Ghost Fiction

I came to the countryside for peace. Instead, I’ve found myself stuck in a village where everyone knows my business, everyone wants to talk to me, and every single event seems to be held in a room that is far too small for the number of people crammed into it. Worse still, I can’t seem to escape Elizabeth Bennet—a woman who somehow manages to unsettle me with just a look. And now, on top of everything, I’ve apparently acquired a sarcastic Scottish ghost who’s determined to meddle in my affairs. Merry Christmas to me.

It felt like only minutes had passed when I woke up with a start. I glanced over at the digital clock I had placed on the nightstand; it read 3:19 a.m. I had been fast asleep for hours - what had woken me up? I raised my head to look around the room, and my heart leaped into my throat. There, standing at the foot of my bed, was a figure, looming in the darkness.

Vampire hunter and zombie animator Anita Blake is an expert at sniffing out the bad from the good. But in The Lunatic Cafe - now in trade paperback for the first time - she's about to learn that nothing is ever as it seems, especially in matters of the not-so-human heart. Dating a werewolf with self-esteem issues is stressing Anita out. Especially when something - or someone - starts taking out the city's shapeshifters.

As I sit in her dimly lit bedroom, surrounded by flickering candles, I feel the crushing weight of my daughter’s absence. It's been two years since Layla was murdered. The police have searched tirelessly for her killer, but they've found nothing – it's like whoever did it vanished into thin air. My once-perfect marriage is falling apart, we can hardly look at each other anymore. Our ten-year-old son Gale is struggling. He’s changed since she died. He’s more secretive and also…

Having run into the bank to take out cash for her son's school fair, Angela Hawkins Crow is surprised to find herself in the middle of a hostage situation. The hostage-taker is none other than Billy Mendelson, a young man suffering after a violent armed robbery attack at his home. Angela has read about the crime but is mystified by his behavior, even as he hustles her into a vault with several others. Billy was a stellar student and so much more before the events of that fateful day. How can he subject others to such violence?

Professional matchmaker Celinda Ingram is a psychically gifted woman with a problem. She is in desperate need of a bodyguard who can double as a date for her sister's wedding. Davis Oakes, a member of the mysterious Ghost Hunter's Guild, is a security expert with a most unusual paranormal talent. But Davis doesn't trust matchmakers and Celinda doesn't trust anyone connected to the Guild. Sparks fly immediately. Danger is closing in fast, however, and this pair has no choice but to work together to survive.

The dead carry their secrets with them.... At least until they end up at Riley Smith's door. Her latest spectral visitor is a murdered bride with a need for revenge, and not necessarily for the person who killed her. Never mind that killer is about to strike again. Riley's determined to help, but is missing Hayden, the hot, ghostly boy who's always had her back. Living, breathing Hayden is awake, which means his spirit isn't around to flirt with Riley anymore. Worse yet, the "real" Hayden doesn't remember her.

From twisted toys to gut-wrenching games, this collection of terrifying tales is unsettling enough to mess with even the most hardened Five Nights at Freddy's fans. In this volume, horror master Scott Cawthon spins three sinister novella-length stories from different corners of FNAF's canon. Listeners beware: In this startling world, desperate wishes have an unexpected cost, beautiful trinkets reveal appalling powers, and harmless pranks can go awry in ghastly ways.

A group of mountain climbers, caught in the dark, fight to survive their descent; in the British countryside, hundreds of magpies ascend into the sky, higher and higher, until they seem to vanish into the heavens; a professor and his student track a zombie horde in order to research zombie behavior; an all-girl riding school has sinister secrets; a town rails in vain against a curse inflicted upon it by its founders; and much more.

Hollywood has made a star of Todd Pickett. But time is catching up with him. After plastic surgery goes awry, Todd needs somewhere to hide away for a few months while his scars heal. As Todd settles into a mansion in Coldheart Canyon - a corner of the city so secret it doesn't even appear on a map - Tammy Lauper, the president of his fan club, comes to the City of Angels determined to solve the mystery of Todd's disappearance.

Melanie is only going through the motions of living since refusing Jack Trenholm’s marriage proposal. When she is roused one night by the sound of a ghostly infant crying, she chooses to ignore it. She simply does not have the energy to deal with one more crisis. That is, until the remains of a newborn buried in an old christening gown are found hidden in the foundation of her house. As the hauntings on Tradd Street slowly become more violent, Melanie decides to find out what caused the baby’s untimely death.

In this delightfully chilling collection, the iconic Jeanette Winterson turns her fearless gaze to the realm of ghosts, interspersing her own encounters with the supernatural alongside hair-raising fictions. Lifting the veil between the living and the dead, Winterson spirits us away to a haunted estate that ensnares a nomadic young couple in its own dark past, a staged immersive ghost tour gone awry, a West Village seance that threatens the bounds between AI and reality, and a vacation home in the metaverse where a widow visits an improved version of her deceased husband.

January 1937. Jack Miller has just about run out of options. His shoes have worn through, he can't afford to heat his rented room in Tooting, and he longs to use his training as an specialist wireless operator instead of working in his dead-end job. When he is given the chance to join an arctic expedition, as communications expert, by a group of elite Oxbridge graduates, he brushes off his apprehensions and convinces himself to join them.

Vampire hunter Anita Blake is called on to raise the dead - while trying to suppress her ever-growing feelings for a certain wereleopard.

In the wake of a scandal, the Montrose family and their three daughters - Catherine, Lydia and Emeline - flee Boston for their new country home, Willow Hall. The estate seems sleepy and idyllic. But a subtle menace creeps into the atmosphere, remnants of a dark history that call to Lydia, and to the youngest, Emeline. All three daughters will be irrevocably changed by what follows, but none more than Lydia, who must draw on a power she never knew she possessed if she wants to protect those she loves. For Willow Hall’s secrets will rise, in the end....

With two weddings on Beach Drive, Danielle's plan to temporarily close Marlow House Bed and Breakfast is put on hold. Not everyone showing up on Marlow House's doorstep is a welcome wedding guest. Nor is everyone from the living world.

The ghost story is perhaps the oldest of all the supernatural literary genres and has captured the imagination of almost every writer to put pen to the page. Here, Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler has followed his keen sense of the supernatural to collect the most chilling and uncanny tales in the canon.

Known for her series of true ghost stories, Barbara Smith is back, this time with a collection of fictional ghostly tales set in real Alberta locations. So light the fire and prepare to be spooked by these delightfully eerie stories.

Bret Ellis, the narrator of Lunar Park, is the bestselling writer whose first novel Less Than Zero catapulted him to international stardom while he was still in college. In the years that followed he found himself adrift in a world of wealth, drugs, and fame, as well as dealing with the unexpected death of his abusive father.

Albert Jenkins and his friends have enjoyed several months of peace, which is why when a Rosengul spaceship crash-lands into his new house, he's not exactly surprised. From the wreckage, a pair of ordinarily reclusive small Rosengul emerge and spin a tale of kidnapping and deceit. Of course, AJ, not always the most sensitive, asks the pertinent question of how that involves him and his friends. The simple answer is that AJ and crew have developed a reputation of getting things done, probably because his methods skirt Galactic Empire rules.