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A 360-Degree View
Dream Me Dead follows a dead woman watching her husband’s trial for her murder, who tries to leave clues for the living as to what happened to her. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
As living people, we only know what we are told, or what we assume to be true, but if the story is told through the eyes of a deceased person, they are able to have a 360-degree view of the world, and there is no more room for speculation. Peggy Prescott knows exactly what happened to her and how it happened, but she only reveals bits and pieces of her story so that the reader can begin putting the pieces together until they make sense. If she revealed everything at once, it would not be exciting. When someone has to work for the reward, the goal is that much more exciting and fulfilling. The reader feels challenged to put their mind to work as the clues accumulate. The reward, therefore, is worth the effort. Peggy knows her life on earth was valuable, and wants the readers to appreciate her trials and tribulations, making her life, and death, more meaningful. Hopefully, it gives the reader the idea that everything we do, everything that happens to all of us, will one day make sense.
What intrigues you about the paranormal that led you to explore this direction in your psychological thriller novel?
I have always questioned the paranormal, believing that we can only know what we know, but that is not the entire story. I believe in unseen entities, good and bad, who guide us along the way, preparing us to make better choices, be fearless, love deeply, and know that when someone dies, they are still with us. Those whose death was unexpected need for those left behind to make sense of things, and to dig deeper for clues that finally are revealed. Timing is everything, especially for those who search for answers. When I look up at the sky, I see endless possibilities, other lifetimes, souls who have moved on, souls who have remained for a while to keep their loved ones safe. It is an endless cycle of love and possibilities, that intrigue me the most. We have miracles all around us if only we look for them.
What was the most challenging part about writing a mystery story, where you constantly have to give just enough to keep the mystery alive until the big reveal?
The most challenging part of writing a mystery/psychological thriller is to ask the reader to be part of the story, to immerse themselves in the richness of the characters, and to follow the clues as they appear. This cannot occur if the reader becomes bored with the story, or finds that they cannot relate to the characters, so my job was to create characters who come alive, who the reader wants to root for, or despise, but cares about deeply one way or the other. The clues have to be available, but hidden, and can be found just beneath the surface if the reader looks hard enough. For me, the characters in Dream Me Dead are taking the reader on a journey and asking them to believe that they exist, if only on the pages, but remain in our hearts as real people.
Will there be a third book in the Dream Me Home series? If so, what can readers expect, and when will it be available?
Yes, there will be a third book, entitled Dream Me Gone, which will challenge the reader to take a stand, knowing that just as in life, each person can view the same problem differently, depending on their own personal experiences. I know what the ending is, of course, but that’s because I am a believer that anything is possible. Being an optimist and hopeless romantic, I will determine that the ending comes from a place of love, but others, those who are realists, who employ logic as their first language, are welcome to view an ending that makes sense in a realistic world. In other words, just as the readers will align themselves with specific characters, they will also stand firm on a logical conclusion. Everyone should feel that the time they put in to reading the Dream Me Home series was time well spent.
Author Links: Website | Book Trailer | Amazon | Barnes and Noble
Dream Me Dead: A Story of Betrayal, Infidelity, and Love
Dream Me Dead is a psychological thriller with a strong emotional core, and its premise grabs you from page one. The story follows Peggy Prescott, who opens the book by telling us she is dead and determined to reveal the truth about her husband Rob, a respected surgeon now on trial for her murder. What unfolds is a layered mix of courtroom drama, trauma, suspicion, and blurred realities, all threaded through Peggy’s unsettling perspective as she watches events play out from beyond the living world. As the story progresses, her memories fracture and re-form, her sense of the living and the dead becomes porous, and the real history of her marriage to Rob surfaces piece by piece.
Peggy’s voice is striking because it’s calm even when what she describes is horrific, and that contrast creates a tension that stays with you. Author Laurie Elizabeth Murphy makes deliberate choices here, especially in letting Peggy narrate from a place suspended between worlds. It lets her speak plainly about betrayal, longing, and fear, but with an eerie restraint. I found myself reacting not only to the events but to how Peggy processed them, especially when her certainty about what happened collides with the medical team’s insistence that her memories are confused.
Murphy also isn’t shy about leaning into the messy parts of human behavior. The trial sequences give the book a legal-thriller pulse, but underneath the questioning and objections you feel the emotional wreckage of this family. Rob’s arrogance, Peggy’s desperation to be believed, the daughters’ anger, even the way secondary characters like Dr. Steinbrenner or Mrs. Stoner color the narrative with their own biases and wounds. It becomes clear that this story isn’t just about a crime. It’s about the stories people tell about themselves to survive. And because the book blends psychological fiction with elements of suspense and the supernatural, it has room to explore those ideas without having to explain every mystery. Sometimes it’s the uncertainty that keeps you reading.
