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3.5 

The Nightmare Man

By J. H. Markert
The Nightmare Man by J. H. Markert digital book - Fable

Publisher Description

T. Kingfisher meets Cassandra Khaw in this “fast-paced” haunted house story full of “old-school horror” and “brimming with edgy tension and evil” (Library Journal)!

When the terrifying plot of a horror novel comes to life, its author discovers there’s a fine line between humanity and monstrosity . . .

Blackwood mansion looms, surrounded by nightmare pines, atop the hill over the small town of Crooked Tree. Ben Bookman, bestselling novelist and heir to the Blackwood estate, spent a weekend at the ancestral home to finish writing his latest horror novel, The Scarecrow. Now, on the eve of the book’s release, the terrible story within begins to unfold in real life.

Detective Mills arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder: a family butchered and bundled inside cocoons stitched from corn husks, and hung from the rafters of a barn, eerily mirroring the opening of Bookman’s latest novel. When another family is killed in a similar manner, Mills, along with his daughter, rookie detective Samantha Blue, is determined to find the link to the book—and the killer—before the story reaches its chilling climax.

As the series of “Scarecrow crimes” continues to mirror the book, Ben quickly becomes the prime suspect. He can’t remember much from the night he finished writing the novel, but he knows he wrote it in The Atrium, his grandfather’s forbidden room full of numbered books. Thousands of books. Books without words.

As Ben digs deep into Blackwood’s history he learns he may have triggered a release of something trapped long ago—and it won’t stop with the horrors buried within the pages of his book.

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846 Reviews

3.5
“I enjoyed this read. I think I would have preferred physical over audio. There are a lot of little side stories from a handful of different characters. And really relies on them. It was a well written book. It’s like King meets Stine.”
“Let me start off by saying I now know I should have read this one first as his other books mention things from this book, so it’s all interconnected. This was really good.. like really really good to me. I like Criminal Minds type stories, so like his other books, this my kind of style. Granted, it didn’t have super confusing moments, but I really had to tap into my criminal analyst mind to figure out what was going on. This was the first book of his that didn’t have me already knowing who the bad guys were, and I was just waiting for everything to meet. The unsub was a mystery and I was along for the ride to figure out who done it. The twists towards the end I just didn’t see coming. I’m in shock. I’m glad the ending was happy.. ish? And it leaves room for a potential sequel, or an another interconnected novel. It would actually cool if all his novels kinda met up in one big novel eventually. I’d be down for that. Good fun.. creepy, but good fun.”

About J. H. Markert

J. H. Markert is a producer, screenwriter, husband, and father of two from Louisville, Kentucky, where he was also a tennis pro for 25 years, before hanging up the racquets for good in 2020. He graduated with a degree in History from the University of Louisville in 1997 and has been writing ever since.

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