I’m very particular when it comes to scary books. While I am sometimes in the mood for something a little creepy or spooky, I don’t want anything truly horrifying or that will keep me up at night. I want a bit of a thrill and a hint of creeping dread without having the socks scared off of me. With that in mind, I’ve put together a list of books/authors that hit that mark really well and make for good atmospheric fall reading.
If you like that kind of vibe, I also have a list of 10 Creepy Classic Lit Reads and 5 Spooky Books to Read Before Halloween. Surely between all three lists, you’ll be able to find something that fits your mood!
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The Premonition at Withers Farm
Amazon Description:
The voices of the past cannot stay silent forever.
In 1910 Michigan, Perliett Van Hilton is a self-proclaimed rural healer, leaving the local doctor convinced she practices quackery. It doesn’t help that her mother is a spiritualist who regularly offers her services to connect the living with their dearly departed. But when Perliett is targeted by a superstitious killer, she must rely on both the local doctor and an intriguing newcomer for assistance.
In the present day, Molly Wasziak’s life has not gone the way she dreamed. Facing depression after several miscarriages, Molly is adapting to her husband’s purchase of a peculiar old farm. A search for a family tree pulls Molly deep into a century-old murder case and a web of deception, all made more mysterious by the disturbing shadows and sounds inside the farmhouse.
Perliett fights for her life, and Molly seeks renewed purpose for hers as she uncovers the records of the dead. Will their voices be heard, or will time forever silence their truths?
I absolutely love Jaime Jo Wright for this category of creepy but not too scary books. This is one of my favorites of hers, but I could actually just list all her books and be done!
Mind Games (Kaely Quinn Profiler #1)
Amazon Description:
FBI Behavioral Analyst Kaely Quinn’s methods may be highly unorthodox, but her talent is undeniable. She’s done her best to establish a new life for herself after being demoted and transferred to St. Louis when a reporter revealed she’s the daughter of an infamous serial killer. But when that same reporter claims to have received an anonymous poem predicting a string of murders, ending with Kaely’s, it seems her old life has followed her.
When a body is found that fits the poem’s morbid predictions, Kaely and her new partner, Special Agent Noah Hunter, are forced to move past his skepticism of her approach and work together to unravel the deadly riddle.
With a brazen serial killer who breaks all the normal patterns on the loose, Noah and Kaely must race to catch the murderer before anyone else, including Kaely, is killed.
I couldn’t read this series fast enough! I went on to read several other of Nancy Mehl’s series, some with characters that overlap with this one, and they are all so propulsive and interesting. I recommend starting with Mind Games, but don’t be surprised if you are addicted to this author going forward!
Amazon Description:
In the glittering world of the ton, wealth is as important as rank, rank nearly as important as connections. But nothing is as vital to one’s success in Society as having the right ghost. What is fashionable in specters changes almost as often as preferred fabrics and necklines, favored Diamonds of Society and admired Town bucks. Trading an unstylish ghost can mean the difference between social success and utter failure. And no one is more adept at facilitating those trades than England’s most sought-after ghost broker… Mercury Raine.
Born a penniless orphan, he has made both a name for himself and an enviable fortune. But when the intriguing Miss Huddleston and her overbearing mother arrive at his estate, intent on making an advantageous specter swap, the carefully crafted facade he presents to the world begins to crack. Miss Huddleston has brought a secret, one that could destroy everything he has built.
This book is unlike anything I’ve ever read. It’s darkly funny, and really not at all spooky even with all the ghosts. It’s also short, so it’s perfect if you’re looking for something you can knock out in an afternoon.
The Vampire Hunter and the Heiress
Amazon Description:
She asked for a monster hunter. She got him instead.
Wildly wealthy Miss Elizabeth Delane has spent her last twenty-two years hiding from marriage offers in small, picturesque Oakenridge, a quaint village hidden from society in the heart of the wooded northern mountains. Her planned spinsterhood was working out just fine until vampires moved in a year ago.
Now her father is missing, the monsters have taken over the village, and her only hope at survival rests on a hunter she’s never met. Little does Elizabeth know, the man has a secret: Benjamin Oliver is not a vampire hunter.
He’s the executive director of GHOST, a renowned guild of monster hunters, and he’s determined to prove his men can cut expenses while in the field. They’ve been squandering guild money left and right, breaking the rules like they’re suggestions, and he’s going to put a stop to it.
Will Benjamin collect his crossbow bolts from a monster corpse to save twenty-three kevlings? Absolutely. Will he deny his intense attraction to the lovely heiress he’s been sent to rescue, stoically obeying Article Five, Section Seven of the guidebook? He’ll do that too.
At least, that’s the plan. Or it was until the pair uncovers a nest of vampires with an agenda that stretches far beyond Oakenridge. Now Benjamin is breaking rules, spending kevlings like they grow on trees, and doing everything in his power to keep Elizabeth safe.
If they’re lucky, they’ll make it out of this alive. If they’re really lucky, they won’t destroy Benjamin’s budget in the process…
This story goes down so easy! It’s got enough plot and character development to not feel like total fluff, but it’s also a lot of fun with vampires, a telepathic dragon, and all kinds of other fantastical creatures. I also like the romance—plenty of chemistry but no spice!
The Curious Inheritance of Blakely House
Amazon Description:
A clever young woman, a contested will, and an estate that does not easily give up its secrets.
