Showing results by author "Jon Athan" in All Categories

Vanessa Ramirez, a 28-year-old employee at a beauty salon, wants to leave Mexico for greener pastures in the United States with her children, 10-year-old Lucía and 5-year-old Joaquín. With cartel violence spilling closer and closer to her doorstep every day, she seeks the help of the local coyotes—people smugglers—but is unable to afford the rising fees for their services. So, she reluctantly turns to Mexico’s criminal underworld to fund her escape and finds herself intertwined with the cartels she was so desperate to avoid.

Keith Klein, a beat cop in the small New Mexico town of Montaño, sets out to find his missing daughters after they vanish on their way home from school. He enlists the help of Gerald Greenwood, an old friend and a private investigator. When their investigation stalls and desperation creeps in, Keith’s methods become unorthodox, illegal, and extremely violent. Meanwhile, Keith’s daughters, 14-year-old Carrie and eight-year-old Allison, witness horrors beyond imagination at the Wolves’ Den, a house in the middle of nowhere.

Andrew McCarthy grows concerned for his family after he catches a young man, Zachary Denton, photographing his daughter, Grace McCarthy, and other children at a park. To his dismay, Zachary talks his way out of trouble when he’s confronted by the police. He hopes that’s the end of it. Then he finds Zachary at a diner and then at a grocery store. He knows their encounters aren't coincidences. And just as Andrew prepares to defend his family, Grace vanishes.

Mark Murray loves his girlfriend, Rebecca Lucio, but she doesn’t love him. She believes their love has withered away, and she has already fallen for another man, but she struggles to formally end her relationship with Mark. But Mark knows everything already - the lies, the deceit, the cheating. He has a plan to punish Rebecca in the most violent, disgusting way possible. He is going to make her sick...unbelievably sick.

While walking through the woods, a group of boys—Daniel Burke, Gavin Graves, and brothers Connor and Tyler Parker—discover an abandoned body.

While attempting to abduct a teenager from her home, sadistic serial killer Victor Brooks meets his match: ten 9mm bullets. In a puddle of his own blood, sprawled across a stranger’s kitchen floor, Victor’s life begins to flash before his very eyes. He sees the living and the dead, peace and carnage, friends and foes, success and disappointment, love and hatred. He sees a life defined by rage, suffering, and despair. The light at the end of Victor's tunnel is red—red with blood. Jon Athan, the author of "The Groomer" and "Are Your Parents Home?

Max Baker, a 31-year-old accountant, finds himself in a desperate situation after killing a prostitute in his hotel room. ‘I lost control of myself,’ he says. ‘I couldn’t get the thought out of my head!’ Panicking and unable to dispose of the evidence by himself, he calls on his long-time friend John Kasper for help. Kasper is horrified and hesitant to help at first, but he can’t abandon his friend during his time of need. Max’s family and future are at stake. Together, they devise and execute one plan after another, hopelessly trying to hide Max’s crime...

At Camp Blaze—a camp with a history of violent tragedy—a group of counselors are stalked and slaughtered by a masked killer. However, due to the missing bodies, the murders are treated as disappearances. ‘Perhaps they’ve ran off to elope,’ the authorities suggest. But, as the disappearances continue to mount, Regina Park—the head counselor—begins to suspect foul play and she fears the killer may be closer than they think...

No one saw it coming. It started with isolated reports of people kidnapping babies and blending them to drink their ‘essence’—a highly potent and highly addictive chemical compound found in infants. The phenomenon spread through social media, infecting other addicts. Cases of kidnapping and murder—femicide and infanticide—skyrocketed, leading to governments around the world to issue state of emergencies and strict shelter-at-home orders. But it was too late. Society had collapsed into itself.

Neglected by his wife and haunted by his past, Scoot McDonald, a taxi driver, succumbs to his sex addiction and visits a brothel. He awakens the next morning in his taxi in an abandoned multistory parking garage, aching all over and bleeding internally. He tries to bury and forget his secrets, but he soon finds himself blackmailed into working for Vincent Luciano, the leader of a local crime syndicate. He refuses at first, but the truth concerning his night at the brothel turns out to be much more sinister than he had imagined...

