Stephanie Sparks

The Stepchildren Stephanie Sparks

Jamie Riley had always suspected that something was wrong with her stepfather. Burt Valentine wasn't just a man on the hunt for the perfect life - he was a fugitive family annihilator who murdered his own wife and children.

After Jamie escapes his violent attack, she learns years later that Burt had infiltrated and destroyed other families too, leaving a trail of physically and emotionally broken stepchildren.

As adults, Jamie and the other survivors come together in group therapy where they discover that Burt has died in prison. All too familiar with her stepfather's M. O. of faking his death, Jamie refuses to believe he's dead, and the only way to be sure is to break into a funeral home to see his corpse.

But as it turns out, even in death, stepdaddy dearest still has a few deadly surprises left for his wayward stepchildren.

Inspired by The Stepfather movie franchise, THE STEPCHILDREN is a psychological horror novel that explores what happens to the child survivors of a serial killer whose evil continues to haunt them.