Jeff Strand Books in Order

Hired thugs George and Lou transport a caged man across Florida, dismissing claims that he is a werewolf. When their prisoner escapes, the pair must recapture a murderous creature capable of changing shape at will.

Desperate for cash, Andrew Mayhem accepts a lucrative job retrieving a key buried with a corpse. The assignment draws the married father into a murder investigation and a deadly game involving filmmakers with a disturbing secret.

Squire Randall is entrusted with escorting a princess on an important diplomatic mission. When she is killed, he must navigate absurd dangers to restore her life and prevent the Dark One from taking over their fantasy kingdom.

Andrew Mayhem is forced to impersonate a serial murderer called the Headhunter. Inside an isolated Alaskan mansion, he must deceive a gathering of killers and find a way to rescue the victims of their planned games.

Giant fire ants overrun Tampa during a summer holiday weekend, forcing several groups of survivors to seek safety. An entomologist may understand the infestation, but two violent robbers are holding him captive while the city collapses.

Andrew Mayhem hopes a camping holiday with his family and best friend will finally be uneventful. Instead, savage killers pursue them through a forest riddled with traps, leaving Andrew struggling to keep his loved ones alive.

Seth Trexler wants his sketch comedy troupe to succeed and hopes to win the woman he loves. With his friend Travis beside him, he confronts crippling stage fright, romantic anxiety, and the practical obstacles facing their dreams.

Alex and Darren meet at boarding school and later become close friends at college. When Darren reveals his murderous impulses and demands a partner, Alex must resist a man determined to pull him into a life of killing.

Armed robber Frank expects an ordinary payday when he targets Gretchen. Instead, she offers him sex in exchange for murdering her husband, setting off a grotesque chain of complications when the intended victim proves extraordinarily difficult to kill.

Elrod McBugle keeps causing chaos at Greenwater Junior High despite his good intentions. His misadventures include a homemade bubble-gum business, trouble with a beverage company, an aggressive squirrel, and suspicions that his math teacher is a murderer.

Thirty-three stories blend grotesque horror with dark humor, from an aggressive little dog to sinister Halloween encounters and encounters with Satan. Alongside unsettling and comic tales, the collection includes earlier chapbook material and the novella Disposal.

Teacher Benjamin Wilson develops a parasite that changes his body and behavior. As dangerous people pursue him to obtain the organism, he must rely on bounty hunter Julie, whose motives and ability to protect him remain uncertain.

Lonely Toby Floren befriends the flesh-eating creature he discovered in the woods as a child. Their relationship continues across decades, offering companionship while raising increasingly troubling questions about what Toby will tolerate from his monstrous friend.

Born with alarming sharp teeth, Nathan Pepper grows up feared by his neighbors and burdened with the nickname Fangboy. His unusual childhood becomes a series of dangerous, tragic, and absurd adventures, including an encounter with Professor Mongrel.

Private investigator Harry McGlade is hired to retrieve a girl from a cult of people who believe they are vampires. He teams up with Andrew Mayhem, leaving the rescue in the hands of two unusually unreliable allies.

Stanley Dabernath is resurrected on live television and becomes a celebrity despite his decaying appearance. Fame brings wealth and attention, but the people managing his revival impose restrictions, and the purpose of Project Second Chance grows suspicious.

A revenge prank against a teacher proves that voodoo dolls really work. When teenager Tyler Churchill becomes linked to a doll himself, he and his friends must recover it before a succession of dangerous encounters destroys him.

Twenty-nine stories turn everyday situations into grotesque nightmares, involving severed body parts, murderous inventions, disturbing family punishments, and unlikely romances. Dark comedy runs through the collection as ordinary grievances and bizarre discoveries escalate into violence and horror.

When Rebecca Harpster’s husband fails to return from a camping trip, armed strangers reveal they have kidnapped him. To get him back, she must endure the same horrifying ordeal they inflicted on him and somehow survive it.

Henry Lambert's father sends him to survival camp to toughen him up. Miserable facilities and an unstable instructor are only the beginning: violent criminals turn the wilderness exercises into a real struggle for Henry and his fellow campers.

Sadistic serial killer Charlie Stanlon takes in an abandoned Boston terrier named Kutter and unexpectedly discovers affection. Caring for the dog challenges his isolation and cruelty, raising the possibility of change while his horrifying habits remain close at hand.

