Search Results: Darcy Coates from I Cannot Live Without Books

Dead Lake by Darcy Coates
Sam is excited to spend a week at her uncle's remote lakeside cabin. It's a chance for her to focus on her art without distractions: no neighbors, no phone, and only a small radio to keep her company. It's perfect.
But there's something deeply unnatural lingering by the lake.
It isn't long before Sam realizes she's not alone out here. A tall, strange man stands on the edge of her dock, staring intently into the swirling waters below. At first, she tries to brush off her unease, but unnerving reports begin to surface of hikers missing from the nearby trail. Then he starts to follow her. He disables her car. He destroys her only way to communicate with the outside world. Stranded, alone, afraid, Sam my have become the prey in a hunter's deadliest game.

The Folcroft Ghosts by Darcy Coates
When their mother is hospitalized, Tara and Kyle are sent to stay with their only remaining relatives. Their elderly grandparents seem friendly at first, and the rambling house is full of fun nooks and crannies to explore. But strange things keep happening. A bedroom remains locked at all times. Doors slam and curtains shift when no one is inside. And there are whispers of a sister who drowned in the lake long ago.
Something is being hidden away, kept safely out of sight...and the children can't shake the feeling that it's watching them.
When a violent storm cuts off their only contact with the outside world, Tara and Kyle must find away to protect themselves from their increasingly erratic grandparents...and from the ghosts that haunt the Folcrofts' house. But can they ever hope to escape the unforgivable secret that has ensnared their family for generations?

From Below by Darcy Coates
Years ago during a routine voyage, the SS Arcadia vanished without a brace. Though a strange, garbled emergency message was broadcast, neither the ship nor any of its crew could be found. Sixty years later, its wreck has finally been discovered more than three hundred miles from its intended course...a silent graveyard deep beneath the ocean's surface, eagerly waiting for the first sign of life.
Cove and her dive team have been granted permission to explore the Arcadia's rusting hull. Their purpose is straightforward: examine the wreck, film everything, and, if possible, uncover how and why the supposedly unsinkable ship vanished.
But the Arcadia has not yet had its fill of death, and something dark and hungry watches from below. With limited oxygen and the ship slowly closing in around them, Cove and her team will have to fight their way free of the unspeakable horror now desperate to claim them.

Gallows Hill by Darcy Coates
The Hull family has owned the Gallows Hill Winery for generations. The sprawling old house has long been perched on top of a hill overlooking the nearby town, jealously guarding the estate's secrets. Their wine wins awards. Their business prospers. Their family thrives, until Hugh and Maria Hull enter the dark halls of Gallows Hill one last time...and are found dead the next morning.
People whisper that the curse has awakened once more.
It's been more than a decade since Margot Hull last saw her childhood home. She was young enough when she was sent away that she barely remembers its dark passageways and secret corners. But now she's returned to bury her parents and reconnect with the winery that is her family's legacy -- and the bloody truth of exactly what lies buried beneath the crumbling estate. Alone in the sprawling, dilapidated building, Margo is forced to come face-to-face with the horrors of the past -- and realize that she may be the next victim of a house that… Read More

The Haunting of Ashburn House by Darcy Coates
Everyone knows about Ashburn House. They whisper that its old owner went mad and restless ghosts still walk the halls. But when Adrienne, desperate and in need of a place to stay, inherits the crumbling old mansion, she only sees it as a lifeline....until darkness falls.
Strange messages are etched into the walls. Furniture moves when she leaves the room. And a grave hidden in the depths of the forest hints at a terrible, unforgivable secret. Something twisted lives in her house, its hungry eyes ever watchful. Chasing the threads of a decades-old mystery, it isn't long before she realizes she's become prey to something deeply unnatural and intensely resentful.
She has no idea how to escape. She has no idea how to survive. Only one thing is certain: Ashburn's dead are not at rest.

The Haunting of Gillespie House by Darcy Coates
Elle is thrilled to spend a month minding the beautiful Gillespie property. Over an hour's drive from the nearest town., the aging mansion is ideal for someone seeking solitude. But as she explores her new home, Elle makes a startling discovery: there's a graveyard nestled deep in the woods, containing a generation of the house's residents...all who died the same year.
Then things start to go very wrong, very quickly.
There are skittering noises inside the walls...slamming doors...whispers in the night...a locked room...and a horrifying mystery that wants to be solved. As she investigates further, Elle begins to unravel the property's dark and dangerous history. At its center is Jonathan Gillespie, a tyrannical cult leader and the house's original owner. And as Elle soon learns...just because he's dead, doesn't mean he's gone.