By the time I reached the final chapters, I felt the book had shown me both the exterior plot and the interior landscapes of these characters, which is where it’s strongest. It’s a thriller, yes, but one with emotional weight and a haunting, almost dreamlike undertow. I’d recommend Dream Me Dead to readers who enjoy psychological suspense that leans into character and memory as much as plot. If you like courtroom tension, unreliable narration, and stories that sit somewhere between mystery and emotional reckoning, you’ll enjoy this book.
Pages: 355 | ASIN : B0F1WG5JHK
The Mourning Locket
The Mourning Locket is a supernatural thriller about an agency called the Inheritance Bureau, a place where heirlooms hold the emotional residue of the dead and where objects literally remember their owners. At the center is Dr. Cassian Vale, an empath whose contact with a Civil War locket sets off a chain reaction of visions, secrets, and dangerous revelations. The book follows him and his team as they uncover the Bureau’s buried experiments, confront its founder, and wrestle with the cost of inheriting pain that isn’t theirs. From the opening scene of Clara Alden’s locket humming at her deathbed to the Bureau’s escalating malfunctions and betrayals, the story blends memory, grief, and identity into a spiraling mystery that ties past and present together.
I was hooked by the atmosphere. The writing carries this heavy, electric hush that makes even quiet moments feel alive. The way the book treats objects as emotional sponges really grabbed me. It’s eerie but tender at the same time, and I kept pausing just to absorb the mood. Scenes like the introduction, where the narrator talks about antiques holding fingerprints and sorrow rather than beauty, hit hard because they feel so human and so haunted at once . I loved that the supernatural elements never felt like gimmicks. They feel like feelings we’ve all avoided or held onto too long. And the characters, especially Cassian and Arden, are written with these little cracks that make them feel both fragile and stubborn. Their connection feels like the kind of closeness born from shared damage rather than romance or convenience.
I also found myself getting swept up in the Bureau’s darker layers. The Blood Ledger, the Silent Lens, the old experiments Callen buried, those ideas are so unsettling because they twist empathy into a tool instead of a virtue. The Apparatus section especially pulled me in. It’s wild and emotional and messy, and it made me feel that buzzing thrill you get when a story finally shows its teeth. Some chapters hit so fast and sharp that I had to slow down to follow every detail. The book lets consequences linger. It lets the characters stay complicated. And honestly, I appreciated the streaks of humor tucked into tense moments. They feel like how real people actually cope, with snark, with tired jokes, with “I stopped for denial” energy.
By the end, I walked away feeling like I’d read something strange and warm and unnerving, all in the best ways. I’d recommend The Mourning Locket to readers who like emotion-driven supernatural stories, to people who enjoy found-family dynamics with rough edges, and to anyone who loves mysteries that grow teeth as they unravel. If you like fiction that feels a little haunted and a little hopeful, and if you enjoy worlds where empathy is both power and liability, this book will be right up your alley.
Pages: 138 | ASIN : B0FW5NDTPV
Moonlight Cruise: Murder and Magic
Moonlight Cruise is a dark and twisting thriller that takes the reader from the dusty desolation of the Mojave Desert to the serene yet deceptive beauty of a cruise ship gliding through the Panama Canal. The story follows Jessica Ascher, a woman on the run from the demons of her past, both human and supernatural. Her journey is woven into a larger tale of fanaticism, greed, and the eternal struggle between good and evil. As Jessica tries to protect her daughter, Zamzam, from a cult seeking divine power through blood and sacrifice, the book paints a vivid, unsettling picture of how madness can hide behind devotion and how faith can both save and destroy.
Reading this book was like stepping into a fever dream. The writing grabbed me right away. It’s gritty, raw, and full of heat. Yurie Kiri doesn’t shy away from horror, but the violence never feels random. It’s purposeful, meant to unsettle and make you think about the darker parts of human nature. I found myself both fascinated and disturbed, flipping the pages faster than I meant to. The story moves like a storm, quiet at first, then violent, full of lightning flashes of insight. Sometimes the dialogue feels rough around the edges, almost too real, but that rawness adds to the tension. It’s messy in the best way, like life when it’s at its worst and most honest.
What really got me was the emotion beneath all the chaos. Jessica’s fierce love for her daughter feels like the heartbeat of the story. It’s what keeps you rooting for her when everything else starts to rot. There’s also a haunting sense of mystery, of forces too big to understand. Kiri blends crime, horror, and spirituality into something that feels unique, almost mythic. I did find myself tripping over the sheer number of characters and subplots at times, but I think that’s part of the experience. It’s a labyrinth of sin and faith, and you’re supposed to get a little lost.
