Revenge Is A Dish Best Served Cold

I Remember You: A Ghost Story by Yrsa Sigurðardóttir: Two missing boys and two vandalized classrooms.  The cases occur 50 years apart, but as a psychologist Freyr begins to piece together the events surrounding the latest disturbance, he becomes convinced that the two are related.  And he should know -- one of the missing boys is his own son.  Split between the police investigation in Ísafjörður and the terrifying happenings in an isolated, abandoned village, secrets from the past refuse to stay buried.  As both narratives reach their climax, will Freyr be able to push aside his guilt and confront the truth about his son's disappearance?  Recommended for fans of
Sigurðardóttir's Thóra Gudmundsdóttir series, as well as readers who enjoyed works by Johan Theorin and John Ajvide Lindqvist.  HM

Something Wicked This Way Comes

In the 1970s backwater of Coden, Alabama, a teenage orphan called Annie mysteriously arrives and quickly drives a wedge in an apparently perfect family.  Full of creepy supernatural elements and family secrets reminiscent of The Turn of the Screw and The Amityville Horror, The Darkling by R. B. Chesterton (aka Carolyn Haines) is a quick and easy read, which is sometimes exactly what you want on a sunny, beautiful afternoon.  HM

Good Old-Fashioned Haunting

In the spirit of Halloween, settle down for this quick read: The Woman in Black by Susan Hill. I'm not a huge fan of scary stories, but this one had the right amount of thriller and supernatural creepiness to keep me on the edge of my seat (and not too afraid to be alone in the dark). Though published in the early 1980s, Hill sets her ghostly tale somewhere in the early part of the 1900s on the desolate marshes of England's northeast coast. Arthur Kipps, a young up-and-coming lawyer is sent to the secluded Eel Marsh House to settle the estate of it's most recent inhabitant, Alice Drablow. Instead, he finds himself caught in a web of terrifying apparitions and unexplainable sounds. And to add to the tension, Eel Marsh House just so happens to be situated at the end of a causeway and is only accessible when the tide is out. If this story sounds a little familiar, it's because The Woman in Black has already been made into a stage play, a TV movie, two radio programs, and will be introduced to the big screen early next year (starring Daniel Radcliffe of Harry Potter fame as Kipps). HM

Master of Suspense

If you're wanting to read about blood and guts, keep looking. If, however, you're seeking a subtly spooky story filled with exquisitely well-drawn characters playing out their parts in a setting so gorgeously-descriptive you can almost smell the damp of the lake as you read, rush to the shelf and check out Bag of Bones! In a departure from his typically in-your-face brand of horror, author Stephen King crafts with Bag of Bones a beautifully haunting tale that is driven more by its slowly unfolding suspense than by scariness (although there are a few moments...).

Still reeling from the sudden death of his wife, Jo, author Mike Noonan is mysteriously and uncontrollably drawn to his summer cabin on Dark Score Lake, a place he hasn't been back to in years--not since before he lost Jo. Here he hopes to discover what is drawing him back and, hopefully, find a cure for the writer's block that has been plaguing him. Upon his return, Mike instead finds himself unwillingly pulled into the dirty politics of the community, which are revolving around a nasty and possibly murderous custody battle brought on by a grudge held by the ruler of the area's good ol' boy network. Here at Dark Score Lake, Mike must also learn to confront and deal with his own personal ghosts. In doing so, he uncovers a nearly century-old secret that proves not everything (or everyone) in this outwardly-tranquil lakeside community is what it seems.

The Prince of Mist

The only thing better than getting fully-engrossed in a suspenseful story is getting fully-engrossed in a suspenseful story on a dark and stormy afternoon. Thus was the case with The Prince of Mist by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. The thunder and lightning added atmosphere to this already deliciously spooky read!

When the Carver family moves to a small coastal town to escape the threat of war that creeps ever closer to the city, 13-year-old Max is the first to sense that something is not quite right about his seemingly picturesque new home. Soon after exploring a mysterious garden of statues he discovers behind his new house, his sense of unease about the place morphs into one of fear. Lending credit to this is a series of terrifying and unexplainable events that shake the lives of Max and the members of his family. Soon Max, his older sister Alicia, and their new friend Roland are unwillingly pulled into an age-old curse involving an evil and possibly deadly entity known as The Prince of Mist. The only living soul who knows the truth about the curse (and how to stop it) is a reclusive old man who lives in a battered lighthouse--and he's not talking. Max, Alicia, and Roland must unlock this mystery before it's too late, before the Prince of Mist claims yet another victim. But is the truth something they're prepared to handle?

Wonderfully creepy! Recommended for horror/suspense fans craving a story with more depth and imagination than the standard and highly-overrated blood and guts approach.