Breeding Ground — (2006-2009) Publisher: Life was good for Matt and Chloe. They were in love and looking forward to their new baby. But what Chloe gave birth to isn’t a baby. It isn’t even human. It’s an entirely new species that uses humans only for food — and as hosts for their young. As Matt soon learns, though, he is not alone in his terror. Women all over town have begun to give birth to these hideous creatures, spidery nightmares that live to kill — and feed. As the infestation spreads and the countryside is reduced to a series of web-shrouded ghost towns, will the survivors find a way to fight back? Or is it only a matter of time before all of mankind is reduced to a… Breeding Ground.

Dog-Faced Gods — (2010-2012) Publisher: The recession that grips the world has left it exhausted. Crime is rising in every major city. Financial institutions across the world have collapsed, and most governments are now in debt to The Bank, a company created by the world’s wealthiest men. But Detective Inspector Cass Jones has enough on his plate without worrying about the world at large. His marriage is crumbling, he’s haunted by the deeds of his past, and he’s got the high-profile shooting of two schoolboys to solve — not to mention tracking down a serial killer who calls himself the Man of Flies. Then Cass Jones’ personal world is thrown into disarray when his brother shoots his own wife and child before committing suicide — leaving Cass implicated in their deaths. And when he starts seeing silent visions of his dead brother, it’s time for the suspended DI to go on the hunt himself — only to discover that all three cases are linked… As Jones is forced to examine his own family history, three questions keep reappearing: what disturbed his brother so badly in his final few weeks? Who are the shadowy people behind The Bank? And, most importantly, what do they want with DI Cass Jones?

Fairytale Re-tellings — (2013) These have original pen and ink illustrations by Les Edwards.

Other novels:

The Hidden — (2004) Publisher: Rachel Wright wakes up in the hospital one morning with no memory of who she is. It takes a while, but once she gets over the shock she decides amnesia isn’t all bad. Rachel grasps this opportunity for a fresh start. What does she care if everyone she used to know thinks she’d changed a bit too much? Life is good for the “new” Rachel… But now her life is starting to fray at the edges. She’s been having hideous nightmares and seeing strange things in mirrors. She’s becoming more and more certain that something bad is coming. Something wants to break into this world, to play games of blood and death with the living. And it’s coming for Rachel.

The Reckoning — (2005) Publisher: Fifteen-year-old Chloe Saunders and her friends Tori, Simon, and Derek are genetically altered supernaturals on the run from the evil corporation that created them. Hiding out with a family friend, they are trying to make sense of their predicament and discover what sinister plans the Edison Group has in store for them. As a powerful necromancer who can raise the dead in her sleep, Chloe struggles to control her abilities and figure out how to best use them to keep everyone safe. To further complicate matters (as if running for your life were not enough), Chloe wrestles with her feelings for Simon, a good-natured sorcerer, and Derek, a misunderstood werewolf. This nail-biting climax to the series continues to captivate readers with its edge-of-one’s-seat pacing. Armstrong’s story is full of action, romance, deception, and intrigue as well as complex characters and serious teenage issues.

The Taken — (2007) Publisher: Pinborough delivers genuine chills in this effective tale of ghostly revenge. Thirty years ago, in the rural town of Watterrow, England, a beautiful, curly-haired 10-year-old named Melanie Parr suffered a fatal accident. Having used her angelic looks to hide a cruel, sociopathic personality, the girl delighted in tormenting her playmates, whose mothers decided to do something about it. Unfortunately for them, that “something” proved deadly. Even more unfortunate, Melanie’s come back for revenge, three decades later, thanks to “The Catcher Man,” a benign entity that holds children in a state between life and death. Pinborough populates Watterrow with well-defined, sympathetic characters whose reactions, in the face of the unbelievable, ring remarkably true; the struggle of her reluctant heroine, Alex, is thoughtfully balanced between otherworldly horror and the ravages of terminal cancer. Wisely, Pinborough (Breeding Ground) opts to build suspense subtly, rather than bludgeon readers with horrific imagery or buckets of gore, giving this nicely executed, surprisingly moving ghost story an old-fashioned feel in the best possible sense.

The Language of Dying — (2009) Publisher: A woman sits beside her father’s bedside as the night ticks away the final hours of his life. As she watches over her father, she relives the past week and the events that brought the family together… and she recalls all the weeks before that served to pull it apart. There has never been anything normal about the lives raised in this house. It seems to her that sometimes her family is so colourful that the brightness hurts, and as they all join together in this time of impending loss she examines how they came to be the way they are and how it came to just be her, the drifter, that her father came home to die with. But, the middle of five children, the woman has her own secrets… particularly the draw that pulled her back to the house when her own life looked set to crumble. And sitting through her lonely vigil, she remembers the thing she saw out in the fields all those years ago… the thing that they found her screaming for outside in the mud. As she peers through the familiar glass, she can’t help but hope and wonder if it will come again. Because it’s one of those night, isn’t it dad? A special terrible night. A full night. And that’s always when it comes. If it comes at all.