A man boasts to friends about his reprehensible behavior, unaware that another diner is watching with hatred. Armed with a gun and duct tape, the stranger waits for a chance to act, setting a dangerous night of revenge in motion.

Greg kills the man he hired to murder his wife’s lover, leaving a body in his office. His brother Carlton urgently needs a corpse for reasons involving a dead lion, drawing both men into increasingly bizarre trouble.

Introverted Todd Bryan meets Amy Husk at a film festival and learns that she has a life-threatening brain aneurysm. She persuades him to join a spontaneous road trip from Florida to Rhode Island in pursuit of exceptional hot dogs.

Captured after hiding in Costa Rica, George and Lou receive a chance to avoid execution by kidnapping a teenage werewolf. Their plan to deliver Ally and then return her safely becomes complicated by other furious lycanthropes.

Cartoonist Jason Tray joins locals in spying on a disfigured young woman they call Blister. Ashamed the next morning, he seeks to apologize, beginning an encounter that leads toward hidden crimes and the cruelty surrounding her isolation.

At a difficult moment in his life, Evan Portin meets Harriett, a capable fighter unfamiliar with everyday technology. She claims to be crossing the country to kill a Cyclops, and his offer of a ride becomes an improbable journey.

Justin and his friends set themselves a month to create an ambitious zombie movie. With little money, a troubled script, unhelpful collaborators, and his crush playing the lead, their filmmaking dreams face increasingly chaotic production problems.

Childhood friends Missy and Kevin escape murderous mutants by sheltering underground during an apocalypse. Trapped together as the world collapses outside, they must navigate survival and the uncomfortable changes isolation brings to a relationship they have always considered platonic.

This collection combines horror and dark comedy in stories about blood-drinking insects, uncontrollable fingernails, possible alien discoveries, and a dead Bigfoot. It also includes The Tipping Point and grotesque reinterpretations of familiar legends and nursery tales.

Teenage magician Marcus Millian dreams of performing professionally but struggles with severe stage fright. When his great-grandfather promises an extraordinary new illusion, Marcus faces the challenge of delivering a spectacular trick while coping with school and personal pressures.

An apparently ordinary hotel conceals shifting corridors, lethal traps, and rooms designed for murder. Matt Shaw and guest authors introduce visitors to the establishment, where its sadistic proprietor Henry plans to turn their stays into deadly encounters.

Ralph pays Kirk to sleep with his wife Julie and deliberately disappoint her, hoping to make himself look better. Julie is meant to remain unaware of the arrangement, but the scheme produces escalating complications and disastrous decisions.

Isolated by his awkwardness and his father's violent history, Frank is astonished when florist Abigail accepts a date. Their unexpected connection promises a new life, but the story moves into obsession, revenge, and increasingly destructive madness.

A violent attack turns a grocery store into a hostage scene. For ten people sheltering inside its walk-in freezer, the threat outside becomes only part of a desperate struggle to survive the confinement and the unfolding violence.

Rod enjoys playing in a band and spending time with his girlfriend until his charming cousin Blake moves in. As Blake encroaches on Rod's room, friendships, and music, the cousins become locked in an escalating battle of pranks.

Boyd and Adeline rent a house with their two daughters, then encounter sudden illness, rapidly spoiling food, and disturbing behavior. When hostile ghosts appear, the family's temporary home becomes the scene of a supernatural assault they must survive.

After losing their circus jobs, Jaunty and his fellow clowns take work frightening visitors at a haunted attraction. On opening night, oversized spiders invade the town, forcing the performers to confront a threat far worse than their costumes.

Rusty Moss and his nearly grown niece Mia live in an isolated woodland cabin. When relentless undead animals surround them, they must fight for survival without communications and with their only vehicle stranded miles away in the mud.

Gertie searches for her missing cousin by baiting a serial kidnapper, with coworker Charlene following as backup. Their attempts attract publicity and the attention of a predator who imprisons women in suspended cages and watches them starve.

Allison has spent decades avoiding people because she cannot control her bone-breaking mental powers. After an encounter leaves her convinced she caused terrible harm, a hitman and his girlfriend exploit her guilt, risking a catastrophic confrontation.

In 1979 Fairbanks, fourteen-year-old Curtis Black witnesses his best friend's abduction and identifies a neighbor as the culprit. With police unable to find evidence, Curtis decides to confront the man himself, placing his own safety at risk.

