm already halfway through the first draft of Darkwater Cove #5.

That's it for this morning. I hope you enjoyed this look behind the scenes at the creation of The Vanishing Girl.

Stay safe, and talk to you soon.

In 1981, Thomas Harris penned Red Dragon, the first dark thriller of the series that that would become known as the Hannibal Lecter novels. But the series didn't explode in popularity until 1991 when the movie adaptation of Silence of the Lambs, starring Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins, hit theaters. With the 2006 release of Hannibal rising, the Hannibal Lecter novel series stands at four books.

The books' successes spawned two television series, multiple movies, and a throng of wildly popular "serial killer thrillers" available on Amazon Kindle. Today we'll look at five psychological thriller series that do justice to the Hannibal Lecter novels. And here's some good news. Many of these novels are free to read if you subscribe to Kindle Unlimited.

The Violet Darger Series

Inspired by Harris' Manhunter novel, LT Vargus and Tim McBain released Dead End Girl, the first novel in the Violet Darger serial killer thriller series in the spring of 2017.

Violet Darger, a profiler with the FBI's Behavior Analysis Unit, investigates a series of brutal murders in a backwoods Ohio town. But the killer is a phantom hiding in plain sight, and Darger's partner, a grizzled profiler named Victor Loshak, seems to be hiding a dark secret. 

Combining dark psychological thriller elements into a police procedural (well, an FBI procedural), Dead End Girl gives readers the goosebumps in tense scenes and keeps the pages turning at a ferocious rate.

How good is it? Dead End Girl shot up the charts and became an Amazon bestseller, leading to five sequels, multiple novellas, and a Victor Loshak spin-off series.

 

The Stillhouse Lake Series

Fans of the Hannibal Lecter novels will relish Rachel Caine's Stillhouse Lake series.

Gina Royal is your average Midwestern soccer mom and loving wife. Until a vehicle crashes through her garage and reveals her husband's horrible secret. He's a serial killer.

Gina's husband goes to prison, but her nightmare is just beginning. The entire world believes Gina and her children were complicit in the gory murders. Violent threats cause Gina to gather her children and flee under assumed names.

They settle in Stillhouse Lake. Life if finally peaceful and safe.

Then a body surfaces in the lake, and Gina Royal's nightmare begins anew. With few allies, she must discover the killer's identity while staying one step ahead of the people who want her punished for crimes she didn't commit.

I almost burned out my Kindle, I turned the pages so fast. The Stillhouse Lake series is up to four published novels with a fifth announced.

 

The Prey Series

John Sandford's Prey series begins with Rules of Prey, the book Stephen King calls, "Sleek and nasty."

Officer Lucas Davenport is part good cop, part bad cop, a throwback to Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry. 

Every serial killer thriller needs a frightening villain, and Sandford delivers a helluva bad guy in The Mad Dog, but Davenport is The Mad Dog's perfect foil.

Chock full of interesting characters and an extra helping of police procedural scenes, Sandford delivers a series fans of Thomas Harris can sink their teeth into.

And if you want more Lucas Davenport after you finish Rules of Prey (and you will), rest assured John Sandford is a writing machine. The Prey series currently stands at thirty (yes, thirty!) novels, and it's still growing.

 

Clair Fletcher Mysteries

I'm a huge Lisa Regan fan.

Few authors are so adept at weaving stunning prose into a dark thriller. And yes, this is a dark psychological thriller. Don't let the name fool you into thinking it's a cozy mystery.

A deranged man kidnapped Clair Fletcher ten years ago. Everyone assumes Clair is dead except for her mother, who refuses to give up hope. Then a detective on the brink of alcoholism ends up in the arms of a beautiful woman and takes her home. When he awakens, she's gone.

And he swears the woman was Clair Fletcher.

The Clair Fletcher series is up to two books. Unlike most of Lisa Regan's books, you can read this series for free in Kindle Unlimited.

 

 

Morgan Dane Thrillers

Melinda Leigh's Say You're Sorry was Prime Reading's most read book in 2018.

And for good reason. This is the way a psychological thriller should be written.

After losing her husband in the Iraq war, prosecuter Morgan Dane returns home to piece her life back together. But when someone murders Tessa, Morgan's teenage babysitter, the police accuse Nick, the neighborhood boy Morgan thinks highly of.

