10 Creeptastic Books to Read in October
It’s that time of year where we’re all in the mood for a creepy read. A book that will keep us reading late into the night, but with the light on! From the terrifying thriller to the gothic mysteries, these are all books I’ve read and loved, and all perfect to satisfy those bookish Halloween cravings!
For a full list of thriller recommendations, click here.
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THE WHISPER MAN BY ALEX NORTH
This is a deeply chilling thriller about a father and son who set out to start anew, but instead find themselves in the middle of something terrifying that begins when a boy vanishes, in a way reminiscent to a serial killer now behind bars. Really unnerving and scary.
In this dark, suspenseful thriller, Alex North weaves a multi-generational tale of a father and son caught in the crosshairs of an investigation to catch a serial killer preying on a small town.
After the sudden death of his wife, Tom Kennedy believes a fresh start will help him and his young son Jake heal. A new beginning, a new house, a new town. Featherbank.
But the town has a dark past. Twenty years ago, a serial killer abducted and murdered five residents. Until Frank Carter was finally caught, he was nicknamed “The Whisper Man,” for he would lure his victims out by whispering at their windows at night.
Just as Tom and Jake settle into their new home, a young boy vanishes. His disappearance bears an unnerving resemblance to Frank Carter’s crimes, reigniting old rumors that he preyed with an accomplice. Now, detectives Amanda Beck and Pete Willis must find the boy before it is too late, even if that means Pete has to revisit his great foe in prison: The Whisper Man.
And then Jake begins acting strangely. He hears a whispering at his window…
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THE CHESTNUT MAN BY SOREN SVEISTRUP
Perfect for Nordic Noir readers. Intricately woven plot rife with secrets and deception. Someone is killing women, leaving a chestnut man behind. The whole thing is super chilling… a great book to listen to.
FROM THE CREATOR OF THE HIT TELEVISION SHOW THE KILLING, THE MOST ANTICIPATED THRILLER OF THE SEASON—SOON TO BE A NETFLIX ORIGINAL SERIES.
IF YOU FIND ONE, HE’S ALREADY FOUND YOU
A psychopath is terrorizing Copenhagen.
His calling card is a “chestnut man”—a handmade doll made of matchsticks and two chestnuts—which he leaves at each bloody crime scene.
Examining the dolls, forensics makes a shocking discovery—a fingerprint belonging to a young girl, a government minister’s daughter who had been kidnapped and murdered a year ago.
A tragic coincidence—or something more twisted?
To save innocent lives, a pair of detectives must put aside their differences to piece together the Chestnut Man’s gruesome clues.
Because it’s clear that the madman is on a mission that is far from over.
And no one is safe.
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STALKER BY LARS KEPLER
I am a huge fan of Lars Kepler (husband and wife duo), and will read anything and everything they write. Any book of theirs is perfect to read this time of year. Their last book, STALKER, starts out with a grisly crime and is unrelenting until the very end. The Swedish National Crime Unit receives a video of a young woman in her home, moments before she is brutally killed. And then another video comes… and another. Talk about tension with this one!
The Swedish National Crime Unit receives a video of a young woman in her home, clearly unaware that she’s being watched. Soon after the tape is received, the woman’s body is found horrifically mutilated. With the arrival of the next, similar video, the police understand that the killer is toying with them, warning of a new victim, knowing there’s nothing they can do. Detective Margot Silverman is put in charge of the investigation, and soon asks Detective Joona Linna for help. Linna, in turn, recruits Erik Maria Bark, the hypnotist and expert in trauma, with whom Linna’s worked before. Bark is leery of forcing people to give up their secrets. But this time, Bark is the one hiding things.
Years before, he had put a man away for an eerily similar crime, and now he’s beginning to think that an innocent man may be behind bars–and a serial killer still on the loose. . .
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THE THIRST BY JO NESBO
The entire Harry Hole series by Jo Nesbo is fantastic, especially the well-known THE SNOWMAN, but I love THE THIRST for October reading with it’s vampiric murders. It’s dark, disturbing and impossibly addictive, plus the story is deeply unnerving with the victims targeted through Tinder. So so good and Nesbo is the master at atmospheric, incredibly well done thrillers.
In this electrifying new thriller from the author of Police and The Snowman, Inspector Harry Hole hunts down a serial murderer who targets his victims . . . on Tinder.
The murder victim, a self-declared Tinder addict. The one solid clue—fragments of rust and paint in her wounds—leaves the investigating team baffled.
Two days later, there’s a second murder: a woman of the same age, a Tinder user, an eerily similar scene.
The chief of police knows there’s only one man for this case. But Harry Hole is no longer with the force. He promised the woman he loves, and he promised himself, that he’d never go back: not after his last case, which put the people closest to him in grave danger.
But there’s something about these murders that catches his attention, something in the details that the investigators have missed. For Harry, it’s like hearing “the voice of a man he was trying not to remember.” Now, despite his promises, despite everything he risks, Harry throws himself back into the hunt for a figure who haunts him, the monster who got away.
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THE BUTTERFLY GARDEN BY DOT HUTCHISON
I read this book a long while ago, but it always sticks out in my mind as one of those really creepy, unnerving thrillers. It’s a story about young women being kidnapped, held as “butterflies” by a twisted man known as “The Gardener.” It’s a really dark thriller, but completely unputdownable. This is another one that I listened to and loved.
Near an isolated mansion lies a beautiful garden.
In this garden grow luscious flowers, shady trees…and a collection of precious “butterflies”—young women who have been kidnapped and intricately tattooed to resemble their namesakes. Overseeing it all is the Gardener, a brutal, twisted man obsessed with capturing and preserving his lovely specimens.
