The author of the New York Times best-selling Maze Runner series leads us on a dark journey of generational horror as we visit The House of Tongues.
David Player has spent 30 years trying to forget the traumas of his childhood. The threats, the kidnappings, the murders. The imagined curses of a people born centuries earlier, passed from father to son, mother to daughter, generation to generation. Its climax came in human form, a monster of a man, one of the most notorious serial killers the nation has ever seen: Pee Wee Gaskins. And Gaskins had a particular hatred for the Player family, then for David, himself, who barely escaped those years with his own life intact.
Now David is back, his four children in tow, visiting his parents’ home, a place he has learned to cherish despite the evils that haunted his younger days. But no sooner does he return than a stranger visits their doorstep, the son of Pee Wee Gaskins. In a terrifying display, right in front of the kids, the man utters threats until he chokes on his own tongue, sparking a series of events that drag David and his family back into the days of curses and murders, onto a path of unimaginable terror, all too familiar.
James Corbin is an ambitious high school history teacher who resides in the lively, yet dangerous city of New Orleans. He suffers from severe depression and anxiety and is on a downward spiral, unwilling to seek the help he desperately needs. His troubles are compounded by a lack of progress in his professional career, his disintegrating marriage, and lack of respect from his peers. While his struggles threaten to cripple him, the city is marred by a series of brutal religious murders.
However, it’s soon clear that there is not only one, but two murderers wreaking havoc on the city. While police chase the murderers, James focuses on his quest for professional success and self-worth from his research. Unfortunately for him, the research leads to the discovery of a nefarious essence, which unlocks a darkness and brings James face to face with a monster of his own. Within some people, there is something… off. Something dormant. A terror that, if found, will leave a path of pain in its wake.
Owning a nice house in an upscale neighborhood has long been a key component of the American Dream. Generally, these types of neighborhoods are managed by an HOA. A well-run HOA provides efficient management of everything from the neighborhood's accounting to its aesthetic standards, providing many benefits and a higher standard of living to its residents. This is the story of a not-so-well-run HOA.
A new company, headed by a woman named Denise Graves, has been hired to manage the homeowner’s association for the lovely neighborhood of Sweetwater Cove in South Carolina. Families move to Sweetwater to enjoy the beautiful landscaping, superb amenities, and sense of community. In this neighborhood, weedy lawns and perpetually barking dogs are among the long list of strictly forbidden infractions of the covenants.
Detective Jordan Sumner saved the last victim. He shot and killed Scott McDonough, a serial killer the press dubbed as the Midnight Rider. Jordan was the toast of the Valley but the case took a toll and didn't come without a deep, personal cost. A few years later, the killings started again and the identity of the first victim brought Detective Sumner to his knees. It was a personal message to him that a reckoning was coming and Jordan was going to have to literally face the music. It was a personal war between the detective and the new killer. A killer that reclaimed the moniker of Midnight Rider.
When Hector James, an aspiring journalist, arrives at a small guesthouse in central Vietnam, he meets an old woman with a story to tell that might just give him the break he needs.
Hector and a motley company of guests join the elderly woman on a mission to find and exhume her brother's remains from a nearby island. However, little do they know that this isolated outpost was home to one of the most brutal and tragic battles of the Vietnam war.
As the group venture deep into the wilderness, the mysteries of the forgotten island, like the jungle around them, grow ever darker and more twisted. Will they succeed in their mission? Will Hector or any of his team make it off the island alive? One thing is for certain, finding out will be a war…
