With the promise of crisp fall nights drawing nearer, the need to find a good book to curl up with has never felt so crucial. And what genre fits this darkening, spooky season better than those chilling thrillers with a supernatural twist?
Here are seven hair-raising, edge-of-your-seat supernatural thrillers that are sure to keep you satisfied all season long.
The House Across the Lake by Riley Sager
After the recent death of her husband attracts the attention of paparazzi, actress Casey Fletcher retreats to the quiet seclusion of her family’s Vermont cabin. Armed with a pair of binoculars and several bottles of bourbon, she passes the time watching Tom and Katherine Royce, the glamorous couple living in the house across the lake. Before long, Casey begins to suspect that Katherine and Tom’s marriage isn’t quite as perfect on the inside as it appears to the outside world. Then, without warning, Katherine vanishes in the early morning hours, and Casey suspects Tom of foul play.
Casey begins to investigate Katherine’s disappearance but soon discovers that there are far bigger — and scarier — secrets lurking deep beneath the calm surface of the lake. (Read the full BookTrib review here.)
Echo From a Bayou by J. Luke Bennecke
Dangers lurk around every turn — including ghosts, hurricanes and hidden treasure — as one man goes on a journey to find his murderer.
After waking from a coma, native Californian John Bastian discovers he has mysteriously acquired a pronounced Southern accent accompanied by vivid visions and memories of a former life. Bastian’s other identity is revealed to be that of Jack Bachman, a man who died sometime in the 1970s. The haunting hallucinations include being violently murdered with a rusty axe and an encounter with a seductive redhead. John and his friend embark on a cross-country journey to uncover the truth before it’s true late. (Read the full BookTrib review here.)
After Death by Dean Koontz
A modern-day Lazarus returns from the dead to protect two innocent lives and ensure that light survives in a rapidly darkening world.
Head of security Michael Mace wakes up to find himself in a makeshift morgue twenty-four hours following an event in which everyone perished — including himself and his best friend. But he awoke a changed man. Now harboring an extraordinary ability unlike anything he could ever imagine, Michael is capable of being as elusive as a ghost. With his newfound power he sets out to help a woman and her son, John, whom his late best friend greatly admired. But his assistance invokes the wrath of John’s father, a member of one of the most violent street gangs in LA. But an even greater threat is hot on their heels — a vicious assassin who will stop at nothing to kill his target. And if Michael dies twice, there’s no third chance.
White Silence by Jodi Taylor
Since she was a child, Elizabeth Cage has seen things that other people cannot — but she doesn’t want to see them, and she certainly doesn’t want them to see her. However, what Elizabeth sees as a curse, others see as a valuable gift, one they yearn to control. When her husband dies, Elizabeth’s world crumbles apart. But as she tries to piece her life back together, she discovers that not everything is as it seems.
Alone in a strange and frightening world, Elizabeth’s a vulnerable target to forces beyond her control — and she knows that she can’t trust anyone.
Hell and Back by Craig Johnson
Part of the series that inspired the Netflix original show, Hell and Back continues to follow Sheriff Walt Longmire as he delivers justice across the Wyoming High Plains.
The story opens with a dazed, amnesia-stricken Walt lying flat on his back in the middle of a snow-covered, two-lane road. Around his neck is a lightweight red scarf he last saw on the ghostly apparition of a deceased and still missing girl. Wounded and stranded far from home, Walt is down a rabbit hole in a netherworld where time is permanently suspended at 8:17 PM. The ghost town ahead is populated with dead souls and a handful of living — most of whom are pursuing him. It’s up to Sheriff Longmire to remember who he is, why he drove there and which beings are benevolent or malevolent. (Read the full BookTrib review here.)
The Broken Room by Peter Clines
Natalie doesn’t remember much of her life before her family brought her to the US, but she remembers the cages. Taken away to the Project with dozens of other young children, Natalie became part of their nightmarish experiments — and wound up with the ghost of a dead secret agent stuck in her head.
Hector — a former top-notch government operative betrayed by his country — owes Natalie’s ghost a big favor. Now Hector and Natalie are on the run from an army of killers sent to retrieve her, because the people behind the Project are willing to risk almost anything to get Natalie back and complete their experiments.
Double Vision by Hamelin Bird
Former detective Michael Lunsmann — a man still in love with his ex-wife and estranged from his teenage son — is no stranger to the bottle. It’s common for him to wake up with no recollection of the night before. But this time is different. In addition to the usual pains associated with a full night of binge drinking, there is also a bullet conspicuously lodged in his arm. With only one memory to hang on to — more like a shadow of a memory, maybe even an otherworldly one — Mike realizes he may hold the only clue to what happened to four teenage boys who had vanished without a trace.
With no real jurisdiction and a tenuous grasp on reality clouded by booze, Mike sets out to solve the case. (Read the full BookTrib review here.)
