Jonathan Janz Books in Order
See Jonathan Janz books in order, with quick summaries, series guides, and simple advice on where to start with his horror novels and novellas.
Last updated: July 13, 2026
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Jonathan Janz books in publication order
21 books
Witching Hour Theatre
by Jonathan Janz
2005
Larry Wilson settles in for an all-night horror triple feature at the Starlight Cinema, the best night of his year. Then moviegoers start vanishing, and the figure in the back row begins to move closer.
Old Order
by Jonathan Janz
2010
Con man Horace Yoder poses as an outcast from an Amish order and takes farm work so he can rob the family sheltering him. He quickly learns the house is hiding something far more dangerous than valuables.
House of Skin
by Jonathan Janz
2012
Paul inherits the cursed estate of Watermere, where his dead aunt Annabel still exerts a terrifying pull. As he falls for Julia Merrow, both are drawn into a legacy of possession, secrets, and a hunger to live again.
The Sorrows
by Jonathan Janz
2012
Film composer Ben and his friend Eddie stay in a long-abandoned castle on a northern California island, hoping the atmosphere will spark inspiration. What they find is an ancient hunger waiting in the dark.
Savage Species
by Jonathan Janz
2013
Jesse, Emma, and a friend think they have landed an easy newspaper assignment covering a state park grand opening. Instead they awaken something ancient, and the entire crowd becomes prey in a brutal creature feature.
The Clearing of Travis Coble
by Jonathan Janz
2013
Professor Dick Myers wants to prove Travis Coble did not murder and eat his family twenty years ago. Visiting Coble's isolated shack in the Smoky Mountains, he uncovers a truth far worse than rumor.
The Darkest Lullaby
by Jonathan Janz
2013
Ellie and Chris move into an inherited estate shadowed by rumors of cult rites and sacrifice. A pregnancy, a sinister family history, and a growing supernatural corruption turn the house into a trap.
Castle of Sorrows
by Jonathan Janz
2014
Ben Shadeland swore never to return to the haunted island that nearly destroyed his family. But when his infant daughter is taken, he heads back to Castle Blackwood and the ancient force waiting beneath it.
The Nightmare Girl
by Jonathan Janz
2015
Joe Crawford steps in when he sees a mother abusing her toddler and accidentally provokes an ancient fire cult. Soon his family is marked by fanatics, killers, and a supernatural force that wants blood and its child back.
Wolf Land
by Jonathan Janz
2015
A bonfire before a ten-year reunion turns into slaughter when a werewolf crashes the night. The survivors begin to change, and their small town is about to learn that one attack was only the beginning.
Children of the Dark
by Jonathan Janz
2016
Teenager Will Burgess is already raising his little sister, dodging bullies, and surviving a broken home when an escaped serial killer and something ancient in Savage Hollow close in. Coming-of-age horror with real heart and sharp teeth.
Exorcist Falls
by Jonathan Janz
2017
Chicago is already gripped by a serial killer when a fourteen-year-old boy attacks his family and shows signs of possession. Father Jason Crowder must confront a case where murder, demonic evil, and his own soul are suddenly at stake.
The Siren and the Specter
by Jonathan Janz
2018
Skeptic David Caine expects another easy haunting to debunk when he agrees to stay at Virginia's notorious Alexander House. Instead he finds a place thick with bloodshed, grief, and a past that may not have finished with him.
Dust Devils
by Jonathan Janz
2019
In 1885 New Mexico, Cody Wilson and twelve-year-old Willet Black are united by grief after traveling actors murder everyone they love. Their hunt for revenge becomes a fight against vampires in a harsh, lonely frontier.
The Dark Game
by Jonathan Janz
2019
Ten writers accept a summer retreat with legendary recluse Roderick Wells, hoping for fame, guidance, and a break. Instead they enter a lethal contest where ambition, imagination, and buried darkness are turned against them.
The Raven
by Jonathan Janz
2020
Geneticists trying to save humanity awaken ancient monster DNA instead, turning the world into a wasteland ruled by predators. Ordinary survivor Dez McClane must fight through the collapse and try to save the woman he loves.
Blood Country
by Jonathan Janz
2022
Three years after rogue scientists awakened monster DNA and ended civilization, survivor Dez McClane must rescue loved ones from vampires holding them inside a fortified school. It is post-apocalyptic horror with monsters, gore, and a strong streak of loyalty.
