


Books in series

#1
Purity
2000
Handsome young Owen will do anything for love...even if it means murder.
From New York Times bestselling author Douglas Clegg comes his classic dark psychological thriller of dangerous obsession and endless love.
For fans of Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell, and Gillian Flynn.
This short novel is approximately 25,000 words in length or 120 pages if in print. The Dark Coming of Age series books do not need to be read in any specific order—they are stand-alones built around a theme of "dark coming of age."
Owen Crites has grown up in the shadow of the Montgomery summer estate and has always been in love with beautiful Jenna Montgomery, who arrives each summer to her family's summer home on Outerbridge Island, just off the New England coast.
Now, both of them teenagers, Owen—the gardener's son—begins to understand that Jenna is meant for a different life in adulthood than he's destined for—and he knows that he must somehow keep her with him on the island until she no longer wants to leave.
Enter handsome and wealthy Jimmy McTeague, the young tennis star from Manhattan, heir to a sporting goods fortune. Jimmy's also come to spend the summer with the Montgomery family. To Owen, this intruder is a rival for Jenna's love, but he soon discovers that Jimmy holds in a deep secret that could destroy him. Soon, a triangle of love, hate, and the darkest of human impulses emerges.

#2
The Words
2009
Never speak them.
Never whisper them.
The Words.
The Words is a novella of otherworldly terror and madness from Douglas Clegg, the award-winning author of The Priest of Blood, Isis, Purity, The Hour Before Dark and many others.
The two teenagers invoke the words—the names of those who walk beyond the veil, in the dark of the Nowhere...
When Mark befriends outsider Dash, he believes his new friend to be an outcast rebel. But a dark mystery unfolds as Dash leads Mark into dangerous games and rituals involving stories of the occult and a strange drug that allows Dash to see into another world—a world of absolute darkness and terror.
“Your flesh will remember the words even if your mind forgets."
One summer night, on their way with friends to a party, they make a fateful detour to a place where the words of Dash's secret ceremonies will bring a new terror into the world...and where Mark will face unspeakable horror as it comes to monstrous life.
A tale of teen alienation at the crossroads of darkness and absolute brotherhood, The Words will get under your skin...and stay with you long after the lights go out.

#3
The Attraction
2004
College students make a wrong turn into nightmare country in this all-out drive-in horror movie of a book from New York Times bestselling author Douglas Clegg.
For fans of Richard Matheson, Guillermo del Toro and Stephen King.
The Dark Coming of Age series books do not need to be read in any specific order—they are stand-alones built around a theme of "dark coming of age."