It is 1901 when clockmaker and tinker Sydney Forrester receives a most unusual inheritance. Blakely House, the island estate of an estranged uncle she’s never met, seems almost alive, revealing and hiding its secrets at will. It is filled with remarkable inventions, including an intriguing unfinished automaton Sydney is itching to get her skilled hands on.
The estate is also home to a number of peculiar people–including two men intent on removing this interloper from the island. Convinced that Sydney has something to do with their uncle’s death, the late master’s nephews contest the will and work against their cousin at every turn.
Sydney finds a sometimes-ally in the estate’s butler, an ex-adventurer who ran aground on the island years ago. But when a mysterious man washes ashore with a stunning surprise that upsets everything, Sydney must prove she has inherited the late master’s brilliance as well as his property–or someone else will.
This book is full of surprises. I loved the twists and the unexpected romance, as well as Sydney’s talent for all things mechanical which would have been an unusual interest for a young woman at that time. I also love the beautiful cover!
Amazon Description:
In a manor by the sea, twelve sisters are cursed.
Annaleigh lives a sheltered life at Highmoor with her sisters and their father and stepmother. Once there were twelve, but loneliness fills the grand halls now that four of the girls’ lives have been cut short. Each death was more tragic than the last–the plague, a plummeting fall, a drowning, a slippery plunge–and there are whispers throughout the surrounding villages that the family is cursed by the gods.
Disturbed by a series of ghostly visions, Annaleigh becomes increasingly suspicious that her sister’s deaths were no accidents. The girls have been sneaking out every night to attend glittering balls, dancing until dawn in silk gowns and shimmering slippers, and Annaleigh isn’t sure whether to try to stop them or to join their forbidden trysts. Because who–or what–are they really dancing with?
When Annaleigh’s involvement with a mysterious stranger who has secrets of his own intensifies, it’s a race to unravel the darkness that has fallen over her family–before it claims her next. House of Salt and Sorrows is a spellbinding novel filled with magic and the rustle of gossamer skirts down long, dark hallways. Be careful who you dance with…
This is definitely a creepy one. I really had no idea what was happening for much of the book, no theories or hunches. The ending was surprising and the tone was mysterious and atmospheric throughout. If you like fairy tale retellings, you might enjoy this version of The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
Amazon Description:
In 2000, Douglas Preston fulfilled a dream to move his family to Italy. Then he discovered that the olive grove in front of their 14th century farmhouse had been the scene of the most infamous double-murders in Italian history, committed by a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence. Preston, intrigued, meets Italian investigative journalist Mario Spezi to learn more.
This is the true story of their search for–and identification of–the man they believe committed the crimes, and their chilling interview with him. And then, in a strange twist of fate, Preston and Spezi themselves become targets of the police investigation. Preston has his phone tapped, is interrogated, and told to leave the country. Spezi fares worse: he is thrown into Italy’s grim Capanne prison, accused of being the Monster of Florence himself.
Like one of Preston’s thrillers, The Monster of Florence, tells a remarkable and harrowing story involving murder, mutilation, and suicide-and at the center of it, Preston and Spezi, caught in a bizarre prosecutorial vendetta.
How about a little nonfiction? The thing that makes this one creepy is the reality! There really was a serial killer in Italy and the research and accounts the authors share in this book are…unpleasant to say the least. But I was so invested in their investigation and finding out if the killer was ever identified.
Amazon Description:
Hannah Stander is a consultant for the FBI—a futurist who helps the Agency with cases that feature demonstrations of bleeding-edge technology. It’s her job to help them identify unforeseen threats: hackers, AIs, genetic modification, anything that in the wrong hands could harm the homeland.
Hannah is in an airport, waiting to board a flight home to see her family, when she receives a call from Agent Hollis Copper. “I’ve got a cabin full of over a thousand dead bodies,” he tells her. Whether those bodies are all human, he doesn’t say. What Hannah finds is a horrifying murder that points to the impossible—someone weaponizing the natural world in a most unnatural way. Discovering who—and why—will take her on a terrifying chase from the Arizona deserts to the secret island laboratory of a billionaire inventor/philanthropist. Hannah knows there are a million ways the world can end, but she just might be facing one she could never have predicted—a new threat both ancient and cutting-edge that could wipe humanity off the earth.
When I say this book is creepy, I mean like creepy-crawly. All I’ll say is this sci-fi tech thriller will change the way you look at ants forever.
Amazon Description:
Some race to win. Others race to survive.
It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die. At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them. Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a choice. So she enters the competition – the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.
Flesh-eating horses that come from the sea. What more do you need from a creepy story? The setting of this book is so interesting because it’s grounded in reality enough that it feels like it could be a real place, just with…you know, scary horses.
Amazon Description:
In the middle of the South Pacific, a thousand feet below the surface, a huge vessel is unearthed. Rushed to the scene is a team of American scientists who descend together into the depths to investigate the astonishing discovery. What they find defies their imaginations and mocks their attempts at logical explanation. It is a spaceship, but apparently it is undamaged by its fall from the sky. And, most startling, it appears to be at least three hundred years old, containing a terrifying and destructive force that must be controlled at all costs.
This psychological thriller from my best sci-fi/tech dude Michael Crichton is a mind-bender. There’s this lurking sense of dread as things in the submarine continue to devolve in different ways, and the ending will almost certainly surprise you.
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