The town and police turn against Morgan when she decides to defend Nick. But Morgan can't save the boy unless she discovers who the real killer is.

One little problem. The killer targets Morgan next.

The Morgan Dane series is six books long, and hopefully it keeps growing. Any fan of the Hannibal Lecter novels will enjoy Melinda Leigh's Morgan Dane series.

That's my top-5. Did I miss your favorite? Comment below and let me know.

During late summer of 2019, I needed a new story concept. Something I could sink my teeth into.

I was eight books into the Scarlett Bell dark thriller series and finding a great deal of enjoyment in the characters and plot lines. But I wanted a different theme, a darker story line, a series that reminded me of the Thomas Harris Hannibal Lecter novels and Rachel Caine's amazing Stillhouse Lake series.

The Plot

I began with a character: Darcy Gellar, formerly an expert profiler with the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit. But I desired a different character arc than that of Scarlett Bell. 

Three years ago, Special Agent Darcy Gellar tracked a sadistic serial murderer, who the media named the Full Moon Killer after he murdered several young women under moonlit skies.  Posing as one of the victim's friends in a letter, the killer requested Agent Gellar visit her house to interview her. In the prologue chapter, the killer stabs Gellar, but the agent fires her gun and shoots the murderer.

Though both survive the conflict, the Full Moon Killer goes to prison on a life sentence, while Gellar walks away from the FBI, hoping a quiet life beside the ocean with her son and daughter will put the demons behind her.

Fast forward to present day. The police discover a brutal murder of a young woman a stone's throw from Gellar's residence. The evidence points to one man: the killer Gellar put in jail three years ago. Does he have an accomplice? Or did the FBI arrest the wrong man?

And then the story takes off like a runaway bullet train.

Designing the Cover

Once I nailed down the plot and wrote the first chapters, I began my search for a cover designer, an artist who would do justice to Darkwater Cove. 

After considering several designers, I discovered Caroline Teagle Johnson, an immensely talented artist, who designs covers for Mary Burton, Dea Poirier, Kathy Reichs, and more. I didn't realize she had created the covers of some of my favorite thriller novels of the past three years, I only knew those covers drew me in and played a large role in convincing me to purchase the books or borrow them through Kindle Unlimited. That's the mark of a terrific artist.

I received tremendous news in early autumn when Caroline Teagle Johnson agreed to create the cover art for Darkwater Cove. The first time I saw the final product, my jaw hit the keyboard. The Darkwater Cove cover is a thing of beauty, and I couldn't be more proud to share it with you today.

A lesson to budding writers. Don't settle for second-rate. Work with the very best, and that's who Caroline Teagle Johnson is in the world of psychological thrillers.

Darkwater Cove is a dark psychological thriller that combines rapid fire, page-turning action with a creepy slow burn plot. It's my best writing to date and contains characters you will believe and cheer for.

The first novel in an anticipated three-book series, Darkwater Cove hits Amazon on January 17. But you can pre-order Darkwater Cove now for $4.99. Prepare for a wild ride.

Thriller author Jim Heskett brought me on the show to discuss our favorite novels of the last year and the Scarlett Bell series. This was a lot of fun.

The main subject is my personal favorite thriller, Stillhouse Lake by Rachel Caine. I take an unconventional angle – the key themes of Stillhouse Lake are the dangers of social media, how we treat each other, and why “social justice” is sometimes misguided.

What is your favorite thriller?

YouTube link - https://youtu.be/nYcGQeFJ7zQ

Do you like dark horror? Yep, I know you do.

Next month, March 2018, I will release my most horrific story to date. In the meantime, check out the boffo-socko video trailer:

Quilt

A Bram Stoker Award winning author, Kealan Patrick Burke is one of horror's most talented writers. His latest novella, Sour Candy, is courageous and stunning in its originality.



The author of The Timmy Quinn series, Kin, and over a hundred short stories, Kealan Patrick Burke sat down to talk with me about the art of horror, Sour Candy, and fronting a grunge rock band.

 

Q - One of the joys of writing is producing a truly unique and engaging story idea. Your novella, Sour Candy, contains one of the most unusual and distinctive horror plots I've encountered in several years. Tell us a little about the story line of Sour Candy and how you discovered it.

