Author Justin Holley

Books

TO CUT A MAN (Coming January 2024)

When Annette, the editor of a survivalist magazine, embarks on a weekend getaway up Minnesota’s north shore with her boyfriend Sebastion, events spiral out of control when a gang of rowdy bikers starts to show up at their every stop and pay her more attention than she feels comfortable with. The always-prepared Annette does not believe in coincidences. To further complicate the situation, Annette is also dismayed when Sebastion questions her worries and suggests they are nothing but a result of cutting her PTSD meds. As if in direct rebuttal to his position, the bikers rumble into the same remote B&B as the couple, the gang’s aggressive leader inviting Annette and Sebastion to join them outside at the bonfire for drinks and weed. Feeling cornered, and long ago vowing to never allow an unwanted touch again, Annette’s survivalist instincts explode into an agenda of bloody violence and revenge. When the true evil of the situation reveals itself, only Annette’s rage and cunning, no matter her guilt or innocence, can possibly save them.

HELLWEG'S KEEP (Pre-Order - November 2023)

Thirty-seven miners disappear without a trace within a Titanium mine, Hellweg’s Keep, deep within Zeta One, a moon orbiting the planet, Terra. When FBI agent Kendra Omen arrives via the spaceship Marietta, strange phenomenon begins to manifest…suicides, shadows a shade darker than the shadows they move within, disembodied whispers, and Kendra would swear she catches a glimpse of her own deceased daughter walking the dimly lit halls of Hellweg enterprises. But that’s impossible. Isn’t it? As evidence of occult practices at the mine emerges, Kendra realizes the answers they seek, and hopefully the thirty-seven miners, will only be found underground in the claustrophobic labyrinth of shafts and natural caverns within Hellweg’s Keep.

THE FALL (November 2021)

Father and daughter head into the majesty of the Rocky Mountains on a guided elk hunting adventure. When Michelle falls down a steep rockslide and disappears, Wiley’s search for her will prove the biggest adventure of all. When he witnesses the guides butchering the horse Michelle rode on before the fall, he knows something is very wrong. When the Sheriff also disappears, leaving behind nothing but a splotch of blood, he knows he’s on his own against those who have his daughter. Only, the evidence is mounting to suggest that those who have her may not be of this world.

THE CAPTURE (December 2021)

Michelle has woken to complete darkness, deep within the mountain. It smells of death and she is imprisoned inside a stone enclosure. She has not seen her assailants but can sense their violence. The screams she hears in adjacent cells stoke her fears…at least until she meets an unexpected ally. Her father, Wiley, continues to unravel the mystery of her disappearance and prays his emergency call on a satellite phone that was not supposed to exist has gone through. As Michelle escapes with her new futuristic friend and desperately fights to avoid capture, her dad and his military buddies must escape the rogue guides and find a way into the mountain to rescue Michelle from a place no man has gone before.

THE END GAME (January 2022)

Deep inside the mountains, both Rocky and her rescue team must fight for their lives, pit against a bloodthirsty and vicious adversary. The creatures aren’t about money or sex trafficking. Nor do they care about our social norms or decency. No, they require flesh and blood. They’ve been deprived for far too long. Michelle and Wiley’s hope for survival exists only beyond the stars, and they must each find a way to harness the technology which might again unite them and save their lives against a relentless and hungry adversary.

TETHERED TO DARKNESS (November 2021)

To escape her fanatically religious upbringing, Mia moves away to attend State University instead of the bible-college her family wanted. After orientation, Mia’s new friends invite her to the Para-Psychology Club, where she meets a charismatic professor, who introduces her to Astral Projection. Mia finds that her social anxiety makes her a natural at the maneuver. So, when her possessive boyfriend tracks her down, hellbent on returning her home, she escapes their possessive grip by slipping into the nether. However, while out of her body, something ancient and dark—and from her past—takes over. Forced to deal with not only the entity now using her body but also the religious extremists who have arrived to remove it, her only hope lies in the hands of her new friend Bruce and the enigmatic Professor Colista as they try to save her from a fate beyond hell.

Seven Cleopatra Hill (April 2020)

For the idyllic mountain town of Jerome, Arizona, a blizzard is coming. A storm of such magnitude, the likes of which the town hasn't seen in thirty years. Nestled at the top of the mountain is the Jerome Grand Hotel, a historic inn rumored to be haunted. The perfect setting for both a Romance writer's convention and ghost hunter enthusiasts, alike. James Landes is neither, but his wife Victoria is a writer, and he's hoping for a weekend away at her convention filled with sex, food, and fun. But in this blizzard, there is more than snow and ice. There is an evil born from rituals of long ago, and only Jerome's lifelong residents know how to stop it. James never believed in the supernatural, but if he wants to make it out of this weekend alive, he will have to embrace it.

Available now from:

The Gullies (2016)

Tracey, Jason, and the kids are back in the third book in the BRUISED series. For this case, they travel to the pine-shrouded northwoods of Minnesota for what they think will be a routine funeral. But in The Gullies, dead things live on while alive things die.

