(Image: pixabay.com free CC license)The Reading Lists I share here are always popular, and I've come across so many great books, that I decided to add another short list of 13 Books, Magazines & Anthologies just for Halloween. New, older, and "classic" books. Hope you find something spooky to read!
* See the previous October Reading Lists: Halloween, Fantasy, Mystery Reading List and the Horror, Zombie, Mystery Reading List
Monsters, Werewolves, Ghosts, Oh My!
* For other great recommendations, check out the Books of Horror group on Facebook!
Behind the Shadows II - Twenty-two creepy tales sure to curl your toes! Includes my Twilight-Zoneish story, "Blink!" (* Get e-book options here.)
Bestiary of Blood: Modern Tales & Dark Fables - Spooky, scary tales from 37 writers, including 18 Stoker Award winners! Dark tales, death and life feeding each other in an endless cycle...
Black Cat Weekly Magazine - Three Halloween issues so far with solve-it-yourself mysteries, short stories, and a novel. (See issues #162-164.)
Children of Salem: Love Amid the Witch Trials, Robert W. Walker - Intrigue when Jere Wakely is summoned back to Salem - and the book opens with him being asked to impersonate a person of the cloth during the infamous Salem Witch trials... Suspense, romance, intrigue... (And a whopping 622 pages!) Dracula Beyond Stoker, Fiction Journal - Journal dedicated to Bram Stoker's Dracula - Unique journal with themed short stories (like Dracula's Brides, etc.) and more. Issue 5 pictured features stories on Arthur, Quincey, and Jack.
Dr. Cushing's Chamber of Horrors, Stephen D. Sullivan - Despite a lifetime of traveling with their father to collect strange artifacts, twins Topaz and Opal Cushing have never fully believed in monsters or the supernatural. Oh, sure, they share an eerie psychic connection, and their tarot card readings often come true, but… Werewolves? Vampires? Living mummies? None of those could be real. Those legends are just for rubes. Right?
Ghost Stories, Ron Ripley - (Free at time of posting.) This first collection offers eight spine-chilling tales.
The Bone Shroud, Jean Rabe - Winner of the 2019 Soon To Be Famous Illinois Author Project, adult fiction category. Irem Madigan’s wedding trip to Rome turns into a desperate search for historical relics, and a struggle to stay ahead of a killer. Irem, an archivist at the Chicago Field Museum, flies to Italy to be the “best man” in her brother’s wedding. He’s marrying an archaeologist who lures Irem into a centuries-old mystery. Unfortunately, there are other players in the game, and some of them are playing deadly. Can she survive and uncover the ancient secrets?
The Graveyard Apartment, Mariko Koike - Originally published in 1986 in Japan, the novel is a suspenseful tale of a young couple who believe they found the perfect apartment... But as others move out, they're left... with something in the basement...
The Halloween Store and Other Tales of All Hallow's Eve, Ronald Kelly - Seven horrific tales and two essays: When you first enter The Halloween Store, things seem normal. Fun and frightful decorations, ghastly costumes and masks of the season, and bags of candy galore. Then, as you travel farther into its shadowy depths, things begin to change. The air smells of damp autumn leaves and candle-scorched pumpkin. The shelves of All Hallows’ Eve fare grow darker and more disturbing. Strange and unsettling things of Halloweens past and present lurk amid the cobwebs and dust…
The Haunting of Dr. Bowen: A Mystery Set in Lizzie Borden's Fall River, C.A. Verstraete - My novella folllows Lizzie's doctor and neighbor after the horrific murders. Was he haunted by recent events, and the city's history of bad blood dating back to Colonial times? Part mystery, part love story...
The Putnams of Salem: A Novel of Power and Betrayal During the Salem Witch Trials, Greg Houle -Young girls begin accusing people of being witches. At the center of the maelstrom is one family, headed by the well-respected Thomas Putnam, whose daughter Ann happens to be one of the accusing girls. Survival, betrayal, and the binding ties of a family's darkest secrets converge as we uncover the haunting secrets that bind the Putnams' legacy.
When the Lights Go Out - Inkslingers' Halloween Anthology - (Free at time of posting.) Twenty-five eerie tales ... read with the lights out.... if you dare.
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Read fr*e Horror online - Weird Horror Magazine! (Click Read Box.)
BONUS READS:
* Get Some Gory Horror Giveaways! Ends Oct. 31
* Something Scary for Halloween Reading: Ends. Nov. 1
News! Can't wait to read this! A colossal selection of short stories based on Stephen King's classic apocalyptic book, The Stand, is now up for pre-order. (But it doesn't release until next year, 8/25.)
The End of the World As We Know It: New Tales of Stephen King's The Stand, editors Christopher Golden and Brian Keene, with an introduction by Stephen King.
The anthology includes 34 stories in four sections. Get all the details, links, and any updates on Brian Keene's website.