I have found that the most mundane things often lead to the most interesting stories. In the case of Sour Candy, I was shopping in Walmart one morning when a kid started shrieking just down the aisle from me. Now, kids screaming in grocery stores is hardly an aberration, but this was a real high pitched shriek, and I couldn’t help but look. Blame it on my latent misophonia and adverse reactions to certain trigger sounds. Everyone else was looking too, mostly in irritation, and I immediately felt guilty. The kid was out of control and his poor mother looked exhausted, at her wit’s end, and here were a bunch of strangers glaring at her because her child was upset. He was demanding a bag of candy that, for whatever reason, she was unwilling to give him. Afterward, I wondered what would happen if I got home and found that same child sitting there waiting for me and claiming he had always been there, and that I was his father. Such a thing would require a dramatic alteration of my circumstances for it to make any kind of sense: the removal of loved ones, the rewriting of memory, etc. The idea stayed with me, but it took a year or so before it coalesced into the novella Sour Candy ultimately became.

The more concise answer is that the novella is about being forced into parenthood before you’re ready for it.

Q - It's impossible to label Kin as anything but pure, dark horror. However, the importance of family and friendship in your writing is clear in many of your stories (in particular the Timmy Quinn series). In Sour Candy, the concept of Phil potentially being Adam's true father is a central plot point. How crucial was it to you to make the reader wonder about Adam's and Phil's relationship? Had you determined their true relationship before you completed the first draft?

Part of the fun of writing Sour Candy was keeping me and the reader guessing. Like many of the stories I write, I only knew the plot to a certain point, after which, it revealed itself to me as it went along. It was important, however, that Phil’s aversion to his abruptly altered life be convincing, that it mirror how any rational person would react in a similar situation. This reaction is tempered by the possibility that Phil is the one who has changed, that maybe the boy is his son and he had a breakdown and simply imagined the opposing reality. This uncertainty was a huge part of the appeal for me. Is the boy some kind of supernatural invasive force, or has Phil simply lost his mind and become the antagonist in the eyes of his normal loving son? Even better, Phil is kept off guard and off kilter by the apparent innocence of the child, which flies in the face of his theory that Adam is an invader. There are, after all, dire consequences no matter which reality turns out to be the real one. “Thou art fucked from the outset,” as Shakespeare once said.

Q - Brain trauma-induced memory loss is a very real issue. My son suffered a brain injury and concussion playing lacrosse last year and lost short term memory. Have you, or someone close to you, suffered a similar injury which inspired your depiction of Phil after the car crash?

I’m sorry to hear about your son. That’s awful, and I hope he’s doing okay now. The stories I write require me to imagine living in the wake of such traumas, but thankfully, no, I’ve never had to deal with the reality of one. Memory loss and altered perceptions of reality via Alzheimer’s, however, is something that runs in my family and scares the hell out of me. My maternal grandmother recently passed away after battling with this for quite some time, and my paternal grandmother is in the throes of it now, too. I live in fear of losing my sense of self, of forgetting who I was, and who I am now. It informs a great deal of my fiction and Sour Candy is no different. Genre writers talk about the fear of the unknown, but for me, becoming the unknown to you and those closest to you is the very definition of nightmare.

Q - Thank you, Kealan. My son had a full recovery, though he shouldn't play contact sports for the remainder of his life. We owe a lot to the team of doctors in Syracuse who looked after him. I, too, have watched Alzheimer's attack elderly family members. It is absolutely terrifying.

A great way to create tension for a reader and make her sympathize with the protagonist is to put the character in physical peril, whether it be injury or sickness. In the case of Phil Pendleton, his physical deterioration is so graphic that I almost expected a body part to fall off at any given moment. Was Phil's deterioration a conscious decision to build reader anxiety, or just the natural progression of dealing with your everyday demonic presence?

Phil’s deterioration is intentionally ambiguous. If he’s gone mad, then naturally there will be a physical cost, but if he’s sane and Adam is the enemy, then it’s likely that the boy is parasitically draining his adopted father, preparing him for what’s to come. Either way, I figure the horror of the situation needed to be compounded, not only by Phil’s mental state, but his physical one, too. Plus, all he eats is sour candy. That’s gonna take its toll.

