The Best Eerie Mystery Books to Read for Halloween

In 1879, Eloise James’ sister, Evania, disappears after being admitted to an asylum. As Eloise searches for Evania, she finds evidence of dying patients and missing remains, leading her to form an unlikely alliance with wannabe journalist Silas Dobbs.

Under suspicion of a secret black market sales web operating at the asylum, the pair tries to find out whether Evania is alive, or if they’ll discover more missing remains. 

In the present day, Tilly Thompson is shocked to discover human remains entombed in the architecture of her grandfather’s newly purchased Gothic mansion. Tilly investigates the former owner’s suspicious past, and soon discovers the dark web of secrets brewing in the James family history. 

It is 1970 in Maplewood, NH, and four pre-teen boys begin noticing strange incidents aptly timed with the arrival of an old magician who moves into a nearby boarding house, where one resident is a reserved pulp horror writer. 

For over 40 years, the writer’s fears stemming from the magician’s previous visit have kept him from venturing outside. The four boys try to piece together seemingly unrelated phenomena as children start to go missing from town.

But in order to do something about it, they'll have to find someone who believes them.

Jiah Rai was the number one suspect when she was found at the base of Wailing Cliff, embracing her girlfriend Georgia’s dead body. With Jiah’s uncle being a convicted serial killer who died in prison, the town of Dumont has never accepted her, even when there was insufficient evidence to charge her for Georgia’s death. 

A few years later, Jiah receives a threat from Georgia’s brother and must seek support from her best friend, Estrella. But Estrella never shows up.

Text messages lead Jiah to the beach, and she finds a body positioned identical to how her uncle killed his victims.

Is Jiah the killer Dumont believes her to be? Or can Jiah find the true killer before it’s too late?

Elena Altieri has been hiding for over 40 years since her New York City punk-rock youth left her best friend, Sin, dead and another woman missing. 

But she’s started hearing peculiar noises beneath the hum of her tinnitus, sounds she believes to be linked to Sin’s murder, and the photographs of a recently passed musician are going viral—photos she took.

Suddenly, she finds herself back in the world she’s been running from for decades.

Detective Avery Hemlock is used to being alone, but after past cases put Saga Trygg’s life in danger, Avery has to keep her distance for Saga's safety.

Saga is trying to heal from her grandmother’s murder, find her place after discovering the fey world, and adjust to Avery’s absence in her life. 

But when the suspicious death of a local witch is potentially caused by a powerful revenge hex, the two can't help but pair back together to untangle the dangerous mystery.

The now-silent tea leaves Milly used to divine the future with have left her with a mundane life. 30 miles away, her estranged younger sister is thriving in a sparkly new marriage, and Milly doesn’t blame Francis for wanting nothing to do with her, especially after what happened in that Tennessee meadow. 

However, when Francis turns up at Milly’s front door with a black eye and in need of help, Milly’s tea leaves are finally clear: if the two of them don’t murder Francis’s new husband, he’ll kill Francis himself.

And if they’re going to plan a murder together, they have no choice but to revisit the place they swore they’d never return to, where another body and a world of secrets were buried 10 years ago.

Detective investigator Lyla Rondell has one unsolved case from her 25 years on the job. Her best friend’s “Snow White” disappearance contained a singular clue: a poisoned apple.

Now, when a woman is taken in a crime that resembles Cinderella’s story and the murders that follow are each based on a different fairy-tale classic, Lyla is tasked with investigating.

These deaths are far darker than the familiar bedtime stories, and the messages left by the killer are addressed directly to Lyla.

39-year-old Maria Fortune is a dog groomer in Boston who’s through with catering to the wealthy and their pampered dogs, so she quits and vacations in a quaint coastal Maine town where she spent fond summers. 

Maria is shocked to discover an inheritance from her great-aunt, which is a decaying house on the hill overlooking the harbor. Marie feels an instant connection to the house, and although the locals warn her otherwise, Marie decides to renovate it and turn it into a B&B.

Three things Marie didn’t anticipate: the house is haunted, her great-aunt also left her a far-from-typical dog, and an unexpected death occurs soon thereafter.

16-year-old Ellen Poe’s family claims to be long-lost descendants of Edgar Allen Poe, but it starts to feel real when she moves into a Poe-themed B&B with her aunt, and the nightmares she’s always lived with start veering into Ellen’s waking hours.

Ellen soon finds herself being visited by Edgar Allen Poe himself after discovering a journal hidden in the house, and that the two might share the same paranormal ability to interact with spirits. The same ability that drove him mad.

13 Stories of Supernatural Sleuthing is a curated anthology of vintage supernatural and occult detective fiction. Whether they dive into paranormal mysteries or utilize their own supernatural talents to solve crimes, occult detectives tap into every corner of our imaginations. 

The anthology features cherished figures, such as Dr. Hesselius, Dr. Taverner, Thomas Carnacki, and John Silence, joined by sleuths like Shiela Crerar and Diana Marburg. Their investigative approaches explore everything from palm-reading psychics and clairvoyant hypnotizers to good old logical thinking. 

Teenager Nell’s 1975 San Francisco world is torn to shreds when her younger sister tragically dies and her parents divorce shortly after. Her mother is desperate, searching for relief in new hobbies and new people, leading her to a cult called the Church of the People, led by a charismatic man known as Dad. 

As the dangers lurk in the cult’s orthodoxy reveal themselves to Nell—threats, physical abuse, displacing members to Dad’s new “utopian” community in the South American jungles—dark and deeply horrifying consequences follow.