Most Popular Books by J.D. Barker

For a haunted house to be born, somebody has to die. In the sleepy coastal town of New Castle, New Hampshire, seventeen-year-old Billy Hasler''s life is about to take a terrifying turn. When his best friend David Spivey inherits a mysterious house on a nearby island, it seems like the perfect place to spend their final summer before heading off to college. No parents. No police. No responsibilities. As they dig into the island''s dark past, they awaken an ancient evil that has influenced generations. What begins as an innocent summer adventure quickly descends into a nightmare. "Something I Keep Upstairs" is a haunting exploration of friendship, sacrifice, and the darkness lurking just beyond our understanding.

The prequel to Dracula, inspired by notes and texts left behind by the author of the classic novel, Dracul is a supernatural thriller that reveals not only Dracula’s true origins but Bram Stoker’s—and the tale of the enigmatic woman who connects them. It is 1868, and a twenty-one-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water, and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night, the longest of his life. Desperate to record what he has witnessed, Bram scribbles down the events that led him here... A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents'' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen—a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen—and that the nightmare they''ve thought long ended is only beginning.

In the first of three prequels to New York Times bestselling author J.D. Barker''s wildly popular 4MK series... Before he was known as the Four Monkey Killer, he was just a boy trying to survive. Charleston, 1999. Fifteen-year-old Anson Bishop didn''t mean to kill—not the first time, anyway. Raised by parents who taught him that murder was simply survival, Anson thought he''d escaped his dark past when his home burned and his mother vanished with stolen mob money. He was wrong. Someone is hunting Charleston''s forgotten children—the runaways, the addicts, the ones no one will miss. When the few people Anson has come to care about vanish into the night, he discovers a truth more horrifying than anything his parents taught him: there are monsters in the world far worse than the one he sees in the mirror. Behind a door the color of spilled blood waits a killer who has perfected his craft over two decades. To save his friends, Anson must walk through that scarlet door and face a monster. But in doing so, he may become something more dangerous than what awaits him on the other side. Some doors, once opened, can never be closed. Discover where it all began in the first of three prequels to New York Times bestselling author J.D. Barker''s wildly popular 4MK series.

Facing the truth can be deadlier than facing the killer. Ten days to keep a lie. Ten plagues if you deny. Ten ways to watch them die. Five years ago, when Detective Jena Campbell put the Leviticus Killer behind bars, she locked her darkest secret away with him. Something never meant to surface. Something better left to rot with the madman who had destroyed so many lives. When a strange man calling himself Azrael appears on social media with threats to unleash ten plagues, ten deaths, in ten days, unless Leviticus is released, Jena is forced to reopen that door and face her past. Unable to share what she knows, she turns to the only man who can help her find Azrael before he kills again, the man she condemned. Jena quickly learns the only thing more terrifying than facing him, is facing herself.

When is cold-blooded murder justified? New Orleans Detective Nikki Mayeaux has decided it’s when a technicality sets a serial rapist free. Jaded and frustrated, this latest injustice brings her to a boiling point. She arrives at the monster’s home intending to end his reign of terror, only to find someone else got there first. His throat slit, his lifeless body left in the front seat of his car. Only one person wanted him dead more than her - his final victim - a girl of only sixteen who has vanished in the seedy underbelly of the French Quarter where residents will go to great lengths to protect their own, even when their own is a killer. When is cold-blooded murder justified? End a killer. End a cop. Sometimes, both.

Sugar & Spice is the latest app craze taking the world by storm, but for Abby and Brendan Hollander, downloading it leads to a dangerous game of life and death. When the app assigns them a series of increasingly taboo tasks, they soon find themselves caught up in a twisted web of seduction and violence in this sexually charged dark thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of The Fourth Monkey-master of suspense, J.D. Barker.