Haunted Thrills #8

Edwin Black harbors a murderous secret: he despises his shrewish wife Erma and dreams of freedom from her constant nagging. When he purchases a remote New England house with a dark history—including tales of a vampire buried centuries before—Edwin sees his opportunity and methodically plans his wife's demise. But when Edwin buries Erma in the yard, he unwittingly disturbs something far older and hungrier than his guilt, and the consequences spiral far beyond what he ever imagined.

When Jim and Cynthia's car breaks down near a remote monastery in 1926 Spain, they seek shelter for the night—but discover the crumbling ruins harbor something far more sinister than abandonment. Trapped by figures claiming to be the Inquisition, Jim must confront his deepest fear when terror becomes all too real, and a desperate escape forces him into an impossible choice that will test whether he's truly the coward he believes himself to be.

Jim and Jane arrive at Bartley Manor on the Cornish coast, hoping the isolated setting will provide material for Jim's novel about the wreckers who once lured ships to their doom—but their stay is interrupted by a mysterious old woman who emerges from the house with cryptic warnings about blood and murder. As strange events unfold and the old woman reveals herself to be a survivor of a wreck from 1823, Jim and Jane find themselves drawn into something far more sinister than local legend.

When King Charles the First loses his head to Oliver Cromwell's executioner in 1649, loyal followers spirit away the mummified remains—only for it to vanish into legend. Over a century later, the grisly relic surfaces in an English country house attic, setting off a chain of theft, murder, and dark fortune-seeking that seems cursed to repeat history itself. As the head passes from hand to desperate hand, each new owner discovers that some treasures exact a price far steeper than gold.