Marla
by Jonathan Janz
2022
In King's Branch, the girl in the upstairs window is a local legend. As strange deaths spread, a detective, a social worker, and a drifting young man are pulled toward Marla Gorman and the secrets of the Gorman House.
The Dismembered
by Jonathan Janz
2022
In 1912, wounded writer Arthur Pearce meets Sarah Coyle on a train and agrees to help save her sister from the magnetic, sinister Count Richard Dunning. It is a Gothic tale of obsession, rituals, and a trap hidden behind old-world charm.
The Night Flyers
by Jonathan Janz
2024
After the horrors of the first book, sixteen-year-old Will is trapped in a brutal youth facility and terrified by changes inside himself. When winged monsters return and the underground Children seek revenge, he has to fight back again.
Veil
by Jonathan Janz
2025
Invisible creatures begin snatching people from streets, homes, woods, and water, leaving no safe place behind. After losing his family one by one, John Calhoun joins a desperate plan to see the monsters and cross into their world.
Where to start with Jonathan Janz
If you want a strong first taste of his horror: Children of the Dark → The Night Flyers
If you like haunted houses and ghosts: The Siren and the Specter → House of Skin → The Sorrows
If you want monsters and end-of-the-world chaos: The Raven → Blood Country
If you prefer Gothic horror: The Dismembered → The Darkest Lullaby → Castle of Sorrows
If you want a quick first read: Witching Hour Theatre → Old Order → The Clearing of Travis Coble
Jonathan Janz sub-series and character series
Children of the Dark books in order
Explore this seriesRaven (Jonathan Janz) books in order
Explore this seriesJonathan Janz collections, short stories, and related book types
Short Stories/Novellas
Fiction Without Frontiers Books

The Sorrows
by Jonathan Janz
2012
House of Skin
by Jonathan Janz
2012
The Darkest Lullaby
by Jonathan Janz
2013
Savage Species
by Jonathan Janz
2013
Castle of Sorrows
by Jonathan Janz
2014
The Nightmare Girl
by Jonathan Janz
2015
Wolf Land
by Jonathan Janz
2015
The Siren and the Specter
by Jonathan Janz
2018
The Dark Game
by Jonathan Janz
2019
Dust Devils
by Jonathan Janz
2019
Standalone Jonathan Janz books
Author bio
Jonathan Janz was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and he has said he grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard. That sounds almost too perfect for a horror writer, but it fits the books. His fiction keeps returning to old houses, bad woods, lonely roads, and the feeling that ordinary life can tilt into nightmare at any moment.
He has also talked openly about not becoming a serious reader right away. At fourteen, he discovered Stephen King, and that changed the temperature of his life. Reading stopped feeling like schoolwork and started feeling like a door. By seventeen, he knew he wanted to write stories of his own.
That early love of horror never seems to have left him. Janz writes like a reader who genuinely enjoys ghosts, monsters, serial killers, and pulp momentum, but he also cares about the people being chased through the dark. That mix is a big part of why his books tend to feel fast and personal at the same time.
He knows how to make a setup move.
For his day job, Janz teaches high school English, film literature, and creative writing in Indiana. He has spent years balancing the classroom, family life, and fiction, which may help explain why even his wildest books usually stay grounded in recognizable emotions. Teenagers in his novels sound like teenagers. Adults carry old hurts. Families feel messy in believable ways.
If you want a good sample of his range, Children of the Dark is a strong place to look. It is a coming-of-age horror novel built around a battered teenager, his little sister, a brutal small-town world, and something ancient in the woods. Readers who like haunted house stories often point to The Siren and the Specter, while The Dark Game turns a writers' retreat into a nasty psychological trap.
Then there are the monster books. The Raven and Blood Country imagine an apocalypse where dormant strands of human DNA awaken and the world fills with vampires, werewolves, witches, and worse. Wolf Land goes straight for feral small-town terror. Savage Species and Dust Devils show that Janz is just as happy throwing readers into full-throttle creature horror when the story calls for it.
Even at his bloodiest, he usually writes toward feeling, not spectacle alone.
He can shift gears, too. The Dismembered leans Gothic and period-set, while Veil pushes into science fiction horror with invisible abductors and a father trying to get his family back. Along the way, his ghost story The Siren and the Specter became a Goodreads Choice nominee for Best Horror, and Children of the Dark was picked as a Top Ten Horror Book of the Year.
Janz lives in West Lafayette, Indiana, with his wife and three children. He still teaches, still writes, and still seems drawn to the places where fear and empathy meet. That is probably the simplest way to describe his work. The monsters matter, but the people matter first.
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