I’d recommend Moonlight Cruise to readers who like their thrillers dark and their mysteries layered with moral questions. It’s not a light read, not something to skim before bed, but it sticks with you long after the last page. If you enjoy stories that make you question what’s real, what’s holy, and what’s just human madness, this book will pull you in and keep you there until the end.
Pages: 396 | ASIN : B0DYJZW6SS
The Tao of the Thirteenth God
Robin C. Rickards delivers a paranormal thriller that dives into ritual, belief, and the shadows of human obsession. The Tao of the Thirteenth God follows multiple characters whose paths cross in the wake of strange cult activity, mass suicides, and unsettling visions that blur the line between spiritual yearning and human cruelty. From the first harrowing scene with Amadeus, the troubled seeker, to the storm-battered honeymooners Jack and Alice, and then the grizzled investigator Grantham Savoie with his reluctant partner Dr. Angelica Pali, the story paints a chilling portrait of desperation, mystery, and the cost of pursuing forbidden knowledge.
The opening chapters had this visceral punch, and I found myself hooked by the grit. The style feels unfiltered, raw, almost feverish, and that worked for me because the subject matter itself is so chaotic. At the same time, there were moments where I felt the prose leaned heavily, almost indulgent, and I had to slow myself down. But then a storm or a vision or a horrifying discovery would jolt me back, and I couldn’t look away. I liked that unpredictability. It reminded me of watching lightning: beautiful, frightening, and over before you can process it.
The ideas at the heart of the book resonated deeply with me. The blend of religious myth, Mayan ritual, and modern investigative grit felt daring, and I respect that. I didn’t always know where Rickards was taking me, but that was part of the ride. At times, I felt awe, other times revulsion, and sometimes a little sadness at the broken people caught in the mess. What I liked most was the sense that belief, whether pure or twisted, can drive people to terrifying extremes. The book doesn’t lecture about that. It just lays it bare, and that quiet honesty hit me harder than a long explanation ever could.
The Tao of the Thirteenth God is a gripping read. I’d recommend it to readers who want a thriller that goes beyond surface-level scares and isn’t afraid to weave history, faith, and horror into one unsettling tapestry. If you like your stories strange, stormy, and a little uncomfortable, this one’s for you.
Pages: 290 | ASIN : B006QPEAN6
Alive and Forgotten
The Lights of Greyfare follows a burned-out journalist who goes to a small seaside town on assignment, and she discovers the small town is hiding terrifying secrets. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
Greyfare began as a place in my imagination long before it had a name. I’ve always been fascinated by towns that seem both alive and forgotten, where the fog feels like another resident and silence carries its own folklore. I wanted a setting that could reflect Katherine Calder’s unraveling, a place where her grief and addiction would meet an environment that seemed to breathe and press back against her. Maine’s coastal isolation gave me the perfect canvas for that tension, where a story about strange lights could spiral into something much darker.
What intrigues you about the horror and paranormal genres that led you to write this book?
Horror has always been about intimacy, about getting uncomfortably close to the things we would rather avoid. The paranormal allows those inner struggles to manifest outward, in ways that are unsettling but true. Kat’s sarcasm, self-destruction, and longing all take shape in Greyfare’s uncanny atmosphere. I love that horror lets us put grief, obsession, and identity into forms that are at once monstrous and heartbreakingly human. It’s not about shock alone, it’s about resonance… leaving the reader haunted in ways they didn’t expect.
Were you able to achieve everything you wanted with the characters in the novel?
Kat fought me every step of the way. She’s painfully real. I wanted her inner spirals, her addictions, and her sharp humor to feel unvarnished, and I think that comes through. Some of the townspeople surprised me, too, especially in how their secrets entwined with hers. I don’t believe in tying everything up neatly. I prefer characters who linger with you after the last page.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?
I’m currently in the early stages of my next novel. It will return to the gothic tradition, a story shaped by architecture, community, and the way hidden histories leave their mark on the living. While it won’t be set in Greyfare, it will share that same interest in place as a character. I hope to share more in the coming year. In the meantime, readers can follow updates and join my mailing list through my website, https://junoguadalupe.com/.
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | Amazon
A gothic horror novel about grief, obsession, and the monsters we become when the sea calls our name.
After a brutal divorce and the loss of everything she thought she was, journalist Katherine Calder is on assignment to the fog-drenched town of Greyfare. She’s come to write, to recover, and to disappear for a little while. But Greyfare has other plans.
The town is strange. Too quiet. Full of faces that seem familiar, even when they shouldn’t be. At night, something walks the shore—a reflection of Kat that mimics her, imperfectly. The harbor groans with secrets, and the townspeople cling to ancient traditions they won’t talk about.
