10 Spine-Tingling Stories for the Scary Season

Chilling Novels Just in Time for Halloween

In 1605, Sir Walter Calverley’s murderous rampage leaves a family shattered. The killer suffers a torturous execution… but is it truly the end? A noble Yorkshire house stands forever tarnished by blood and possessed by anguished spirits. Some crimes are so horrific, they reverberate through the centuries. As an unhappy modern couple vacation in the guesthouse at Calverley Old Hall, playwright Clara, and her scholar husband, Scott, unwittingly awaken a dark history. Clara is trapped and forced back in time to bear witness to a family’s bloody saga. Overtaken by the malevolent echoes, Scott is pushed over the edge from possessive husband to wholly possessed…

Hell is everything it’s cracked up to be.

Assistant D.A. Carolyn Hastings has an uncanny knack for putting away criminals. With one of the best prosecution records in recent history, her future as Manhattan’s next District Attorney looks certain. But her sixth sense for winning cases threatens to work against her when she starts seeing a string of murders through the eyes of the killer.

Terrified California residents face the shocking dilemma of yet another serial killer roaming freely in their neighborhoods.  However, this time it is an evolving serial killer anomaly that relentlessly searches for, hunts down, and ingeniously traps his victims before unleashing his fiery rage. Everything teeters on the edge of reality, as Emily Stone must battle for her life between a hired assassin and an arson serial killer.  Lines are drawn on both sides of the law.  Friendships and lovers are tested.

In the shadows of Angkor Wat, evil lurks. Innocent women have already died and journalist Claire Linton is quietly targeted in a plot for revenge that reaches back into the heart of evil . Unaware that the story of her career is about to turn deadly, Claire hopes for answers when she meets Interpol agent, Simon Trent. Instead he’s frustrating and secretive and turns up so often, it’s clear he’s following her. And as kisses ignite beneath the golden streaks of a Cambodian sunset and passion begins to ramp up, a decades old plot for revenge unfolds. But with trust at a premium and lives at stake – has love been outplayed?

Manon has always walked between two worlds. By rights, she shouldn’t exist – daughter of a witch and an ancient vampire, she is neither fully human nor truly immortal. Mikkel is as cold as he is handsome. Blond-haired and blue-eyed, Mikkel is a vampire who can enthrall almost any female. Manon cannot fight her attraction to Mikkel. He excites her, frightens her, making her doubt everything, even herself. Does he want her for herself, or just for her unique blood? Can a vampire like Mikkel ever truly love?

 “Four and a half suspenseful, frightening tales in one. Talley is wonderful at crafting suspense, and each sub-story pays homage to a high theme of occult horror. Plenty of suspense and chills to satisfy occult-horror fans.” –Kirkus Reviews “Recently Lovecraftian authors have been sending me their books to review. Some are good, some are….not. But the recently published That Which Should Not Be, by Brett J. Talley, is great. In fact, it’s one of the best Lovecraftian novels I have ever read, and I don’t say that lightly.” –Mike Davis, Lovecraft eZine.

“When a mysterious zombie virus threatens the world, it’s up to teenage “love zombies” to stop it…Musgrave supplies enough jugular-ripping, entrails-feasting carnage to satisfy any fan of the genre…Yet there’s also leavening humor, as well as unexpectedly resonant, emotional moments: When Josh drives a car and feels the steering wheel “smooth in my hands,” he says, “You don’t know what it means for us undead to be able to do something so human. I felt like I was one step closer, as Pinocchio would say, to being a real boy.” (T)he love zombies’ satisfying triumph reaches icky levels of bloodletting that fans of the genre will appreciate. A vampire sequel looms on the horizon. Overstuffed—just how some fans like it.”–Kirkus Reviews

The ninth floor of St. Michael’s Hospital was shut off to the public, staff, and administrators in 1984. The doors were welded and chained shut, the stop was removed from the elevators, and the no one talked about what happened there—ever. Ryan Sterling knew her life was going to change forever the day she found out her aunt needed a transplant, and she agreed to return to a home she never wanted to see again. Spending the vast majority of her time in St. Michael’s hospital, she soon notices peculiarities: her aunt’s roommate rants about evil, the nurses whisper about hauntings, and no one will tell her why the ninth floor is locked. Ryan thinks all the rumors are ridiculous until two nurses die right after she speaks with them about the floor in question. Noises and disembodied voices begin to haunt her night and day. Strange presents appear on her doorstep with notes that makes her blood run cold. Someone or something is watching Ryan, and she is certain whatever is behind the locked doors of the ninth floor is the key to her and her aunt’s survival. Ryan never wanted to go home again, now she may never leave.

All seventeen-year-old composer Ien Montgomery desires is an escape from his family’s rigid expectations for his life; someone to inspire his music. When he meets a beautiful violin-prodigy, Kiera McDougal, his life music takes on new life. With her, he imagines a future outside of his parents’ control. That is, until a horrible accident tears them apart. Sent to die in a sanatorium, Ien’s obsession for Kiera grows unbearable. Tortured by thoughts he can’t escape and the truth of his monstrous disfigurement, he flees, desperate to exact revenge on the people that ruined his life – his parents. But, vengeance is empty. Betrayed by those closest to him, Ien discovers that the price for his happiness may be his sanity. Set amidst the landscape of New York’s Gilded Age, and inspired by Phantom of the Opera, TRANSCEND exposes the fine line between love and madness.