L. V. Gaudet

Garden Grove

Garden Grove Meadows, “Where families come to live.” A new housing development promises a better future in a growing bedroom community. A project that seems to be the eye of a storm of strange events. Plagued with vandalism, the work crew poisoned, altered blueprints, and human remains intentionally planted for the crew to find.

Who is trying to stop the development?

Hunting Michael Underwood (McAllister Series Book 3)

Step deeper into the twisted mind of a serial killer as he slips further into madness in this disturbing psychological thriller.

Hunting Michael Underwood follows on the heels of book one, Where the Bodies Are, bringing the first two stories and their characters together as the search for the killer continues.

Michael Underwood has vanished and everyone is searching for him. Detective Jim McNelly is determined to not stop until he finds him. Working with the detective, Lawrence Hawkworth is still chasing the bigger story he knows is behind the bodies. Jason McAllister knows he must stop the killer he created before he goes too far. He may be the only one who can stop him.

Unable to let go of his barely remembered past and the search for his sister, the killer goes looking for Jason McAllister’s past and his family.

Killing David McAllister

Everyone wants to kill David McAllister in this explosive conclusion.Sometimes the only way to stop a monster is to kill it. He has gone by many names, but he was raised as David McAllister, and finding what he is looking for is not enough to quiet the darkness inside him.David McAllister must die.While the McAllisters move into hiding, Detective Jim McNelly and his reporter friend, Lawrence Hawkworth, continue to pursue them. Jim and Lawrence split up to follow their own leads, routes that will take them each on their own path to discover secrets behind the McAllisters.Anderson and William are trying to keep the group together and ahead of the detective hunting them while trying to resolve the issue of what to do with David, Kathy, Rose Bheals, and the boy Jason brought, Billy.Kathy is becoming increasingly fearful both for and of David and wants out, but feels trapped. She is certain death is the only way out.Cassie swore to kill David for what he did to Connie and the others. Torn by memories she does not have and the knowledge of the dark hole this life will bury her in, she needs to escape.Sophie has been ordered to kill David and Kathy. She may have to kill her own brother, Jason, too. When the time comes, she’s not sure if she can do it.With Marjory’s lapses into the foggy confusion of Alzheimer’s, nobody believes her when she really needs them to, when Sophie’s little girl’s life is at stake.David is slipping further into madness and, convinced she is the little sister he lost so many years ago, he is going to take little Lauren with him. Having his now adult real sister, Cassie, there is no help.Will someone reach David and Lauren in time as the blackness closes in and rage takes over?

Old Mill Road

Stories have been told as far back as stories existed about monsters in dark places. Old Wives’ tales to scare children into behaving. Stories kids tell each other with willful glee to see how much they can scare the other.

When Nick, Ian, David, and Felicia go wandering in the woods, the kids stumble on something so terrible they are afraid to tell anyone about it. They make a pact to keep it secret. Two days later Nick and Felicia’s family vanishes in the night.

The Gypsy Queen

Travis discovers his newest get rich quick scheme in an abandoned riverboat. Dreaming of the wealth and glamour she will bring, he becomes obsessed with rebuilding her.

Darius sees only rot, decay, and their ruination in the old boat. Travis’s best friend and unwilling business partner, Darius is unwilling to abandon Travis to his fate. He is committed to seeing it through, regardless of the costs to himself.

Struggling to rebuild her together, they are pitted against everyone from the Shipbuilders’ Union to the even more ruthless local casino boss, who desires to possess the Gypsy Queen himself.

As Travis and Darius’s lives become further intertwined with the Gypsy Queen, the strange accidents surrounding the boat escalate. Under the Gypsy Queen’s spell, Travis is oblivious to the sense of dread that fills those who enter the boat as she awakens with a hunger for blood. The Gypsy Queen’s dark past will not be forgotten.