When Kat meets Dean, a reclusive widower with a weather-beaten boat and a haunted past, she feels herself unraveling in ways that are both terrifying and intoxicating. Their bond deepens, even as Kat uncovers hints of a centuries-old pact—one that demands sacrifice to keep the devils in the deep.
But the sea is waking.
And Kat may already be part of the offering.
Darkly lyrical and emotionally charged, The Lights of Greyfare is a supernatural descent into love, memory, and the terror of losing yourself to something older than the tide. Perfect for fans of The Haunting of Hill House, this is a horror novel that lingers long after the last page
The Angel and the Amazing Life of Maggie Love
C.R. Fabis’s The Angel and the Amazing Life of Maggie Love is a gripping exploration of morality and redemption, told through the fascinating lens of an Inspector, an angelic being tasked with evaluating the souls of the departed. Maggie Love, the titular character, is no ordinary protagonist. A serial killer with a streak of charm and cunning, Maggie becomes the subject of a divine investigation to uncover whether there’s any good buried deep within her dark heart. The story unfolds in a blend of thriller, fantasy, and psychological drama as the Inspector relives fragments of Maggie’s life to find even the faintest glimmer of repentance.
The narrative’s bold choice of beginning with Maggie’s death immediately piqued my curiosity. Fabis dives into the twisted psyche of Maggie, painting her as both monstrous and magnetic. I couldn’t help but be captivated by the vivid description of Maggie’s manipulative charm, especially in scenes like her calculated murder of Clyde on the subway. However, the prose sometimes gets bogged down with overly detailed descriptions, which slows the pacing. For example, the meticulous breakdown of Maggie’s outfits or her preparation for a crime felt more like filler than crucial character development. The Inspector’s role as a neutral soul-searcher contrasts sharply with Maggie’s chaotic amorality. I found myself questioning the fairness of eternal judgment, especially as Maggie’s backstory reveals layers of trauma and survivalism. A particularly compelling moment comes when Maggie relives her abusive time in the adult film industry, and though her actions remain indefensible, Fabis succeeds in making her character disturbingly human. Still, some of the philosophical musings felt repetitive. While the Inspector’s reflections on redemption added depth, they occasionally veered into sermonizing. The story’s structure is a wild ride, and while this makes it unpredictable, it also felt disjointed at times. Jumping between Maggie’s past lives, her twenties as a rising adult film star, and her fifties as a cunning seductress created a jarring rhythm. That said, I have to commend the author for maintaining suspense throughout. The Inspector’s quest to find redemption for Maggie builds tension masterfully, especially in the climactic scenes where Maggie faces her past crimes head-on.
The Angel and the Amazing Life of Maggie Love is not your typical redemption story. It’s dark, thought-provoking, and often uncomfortable, but it also has moments of startling beauty and insight into the human soul. If you enjoy morally complex characters and aren’t put off by graphic content or philosophical ruminations, this book will leave you thinking long after you’ve turned the last page. It’s a fitting read for fans of dark thrillers or speculative fiction with a metaphysical twist. I’d recommend it to readers who love a challenge and aren’t afraid to grapple with the shades of gray in morality.
Pages: 240 | ASIN : B0DH5VCSVT
Digger
In Digger by Arjay Lewis, readers meet Joshua Bennet, a young reporter grappling with his father’s mysterious and sudden death. Raised on his father’s stories of nocturnal horrors and having witnessed inexplicable events himself, Joshua doubts the official explanation of his father’s demise. Determined to uncover the truth, he sets out to find his father’s old ally, known only as Digger. Armed with nothing but an alias, Joshua’s journalistic skills are put to the test in a quest that proves more daunting than expected.
Throughout the novel, Joshua relies on childhood notes about his father’s escapades as a demon hunter, using his journalism career not only as a means to investigate but also as a disguise to deflect suspicion in the small, tight-knit communities he explores. These settings are vividly portrayed, with residents’ wariness adding a layer of authenticity to each encounter. Joshua’s pretense of researching articles lends him just enough credibility to continue his inquiries, gradually peeling back layers of mystery with each reluctant source he persuades.
Fans of supernatural dramas like “Supernatural” or “Buffy the Vampire Slayer” will find Digger a novel take on the demon hunter narrative. Lewis refreshes a familiar genre by shifting the perspective to an outsider, adding a layer of intrigue and novelty. Without revealing too much, the narrative excels in drawing readers into Joshua’s relentless pursuit of the enigmatic Digger. The pacing of the book is deliberate, with early chapters setting a measured tempo that crescendos into a gripping, sleep-defying conclusion.
For those drawn to supernatural thrillers and horror, Digger promises a compelling blend of suspense and the unexplained.
Pages: 412 | ASIN : B0C5TKXXJS
LITERARY TITAN 