Marla

A profound sense of supernatural creepiness permeates this superb, blood-chilling horror novel from Janz (The Raven). King’s Branch, Ind., police detective Carl Lancaster, who’s haunted by the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident, believes himself to be desensitized to violence after 11 years on the force—until a bizarre killing rocks both him and the small community. Jim Haddon, a wealthy real estate developer, is found “jutting out of the ground like an arrow, his head buried in the valley mud,” near a bluff outside of town. When the corpse is unearthed, both of Haddon’s eyes are bloodshot and frozen in an expression of extreme terror. Other violent deaths follow, with the victims all bearing the same horrified expression. Lancaster comes to believe the killings are connected to a reclusive young woman, Marla Gorman, a notoriously “creepy” local whom he’d seen leering intently at him from her bedroom window prior to Haddon’s murder. Janz’s nuanced characterizations ground the ensuing investigation, enabling suspension of disbelief as he gradually reveals the chilling truth. Fans of Stephen King’s Castle Rock books will be hooked. (Nov.)