When Tracey's cousin is found dead, apparently by his own hand, she and the family head to The Gullies to mourn and help out. But when they arrive, a rash of ritualistic murders break out, people found skinned and mutilated, and Tracey soon learns that her cousin's death may not be what it seems.

Then, when Janey is abducted, Tracey fears the cult behind the attacks will try to exploit her clairvoyance for evil. With the help of detective Clausen, Tracey must rescue Janey and put an end to the brutal murders before the cult weaves their most dangerous ritual, and she loses yet another family member to the beast of THE northwoods GULLIES.

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Wednesday's Child (2015)

In the second book in the Bruised series, Tracey Peralta and Jason Hylden are back, ten years older and wiser. Well, older anyway.

Still living within the clutches of the blood oath from her youth, Tracey now helps the cops investigate strange homicides-those involving the supernatural. So, when a psychology student, who calls herself Wednesday, spouts gibberish about a devil in the church stealing her unborn baby, Tracey knows her brand of help might be needed. The next day, the student is found butchered inside a pentagram, insides missing, and Tracey must determine if the murder is garden-variety or if the town's demonic forces have returned.

When a second psychology student, who calls herself Thursday, disappears and is feared dead, Tracey calls on the only person left alive who shares her traumatic past. Soon, Tracey and Jason become collateral targets of a flesh-and-blood killer with an aptitude for making deals with the dead. Now they have to solve the ritualistic murders or Tracey and Jason might just become the next sacrifice.

Praise for the Bruised series

"At the heart of this compelling coming-of-age tale is a love story for the ages. But don't worry, BRUISED will also scare the hell out of you." -- Brendan Deneen, bestselling author of THE NINTH CIRCLE and FLASH GORDON: THE MERCY WARS

"BRUISED is a fast-paced, shiver-inducing tale. Holley has artfully crafted a story of terror with an undercurrent of romance." --Amity Hope, Best-selling author of TWISTED

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Bruised (2015)

Jason Hylden thinks life is perfect, but at age eighteen things are about to change.

First he falls for Jewel, a pretty redhead with arms marred by mysterious bruises. Then the gang of friends he runs with begins to experiment with witchcraft, blood oaths and revenge.

Soon, Jewel is the only good thing standing between Jason and the gang, but when he finds out she's one of his mother's mental health clients, he worries doctor-patient confidentiality will forever mask the truth behind Jewel's bruises. Is someone out to destroy her, or is she destroying herself? In the end, the truth behind her secrets is beyond his worst imaginings and, as their two worlds draw closer to collision, all hell, quite literally, is about to break loose.

"BRUISED is a fast-paced, shiver-inducing tale. Holley has artfully crafted a story of terror with an undercurrent of romance."
~Amity Hope, Best-selling author of TWISTED

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The Corpse Light Chronicles

Short Stories

The Corpse Light Chronicles are a collection of short stories that I am working on whenever I need a short hiatus from the rigors of novel development. They may or may not leave you the reader with any sense of closure, but they should serve to raise the goose bumps or, at the very least, give you something to ponder. My hope is to someday publish all the stories in one volume.

Green Kool-aid

Dark Forest (Published in the February 2009 issue of Writers Together Magazine)

Unlit Corners

Jewel

Overlooked

The Dregs (Has just been optioned for script work--exciting details to come!)
(And published in the October 2008 issue of Trei Literary Magazine)

It Cries (Published in the September 2008 issue of Trei Literary Magazine)

Vessel of the Diablo Si (Read it in Atrum Tempestas - link coming soon)

The Note

Zealot (Published in the November 2008 issue of SNM Horror Magazine, and featured as a reprint in the anthology: Satan's Wicked Refugees)

You Kill It, You Eat It

Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Necromancer (Has just been optioned for script work--exciting details to come!)

Ghost Drum

The Rendering of Shloshlo

Fear Cage (Read within the pages of The Great Lakes Association of Horror Writer's zombie anthology, entitled Zombie Chronicles)

What We've Allowed Them to Become (Published in the Spring 2009 issue of The Odd Mind Magazine)

The Remains of Love (Honorable mention in Black Hound Publishing's short story contest)

The Rock (Honorable mention in The Tales of Torment short story contest and published in the the 2009 summer issue of Tales from the Moonlit Path magazine)

Kill

Van Draven's Tick (Exciting anthology news coming soon!)

Plastic

Complications

Black Crows (Available as part of the anthology Eerie Tales v. Dreadul Delusions. Buy Here)

Jigsaw Jimmy (Buy Here)

Wildflower (Available as part of the for-charity anthology Amanda's Recurring Nightmare. Buy Here)

HORRORS: REAL, IMAGINED, AND DEADLY ( Buy Here)

The Boy Who Knew The Ending ( Buy Here)

High and Dark (Available as part of the anthology Erie Tales 11: Tales from the Asylum. Buy Here)

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Books

Short Stories

Poetry