The Haunting of Rookward House by Darcy Coates
When Guy finds the deed to a house in his mother's attic, it seems like an incredible stroke of luck. Sure, it hasn't been inhabited i years and vines strangle the age-stained walls, but Guy's convinced he can clean up the building and sell it. He'd be crazy to turn down free money. Right?
Rookward House may be hours away from its nearest neighbor, but he can't escape the feeling that he's being watched. Still, he decides to camp in the crumbling old mansion while he does repairs. Surely nothing too bad can happen in the space of a week.
But there's a reason no one lives in Rookward House, and the dilapidated rooms aren't as empty as they seem. Forty years ago, a deranged woman tormented the family that made Rookward its home. Now, her ghost clings to the building like rot. She's bitter, obsessive, and fiercely jealous...and once Guy has moved into her house, she has no intention of letting him go.

House of Shadows (Ghosts and Shadows Series, Book #1) by Darcy Coates
Sophie's world is shattered when disaster bankrupts her family. She's still reeling when she's offered an unexpected solution: Mr. Argenton, a wealthy stranger, has asked for her hand in marriage. Marrying Mr. Argenton will save her family, but it condemns Sophie to a life in Northwood, a vast and unnaturally dark mansion situated hours from civilization.
Still, she has no choice but to accept the offer and hope the darkness won't swallow her whole.
It's a struggle to adjust to her new position as mistress over the desolate house. Mr. Argenton's relatives are cold, and the manor is more than it seems. Doors slam. Inhuman figures slink through the surrounding forest. A piano plays itself in the middle of the night. Blood drips a macabre warning down the walls. Day by day, Sophie is inevitably pulled toward the terrifying truth: Northwood's ancient halls are haunted, and the man she married -- the man she's coming to love -- is hiding… Read More

House of Secrets (Ghosts and Shadows Series, Book #2) by Darcy Coates
Sophie and Joseph Argenton have survived the impossible for now. But their escape from Northwood is short lived. The beast that haunted their ancestral home survived, and has attached itself to Joseph's young cousin. Desperate, they travel to meet her father at Kensington, a long-abandoned mansion overlooking a dead town. The house offers a small hope: its original owner had dedicated her life to researching the monster that now possesses Elise. there's a chance that here they will find a way to kill the creature without harming the girl.
But Kensington has its own dangers, and once it has Sophie and Joseph within its grasp, it may never let them leave.
Trapped inside the ancient building's collapsing walls, Sophie and Joseph are forced to confront the horrors that hide within. Shrouded figures stalk them from the shadows. Whispers echo through the night. Unmarked graves dot the property. And the dead are not as restful as they seem.

House of Shadows (Ghosts and Shadows Series, Book #1) by Darcy Coates
Sophie's world is shattered when disaster bankrupts her family. She's still reeling when she's offered an unexpected solution: Mr. Argenton, a wealthy stranger, has asked for her hand in marriage. Marrying Mr. Argenton will save her family, but it condemns Sophie to a life in Northwood, a vast and unnaturally dark mansion situated hours from civilization.
Still, she has no choice but to accept the offer and hope the darkness won't swallow her whole.
It's a struggle to adjust to her new position as mistress over the desolate house. Mr. Argenton's relatives are cold, and the manor is more than it seems. Doors slam. Inhuman figures slink through the surrounding forest. A piano plays itself in the middle of the night. Blood drips a macabre warning down the walls. Day by day, Sophie is inevitably pulled toward the terrifying truth: Northwood's ancient halls are haunted, and the man she married -- the man she's coming to love -- is hiding… Read More

The Ravenous Dead (Gravekeeper Series, Book #2) by Darcy Coates
Keira, hired as Blighty Graveyard's new grounds-keeper, lives surrounded by the dead. They watch her through the fog. They wordlessly cry out. They've been desperately waiting for help moving on -- and only Keira can hear them. But not every restless spirit wants to be saved. Sometimes the dead hate the living too much to find peace.
As Keira struggles to uncover the tangled histories of some of the graveyard's oldest denizens, danger seeps from the darkest edges of the forest. A vicious serial killer was interred among the trees decades before, his spirit twisted by his violent nature. He's furious. Ravenous. And when Keira unwittingly answers his call, she may just seal her fate as his final intended victim.

