Must-Read Horror and Supernatural Thrillers for Halloween

by Severn House on 2 October 2023

October is here! Looking for something scary to read this Halloween? Turn out the lights, hide under a blanket, and grab a copy of one of these six spooky stories.

Spirits of the Dead
Keith Gilman

What would you do to save someone you loved? Husband and father Jon Levande has to ask himself that very question when his daughter is on the brink of death. But what if saving her means losing his own soul . . .

A twisted, modern take on the familiar Faustian bargain – Spirits of the Dead will chill you to the bone!

The Enlightenment Project
Lynn Hightower

Noah Archer is a cutting-edge neurosurgeon working on The Enlightenment Project – a project on the cusp between medical science and spirituality that offers treatments for depression, addiction, and mental illness. But what if the project isn’t closing the door to the darkness? What if it’s letting in?

If you’re a fan of William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist, you won’t want to miss Lynn Hightower’s The Enlightenment Project!

The Bell Tower
Sarah Rayne

When Nell West starts extending her antiques shop, she is not expecting to uncover strange fragments of its past: fragments that include a frightened message scribbled on old plasterwork, dated 1850. Is a centuries-old tragedy still echoing through time, haunting the present?

A dark, atmospheric horror-mystery from British master of suspense Sarah Rayne.

Blood Maidens
Barbara Hambly

It’s 1911. War is coming, and according to one of the vampires of St. Petersburg, the Kaiser is trying to recruit vampires. James Asher, Oxford don and formerly on His Majesty’s Secret Service, is forced to team up again with his vampire partner Don Simon Ysidro for a journey to the subarctic Russian capital. Are they on the trail of a rogue vampire with a plan to achieve the power to walk in daylight? Asher wonders. Or is Ysidro’s real agenda to seek the woman he once loved?

Historical vampire fiction doesn’t get much better than this!

Buried Memories
Simon R. Green

Ishmael Jones isn’t like other detectives. He wasn’t born on this world. Now, as long-buried memories from his hidden past begin to resurface, Ishmael and his partner Penny feel compelled to return to the small country town where Ishmael crash-landed in 1963; the place where his memories began.

A delightful mashup of sci-fi, fantasy, horror, and mystery, Buried Memories is a Halloween read unlike any other.

Vengeance Child
Simon Clark

Orphan Jay doesn’t want to hurt anyone. He tries so hard not to. Yet he has a terrible secret.

Nurse Laura Parris is determined to protect him, but when she meets Victor Brodman, a widower, she wonders if she can finally reveal Jay’s disturbing past. That he’s the only survivor of a terrifying shipwreck, the vengeance child, and that soon his shadow will fall over all humanity…

Fans of creepy-child movies like The Omen and Insidious will want to check out Vengeance Child.

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