Cool mornings and warm afternoons still bring about crisp fall evenings. As pumpkins, horror movies, candy corn, vampires, and oversized sweaters begin to creep into every day, a pumpkin spiced coffee and a scented candle may set the mood for reading a scary classic or a murder mystery. Relax in your favorite chair with a warm blanket so you may enjoy any one of these spooky tales.
With a Gothic feel and unexpected twists, Vera Winter is a famous novelist and has never told the real story about her life until her death is approaching in The Thirteenth Tale by Diane Setterfield She asks a young woman she does not know to be the one to write her real biography.
Nine Coaches Waiting by Mary Stewart is a thriller set in a Gothic manor on the French countryside. Linda is an orphan in her early 20s who goes to be a governess in France for a wealthy young boy who will inherit the family estate when he comes of age. Naturally, things get a little frightening very quickly. Spend time in a Gothic manor on the French countryside, all without leaving your couch.
A twisty thriller entitled, Rock Paper Scissors by Alice Feeney, about a couple who win a weekend away in Scotland and hope a change of scenery will save their crumbling marriage. When they arrive at the church-turned-hotel and find it empty, it is clear that there is more to this trip than meets the eye.
Here is a Sherlock Holmes mystery that clocks in at just over 100 pages. Legendary hellhounds and an attempted murder have Holmes and Watson investigating the mysterious death of Sir Charles Baskerville. The Hound of the Baskervilles by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is a fun read for a Halloween night!
Back in the 50s, there was a boarding school for troublemaking girls with rumors that it was haunted. Four roommates became friends and then one of them disappeared. Now in the present (well, 2014), a journalist is investigating the death of her sister on the school grounds. The Broken Girls by Simone St. James is a story of friendship, revenge and redemption with a Gothic flair and chilling pace.
In The Death of Mrs. Westaway by Ruth Ware, Hal gets a letter informing her of a large inheritance she is received, but she knows it is not meant for her. However, she thinks her work as a tarot card reader might have given her the skills she needs to snag the cash anyway. Many readers for the dread and the shadowy mood recommend this page-turner.
Set in 1950s Mexico, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia is the story of Noemí, a young woman who is summoned to a small mountain mining town to check up on her ailing cousin, who has recently been married off to a handsome and mysterious Englishman. Catalina believes her new husband is poisoning her and that ghosts walk through walls. Noemí discovers that the Doyle family has many secrets, including stories of violence and madness.
In Rachel Harrison’s The Return, a group of friends reunites after one of them has returned from a mysterious two-year disappearance in this edgy and haunting debut. The friends meet up a weird hotel but they know something is not right with their friend, Julie. She is emaciated, with sallow skin and odd appetites. If she is not their friend, then who or what is she? With great dialogue and a snappy tempo, this novel will give the reader chills and many questions.