Secrets in the Dark (Black Winter Series, Book #2) by Darcy Coates
Winterbourne Hall is not safe. Even as Clare and Dorran scramble to secure the ancient building against ravenous hollow ones, they face something far worse: Clare's sister has made contact, but she's trapped and her oxygen is running out.
Hundreds of miles separate Clare from Beth. The land between them is infested with monsters, and the roads are a maze of dead ends. Clare has to choose between making a journey she knows she might not survive, or staying safe in Winterbourne and listening as her sister slowly suffocates.
At least, whatever her choice, she'll have Dorran by her side. And yet there are eyes in the dark. There are whispers in the mist. There is danger lurking in the snow, and one false step could end it all.

Silence in the Shadows (Black Winter Series, Book #4) by Darcy Coates
The stark world has changed. Each passing day twists it further, pushing the surviving humans closer to the brink of extinction. But, for the first time, there is hope.
Clare and Dorran have set their sights on returning home to Winterbourne Hall. It's a daunting journey, but vital. Humanity needs more refuges -- safe areas where food can be grown without attracting the attention of the hollow ones -- and the old Gothic manor is their best bet.
But their home is no longer a sanctuary. It's become a trap, carefully crafted for them, lying in wait for their return. By the time they realize just how dangerous Winterbourne has become, it's already too late.
The fight for survival is far from over.

The Twisted Dead (Gravekeeper Series, Book #3) by Darcy Coates
Keira is ready for a normal life. Hunted and haunted, all she wants is to put her mysterious past behind her and move forward with her new friends as Blighty Graveyard's grounds-keeper. But then she receives an invitation to dinner at the local recluse's crumbling ancestral estate. The mansion is steeped in history that is equal parts complicated and bloody -- and at its center is the man who once tried to kill her, now begging for her help.
Dane Crispin believes his home is haunted -- and that the unquiet dead clawing through the ancient house are after him. Unnerved byt intrigued, Keira opens her second sight and discovers he's right: resentful specters cling to Dane.and if she can't find a way to stop them, they threaten to consume everything in their path.
There's something dark happening in the world beyond most peoples' vision, and if Keira isn't able to sever the ties between the living and the dead, the chained spirits may not be… Read More

Voices in the Snow (Black Winter Series, Book #1) by Darcy Coates
Clare remembers the cold. She remembers abandoned cars and children's toys littered across the road. She remembers dark shapes in the snow and a terror she can't explain. And the...nothing. When she wakes, aching and afraid in a stranger's Gothic home, he tells her she was in an accident. He claims he saved her. Clare wants to leave, but a vicious snowstorm has blanketed the world in white, trapping them together, and there's nothing she can do but wait.
At least the stranger seems kind...but Clare doesn't know if she can trust him.He promised they were alone here, but she sees and hears things that convince her something else is creeping about the surrounding woods, watching. Waiting. Between the claustrophobic storm and the inescapable sense of being hunted, Clare is on edge...and increasingly certain of one thing.
Her car crash wasn't an accident. Something is waiting for her to step outside the fragile safety of the… Read More

The Whispering Dead (Gravekeeper Series, Book #1) by Darcy Coates
Homeless, hunted, and desperate to escape a bitter storm, Keira takes refuge in an abandoned grounds-keeper's cottage. Tucked away at the edge of a cemetery, it's surrounded on all sides by gravestones: some recent, some hundreds of years old, all suffering from neglect.
And in the darkness, she can hear the unquiet dead whispering.
The cemetery is alive with faint, spectral shapes, led by a woman who died before her time.and Keira, the only person who can see her, has become her new target. Determined to help put the ghost to rest, Keira digs into the spirit's past life with the help of unlikely new friends, and discovers a history of deception, ill-fated love, and murder.
But the past is not as simple as it seems, and Keira's time is running out. Tangled in a dangerous web, she has to find a way to free the spirit.even if it means offering her own life in return.

Whispers in the Mist (Black Winter Series, Book #3) by Darcy Coates
Clare and Dorran may still be alive against all odds, but relief is only temporary. Dorran is sick, and rapidly worsening. Clare fears the only way to save him lies in the mysterious Evendale Research Institute, supposedly one of the few remaining human refuges. But the research station is three days' journey away, and Clare isn't certain their small group can endure that long.
Because the danger they're facing comes not only from the ravenous hollow ones.but from each other.
This terrible new world has left scars, and only some of them are physical. As Clare fights to protect the most precious people in her life, she begins to realize a horrible truth: not everyone can be saved. And sometimes the worst monsters wear a human smile.