Q - Was there any point when you considered developing Sour Candy into a full length novel? Do you feel a longer story would lessen Sour Candy's impact?

I actually did consider expanding it, not just to eke out a novel from a groovy idea, but because right after it was published, I started getting ideas for scenes that I wish I had included, most notably a prologue involving Adam’s birth mother and an expansion of the ending. It still bugs me that these occurred to me right after the damn thing was already out there. I’ve expanded, just for my own satisfaction, the mythology behind The Elders, and there are a lot of things going on with the novella right now that might result in me one day coming back to it. For now, though, I think it’s effective enough at the current length.

Q - Most non-romance writers not named Howey will tell you novellas are a tough sell, though I love them as a reader. You sparked an entire novel series with one award-winning novella, The Turtle Boy, and Sour Candy tore up the horror charts for several months. Besides word count, how different are the development processes for novels and novellas. Do you prefer one form to the other?

Short story, novella, novel, I love them all, but I think it’s easier for me to maintain focus and pace and potency with a novella, whereas with novels I sometimes end up meandering. I hate intense plotting, hate ruining the discovery process for myself, so I generally try to avoid all but the most basic outline when it comes to novels. Thus, they’re not always as successful as I’d like them to be. I have never needed to plot a novella, however. They just flow and coalesce quite organically and effortlessly for me, so I tend to gravitate to them more. That said, I don’t always know whether what I’m writing is going to be a short, a novella, or a novel. Often, these things decide themselves and I’m just tagging along for the ride. But I would argue that the novella is the perfect length for a horror story.

Q - Tell me about being a vocalist in a grunge rock band. Were you more Chris Cornell or Mark Lanegan? Do you still perform?

I was somewhere in between Mark Lanegan and Cornell, but nowhere near as good as either one of those giants. I could imitate Lanegan, but never had Cornell’s range (like most humans), so I ended up being more of a Cobain/Weiland mutt. I joined a band in high school, a couple of bands after that, and ended up in one called Wreck, which was the most successful and the most fun. I wrote all the music and lyrics (mostly about my doomed relationships, or unrequited love—how typical). Despite some promising leads, it never went where we hoped it would, and the band broke up. There’s not a single day goes by in which I don’t miss the hell out of it though. I loved being in a band. Loved writing music, loved performing. These days my vocal skills (or lack of) only reveal themselves in dimly lit karaoke dive bars to the poor unsuspecting locals.

Q - What hard rock bands do you listen to most, and does their music inspire any of your writings?

I still listen to all the old favorites: Nirvana, Alice in Chains, Soundgarden, Faith No More, Seether, Filter, Stone Temple Pilots, Screaming Trees, et al, mixed with a bit of AC/DC and Whitesnake. I also like a bit of classical music, the blues, and soul, here and there. I’ve even been known to give certain tracks from Adele and Rihanna a spin. I find my taste broadening as I get older, and good music is good music, no matter the genre. Odd as it may sound though, I don’t believe my writing has ever been influenced by music, not to any conscious degree at least. I don’t listen to it while writing. I can’t. I need quiet. I listen to music for the same reasons I read a book or watch a movie: escapism. But while movies and other books will always influence me, I don’t believe music ever has.

Q - I hear you. As I get older, I find myself listening to more Jack Johnson and less Pantera, though I  doubt I will ever lose my punk, new wave, and grunge roots. And most of my writing is done with a box fan set on high providing the only sound in the room.


You are one of the most respected names in horror, you won a Bram Stoker Award (The Turtle Boy), and your books have been optioned for film. What is Kealan Patrick Burke working on now, and when can we expect a new novel?

Right now, I’m finishing up a few stories due to magazines and anthologies, after which I have a new Lovecraftian novella to finish that I’m very excited about. After that, I get back to my novel, of which I can say very little for now, only that it won’t be connected to anything I’ve previously written (i.e. not a sequel). I hope to have it done at the end of the summer.

 

Thank you, Kealan, for joining me today. Good luck with all your future endeavors. I look forward to your next novella.

Horror fans - if you have haven't read Sour Candy yet, check out this brilliant story immediately.