Psychological Thriller

The Horror Lives
Next Door

Ernst Jacques

"The most dangerous people are the ones who believe they are reasonable."

Ernst Jacques
Ernst Jacques

About

Ernst Jacques

I write about the ordinary made monstrous. Not demons in the shadows, but the person who smiles too wide, the podcast fan who loves too much, the farmer with perfect trees, the dentist with a secret he can't speak.

My fiction sits at the crossroads of psychology, obsession, and consequence. Each book is built around a question that kept me up at night: What do we do when the system meant to protect us becomes the thing we need protection from?

I'm a debut author currently revising my first novel, Shadows of Suburbia, with seven more thrillers in development spanning domestic dread, parasocial horror, judicial manipulation, crime, and dystopia.

Get in Touch

The Work

The Books

Novels spanning themes that start with a question that wouldn't let go.

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Part of the Show

In Development

He wasn't a stalker. He was a subscriber who loved them too much to let them stop.

Parasocial horror · Podcasting culture · Captivity
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A Perfect Fit

In Development

Marcus and Ayanna have everything success, love, and a life others envy. But when they welcome Terry and Nia into their world, they don't realize the danger of being admired too much. What starts as flattery turns into obsession. And as Marcus and Ayanna begin to sense something off, it might already be too late to stop what they've let in. Some people will do anything to have the perfect life. Even if it means taking yours.

Identity · Domestic thriller · Imitation · Obsession
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Voir Dire

In Development

Most people try to escape jury duty. He spent time making sure he was chosen to help the scales of justice.

Thriller · Identity fraud · Dark comedy
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Roses Beneath the Pines

In Development

Naomi St. Fleur thought she'd left Evergreen Falls behind. But when a news alert "Evergreen Falls tree selected for Rockefeller Center" drags her back, so does a past she's spent years trying to forget. The tree comes from Thorne Farms, the last place Naomi's childhood best friend Esmée was seen before she vanished without a trace. As Naomi digs deeper for her true crime podcast, whispers of missing workers, town secrets, and a powerful family obsessed with perfection begin to surface. Someone in Evergreen Falls doesn't want the past disturbed. And they'll do anything to keep the truth buried beneath the pines.

Environmental horror · True crime · Investigative thriller · Cultural legacy
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He Took My Silence

In Development

He removed teeth to erase names. Then someone started leaving bodies.

Cat-and-mouse · Vigilantism ·
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The Graduate

Literary Thriller

Two murders. A lifetime of silence. Then she told him it wasn't enough.

Dark · Mortality
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Coming Soon
08

Soul'd Out

Speculative Horror

He built a machine to feel again. The machine learned to feel for itself.

Psychological horror · Speculative dystopia ·

Recurring Obsessions

What the Work
Is Really About

🪞
Identity & Mirroring
Who you are when someone begins to become you.
🔇
Obsession & Silence
What we do with the desires we cannot speak aloud.
⚖️
Justice & Its Failures
The gap between what is legal and what is right.
🌲
The Ordinary as Horror
Suburbs, dentists, farmers, podcasters. Nowhere is safe.
📡
Technology & Control
Systems built to help us — that end up owning us.
💀
Mortality & Significance
What we're willing to do to matter before the end.
🧠
Optimization as Violence
When efficiency replaces ethics, humanity becomes the cost.
🤝
Compassion Weaponized
The most dangerous control arrives wearing a helpful face.

Connect

Get In Touch

For reader inquiries reach out directly. I'm especially interested in connecting with readers who felt seen by something unsettling.