When the garden is discovered, a survivor is brought in for questioning. FBI agents Victor Hanoverian and Brandon Eddison are tasked with piecing together one of the most stomach-churning cases of their careers. But the girl, known only as Maya, proves to be a puzzle herself.
As her story twists and turns, slowly shedding light on life in the Butterfly Garden, Maya reveals old grudges, new saviors, and horrific tales of a man who’d go to any length to hold beauty captive. But the more she shares, the more the agents have to wonder what she’s still hiding…
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THE BROKEN GIRLS BY SIMONE ST. JAMES
A chilling modern ghost story set in Vermont. A journalist returns to a now-closed school where her sister was found dead. However, ghosts from the pasts emerge when she finds out the school is being reopened. This was my first Simone St. James book and I thought it was so well done. Perfect for those looking for historical, ghost vibes.
Vermont, 1950. There’s a place for the girls whom no one wants—the troublemakers, the illegitimate, the too smart for their own good. It’s called Idlewild Hall. And in the small town where it’s located, there are rumors that the boarding school is haunted. Four roommates bond over their whispered fears, their budding friendship blossoming—until one of them mysteriously disappears…
Vermont, 2014. As much as she’s tried, journalist Fiona Sheridan cannot stop revisiting the events surrounding her older sister’s death. Twenty years ago, her body was found lying in the overgrown fields near the ruins of Idlewild Hall. And though her sister’s boyfriend was tried and convicted of murder, Fiona can’t shake the suspicion that something was never right about the case.
When Fiona discovers that Idlewild Hall is being restored by an anonymous benefactor, she decides to write a story about it. But a shocking discovery during the renovations will link the loss of her sister to secrets that were meant to stay hidden in the past—and a voice that won’t be silenced…
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THE CRAFTSMAN BY SHARON BOLTON
Loved this psychological thriller/procedural with supernatural elements. A police officer returns to the small town where she convicted a serial killer who buried alive his victims. But now, events start to repeat themselves and Florence Lovelady wonders if she caught the right guy. Really creepy and atmospheric with witchy vibes.
Sharon Bolton returns with her creepiest standalone yet, following a young cop trying to trace the disappearances of a small town’s teenagers.
Florence Lovelady’s career was made when she convicted coffin-maker Larry Grassbrook of a series of child murders 30 years ago in a small village in Lancashire. Like something out of a nightmare, the victims were buried alive. Florence was able to solve the mystery and get a confession out of Larry before more children were murdered., and he spent the rest of his life in prison.
But now, decades later, he’s dead, and events from the past start to repeat themselves. Is someone copying the original murders? Or did she get it wrong all those years ago? When her own son goes missing under similar circumstances, the case not only gets reopened… it gets personal.
In master of suspense Sharon Bolton’s latest thriller, readers will find a page-turner to confirm their deepest fears and the only protagonist who can face them.
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THE DEATH OF MRS. WESTAWAY BY RUTH WARE
If you’re looking for gothic vibes, this is a great book to pick up. It’s my favorite of Ruth Ware. The story begins when a woman receives a letter about an inheritance not meant for her, but regardless decides to claim the money. An enthralling mystery with sinister vibes.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of In a Dark, Dark Wood, The Woman in Cabin 10, and The Lying Game comes Ruth Ware’s highly anticipated fourth novel.
On a day that begins like any other, Hal receives a mysterious letter bequeathing her a substantial inheritance. She realizes very quickly that the letter was sent to the wrong person—but also that the cold-reading skills she’s honed as a tarot card reader might help her claim the money.
Soon, Hal finds herself at the funeral of the deceased…where it dawns on her that there is something very, very wrong about this strange situation and the inheritance at the center of it.
Full of spellbinding menace and told in Ruth Ware’s signature suspenseful style, this is an unputdownable thriller from the Agatha Christie of our time.
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A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES BY DEBORAH HARKNESS
The All Souls Trilogy is one of the top three book series I have read in the past ten years. I LOVE IT. A LOT. So much so, that I’ve read these books several times. The first book is A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES and features a geneticist vampire and a historian witch who fall in love. Their mystery, magic, science and history and it’s so well written I don’t even know where to start. If you’ve not read these books, this is a perfect time to start! And bonus, now you can watch the TV show!
Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford’s Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
Harkness has created a universe to rival those of Anne Rice, Diana Gabaldon, and Elizabeth Kostova, and she adds a scholar’s depth to this riveting tale of magic and suspense. The story continues in book two, Shadow of Night, and concludes with The Book of Life.
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PRETTY GIRLS BY KARIN SLAUGHTER
Perhaps the most terrifying procedural I’ve ever read. It’s really unflinching and dark in it’s portrayal of a killer and his crimes, but also so incredibly well written by one of the genre’s masters. This book made me a devoted Karin Slaughter reader and really showcases why she is so lauded in the industry.
Sisters. Strangers. Survivors.
More than twenty years ago, Claire and Lydia’s teenaged sister Julia vanished without a trace. The two women have not spoken since, and now their lives could not be more different. Claire is the glamorous trophy wife of an Atlanta millionaire. Lydia, a single mother, dates an ex-con and struggles to make ends meet. But neither has recovered from the horror and heartbreak of their shared loss—a devastating wound that’s cruelly ripped open when Claire’s husband is killed.
The disappearance of a teenage girl and the murder of a middle-aged man, almost a quarter-century apart: what could connect them? Forming a wary truce, the surviving sisters look to the past to find the truth, unearthing the secrets that destroyed their family all those years ago . . . and uncovering the possibility of redemption, and revenge, where they least expect it.
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