Horror fiction series - help me remember author / title??

[bluhoodie]

Help! I need to be IN a bookstore to track this down myself because I could spot the series of books by this author IF I could see the covers (in the past I've seen them arranged on the shelf so you see their similarity of style, the covers, that is).

At lunch today I was trying to recommend a scary book I read years and years ago, but my poor brain only drew a blank. I don't usually (almost never) read scary books, horror fiction, or even bestsellers, so I'm at a total loss. Can anyone list or point me to a list of major paperback novelists who write scary novels? The author was well-known (may still be writing; my reading was about 20 yrs. ago). Like a James Patterson (not) or Dick Francis(not) (I don't even know if those two write horror fiction; I'm just saying like they're well-known, having published a series of books.)

The book I'm thinking of specifically had as major characters a man and a dog (I think it was a golden retriever) in it. The dog part was wicked SCARY -- must have been some supernatural element to it. It was like the dog could pick up on evil nearby. It was very sinister what the man and dog were being scared by. I think the title was ONE WORD, I think, like "Screamers" -- coulda been two words.

For the life of me, I can't come up with an author or title. :shrug:
Can anyone HELP? Even a list of horror fiction authors who've written a large number of paperbacks in this genre might help me to identify the author (and from there I think I could get the title).

[MADem]

1. Stephen King? Carrie, Christine, writes about Maine, very smart horror? NT

[babylonsister]

2. Stephen King - Cujo maybe Not a golden but a dog. nt

[bluhoodie]

5. Very similar to Cujo, I think

It definitely wasn't by Stephen King, but it WAS something like what I expect Cujo to be about. So that's a good, close guess -- but not it, unfortunately. - Thanks.

[mcscajun]

3. "Watchers" by Dean Koontz?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watchers_%28novel%29

The dog in this one, Einstein, is a Golden Retriever.

[RebelOne]

6. Yes, that's it. And there was even a movie. n/t

[FSogol]

4. Probably Dean Koontz. n/t

[bluhoodie]

9. That's IT - you got it! -- Thanks!

Thank you, Mcscajun and FSogol! Dean Koontz, of course!! I just knew that the good people at DU would know this -- and so quickly too!
Thanks a bunch!

:applause:       :yourock:

[LynzM]

7. Do you have a livejournal account?

There's a community that helps do this (find books by description):

http://community.livejournal.com/whatwasthatbook

They've helped me find things in the past :) Good luck!

[jus_the_facts]

8. Watchers ~ Dean R. Koontz?

http://horror.about.com/od/books/gr/bk_watchers.htm