Clayton Carter and Chastity Harrison embark on a gruesome killing spree across Southern California, always staying one step ahead of the authorities while slaughtering their victims. Homicide Detective Harvey Skinner, frustrated by his failure to catch them, decides to use an unconventional method to punish Clayton and Chastity. He releases a notorious serial killer from death row and sends him to hunt and torture Clayton and Chastity in a brutal game of cat-and-mouse.

After he catches her looking through his phone and sabotaging their birth control, Lorenzo Garcia breaks up with his girlfriend, Emily Hawkins. But Emily can’t move on. Heartbroken but determined, she plans on getting him back by any means necessary. She’ll destroy his life to help him rebuild it, ruin his relationships and eliminate the competition to keep him for herself, and if all else fails, she has a plan to keep him with her forever....

While her parents attend a work party, eighteen-year-old Ella Romero is left in charge of her two siblings—thirteen-year-old Nicholas and eight-year-old Arianna—at their secluded lake house. In her usual fashion, Ella invites her friends to hang out while her parents are away, too. It was supposed to be an easy, quiet, normal night.

Bradley Anderson, known as Dr. Sadist, is a master of torture and a veteran director of snuff films at Deep Red Pictures - a studio owned by a sadistic entrepreneur, Mr. Snuff. He is paid handsomely for his work, he owns an expensive, secluded home, and he lives with a loving family. The problem? He loves his family, and he can’t stop his once-buried conscience from reawakening.

Nestor Castle—a bestselling, award-winning extreme horror author—has the perfect life, having transitioned from indie darling to mainstream success. Although he dislikes the limelight, he finds comfort cooped up in his lake house with his loving wife and healthy daughter. However, after announcing his next book—a departure from the horror genre—he finds himself targeted by a disgruntled fan who calls himself ‘Butterfly.’

To the public eye, Vincent Campbell is seen as a controversial figure known for his bizarre behavior, offensive outbursts, and contrarian stances—on top of a number of legal issues. Unbeknownst to most of the world, however, he holds secrets far worse than derogatory remarks in his personal life. And when it catches up to him, he tells all to a forensic psychiatrist, Lorraine Lynch, who has been assigned to find out why he has done what he has done.

After a prank lands him in serious trouble, Malcolm Hernandez, a 16-year-old boy, is shipped off to live with his grandparents while his mother attempts to save him from expulsion and criminal charges. Malcolm believes the stay will be easy - a vacation with milk and cookies and tales from the past. His hopes, however, are shattered when he bumps heads with his grandfather, Ronald O'Donnell - a stern, violent man with a sinister past. Ronald plans on disciplining his grandson in order to "save" him from himself. He is not afraid of abusing him, either.

Cindy Moore, a morbidly obese woman with serious self-esteem issues, has struggled to lose weight for years. Hours of exercise and a nutritious but inconsistent diet have only led to disappointment and depression. On the verge of giving up on everything, her life takes a drastic turn when she discovers a ‘miracle’ diet pill that allows her to lose weight without dieting or exercising. The pills, however, come with disturbing side effects, including dangerous changes to her body, mind, and appetite.

On their way to Las Vegas for a pair of bachelor and bachelorette parties, Colton and Lacey run into some car trouble. They find shelter at Motel Ace, located in Middle-of-Nowhere, Nevada. They’re welcomed by a quiet clerk and they meet a cast of interesting travelers. They expect a quiet, romantic night at a dingy motel as they wait for the mechanic. Then they hear the screaming in the other rooms. Then they see the clowns outside. In the blink of an eye, a peaceful night transforms into a battle for survival and a motel becomes a bloody battleground.

A cold case turns blood-hot when the butchered remains of a mobster are discovered in a gory crime scene resembling the murder of a veteran detective. Chase Hauger, a homicide detective diagnosed with terminal cancer, suspects the Enigma Killer—a serial killer known for using elaborate traps to "teach" and torture his victims—has returned after years of dormancy. Chase sets out to bring the Enigma Killer to justice and avenge his slain friend, but he quickly finds himself caught in a web of lies and a storm of bloodshed. Can he catch the killer before death catches up to him?