The Latchkey Kids

What would you do if you came home from school alone and heard noises in the basement?Five kids, twelve and thirteen years old and on their own before and after school, each faces their own struggle. A broken home, illness, crushes, bullying, depression, absent parents, suicidal thoughts, broken friendships, and fears of being only a kid and home alone.There is also the strange noises houses make when they are quiet and you are alone, particularly the noises in the basement. Something is down there. Madison, Andrew, Kylie, Anna, and Dylan are brought together by circumstances that feel overwhelmingly out of their control. The temptation of exploring an old abandoned brick building, loneliness, and fleeing an attempted abduction, each is drawn to the old abandoned building for different reasons.There, they will fight for their lives, where the monsters in the basement nest.

The Latchkey Kids: The Disappearance of Willie Gordon

“Count and the nightmare goes away.

One two three four five six.

  Count and the nightmare goes away.

One two three four five six.

   Count and the nightmare goes away.  

One two three four five six.”

“Count and the nightmare goes away?”

Spring break is over and, still in shock from the events of the night of the fire; the kids are forced back into everyday life as if nothing happened. But it did happen. And it is happening again.

While the kids try to come to terms with what happened the night of the fire at the abandoned factory, nothing in their lives seems to have changed when everything feels like it did.

A broken home, illness, crushes, bullying, depression, absent parents, suicidal thoughts, they all continue as before. 

Amber Shaw returns to school and the Mean Team is broken up, but will it last?

Everything is back to normal. Right?

And then Willie Gordon vanishes.

While new jealousies burn, problems kept secret are revealed and Joshua joins the group after his sister committed suicide, the group feels they are the only ones who can find Willie. Nobody believes them the monsters are real.

The kids have to face the monsters again, in the basements where they nest.

The McAllister Farm (McAllister Series Book 2)

Step back in time to learn the secret behind the bodies in Where the Bodies Are in this disturbing look at the boy who will grow up to create the killer.

1981

Meet David McAllister, the boy who will grow up to create the killer.

The Wishing Stone book 1: Madelaine and Mocha

Madelaine thought things could not possibly get worse when her parents dragged her out on a boring, no electronics and thank you very much for ruining my life, camping trip.

Then Mocha, her American Cocker Spaniel and currently her only reason for getting through each day, is lost in the forest. Their attempts to find the dog are futile and Madelaine is devastated.

A local boy, Geoffrey, joins Madelaine in her search, promising to not give up and showing her the beauty of the forest.

Then, Madelaine’s family wakes up to find her gone, vanished from the tent in the night wearing only her nightgown.

Where the Bodies Are (McAllister Series)

Step into the twisted mind of a serial killer in this disturbing psychological thriller.What kind of dark secret pushes a man to commit the unimaginable, even as he is sickened by his own actions?Dead bodies are being left where they are sure to be found. But, the killer made a mistake; one victim left for dead survived. Kept in a medically induced coma while she recovers, they can only watch her and wait for the killer to come back for her.While Detective Michael Underwood protects their only living witness, Detective Jim McNelly and his reporter friend Lawrence Hawkworth are determined to find the killer and bring his killing spree to an end. Instead, they discover a bigger mystery.The killer’s reality blurs between past and present with a compulsion driven by a dark secret locked in a fractured mind. Overcome by a blind rage that leaves him wallowing in remorse with the bodies of victim after victim, he is desperate to stop killing.After learning of his victim’s survival, the killer sees it as a sign they are meant to be together. Threatening her tenuous grip on life, he is determined to take back his prize while he continues kidnapping and murdering young women.Accustomed to a life of abuse, one victim’s experience becomes her refuge in a desperate bid for survival, finding herself insinuated into the killer’s life as something more than a kidnapping victim. She finds a soft place in his heart.Instead of killing her, he keeps Katherine Kingslow imprisoned in the dark while he continues plotting to take back the Jane Doe in the hospital. How long can Kathy survive and will she lose her own mind?The search for the killer will lead to his dark secret buried in the past, something much larger than a man compelled to kill again and again.