Twenty-six stories combine gruesome horror with absurd humor, featuring a stressed snack mascot, dangerous virtual fantasies, mutant cockroaches, and sinister holiday surprises. Psychopaths and supernatural threats transform familiar situations into unsettling jokes with frequently bloody consequences.

Exhausted father Andrew Mayhem accepts an explorer's offer to join a lucrative treasure hunt in South America. Promises of safety soon crumble on the Amazon River, turning a brief escape from childcare into another hazardous adventure.

Andrew Mayhem and Roger launch a business investigating unusual problems. A client named Shirley believes she may be a serial killer and insists on being handcuffed to Andrew during their inquiry, while an old enemy prepares revenge.

After losing heavily at a casino, Ethan Caustin accepts a stranger's gambling offer with excellent odds and a gruesome penalty. Each successive round changes the stakes, until quitting becomes impossible and escape depends on finishing the game.

Jeff Strand recounts his uneven path through publishing, sharing failures, missed opportunities, and hard-earned lessons. Personal anecdotes explore rejection, disappointing signings, bad reviews, and comparisons with more successful peers, offering a candid account of sustaining a writing career.

George and Lou are reunited through an unexpected scientific intervention, but the reunion carries a condition. They must travel across the country to kill a werewolf intent on provoking conflict between humans and lycanthropes, facing further complications along the way.

Alex Fletcher struggles to rebuild his life after his former friend Darren’s crimes destroyed his family. A relationship with Luna Booth offers relief, but her fascination with his traumatic past suggests that her understanding may conceal something darker.

Seventy-five very short stories compress horror and absurd humor into tales of disastrous bargains, unsettling encounters, and grotesque surprises. Familiar situations turn dangerous as violent impulses, bizarre creatures, and ill-advised decisions produce disturbing, often comic consequences.

Twenty years after an obsessed fan reenacted the murders in a terrible slasher film, the same theater schedules an anniversary screening. This mockumentary follows the original disaster and the danger surrounding the decision to show the movie again.

Corey falls for Quinn, a married coworker forced to participate in her husband’s serial murders. His armed attempt to rescue her encounters sinister forces, turning an already dangerous relationship into a far more horrifying struggle for survival.

Nate meets Alice while enduring a disastrous blind date, then encounters her again at a grocery store. Their immediate chemistry is unsettled by her sadness and urgent demands for commitment, suggesting a secret that threatens their new relationship.

After his father’s funeral, Ezra inherits an unsettling ventriloquist dummy named Virgil. A crash on a remote road leaves him trapped with his unwanted passenger, whose apparent movements turn the struggle for rescue into something much more frightening.

After a canoeing accident leaves their father unconscious, twins Oliver and Trisha seek help in a remote village. The residents worship a strange scarecrow, and a warning to leave before nightfall turns their rescue effort into a struggle to escape.

Chloe, Avery, and Madison expect a fun night camping in the backyard, interrupted only by a neighbor’s harmless pranks. Then something scratches at their tent, and the absence of anyone outside suggests a much more frightening visitor.

Twenty-six horror stories combine monsters and serial killers with body swaps, disturbing cooking contests, and Christmas mayhem. Alongside tales of cosmic terror and cannibalism, the collection includes Next Best Baker, Rope and Limb, and Torture Porn For Prudes.

Lance and his mother survive in a secluded county after feral bloodsuckers overwhelm the cities. When he helps a badly injured stranger who insists his attackers are dead, their carefully maintained refuge faces a threat they have underestimated.

Twelve-year-old Maggie and her friends enter a summer scavenger hunt hoping to win its large cash prize. Easy challenges grow increasingly disturbing, and a trip to the cemetery reveals that quitting may no longer be an option.

Driving home through rural Georgia, Arden follows his GPS into woods without a signal and runs out of gas. Stranded with his wife and children beside an unwelcoming house, he faces a stranger approaching with a shotgun.

Margot discovers her brother died of thirst while playing a video game, despite water nearby. The game’s testers cannot stop playing and become violent when interrupted, creating a threat that could spread nationwide when it reaches the public.

An avalanche separates Bryan and his classmates from a snow-buried school bus during a ski trip. As Danielle struggles to escape with an injured teacher, both groups face a hungry creature awakened by the disaster.