Haunted House Mysteries & Thrillers

Vera didn’t want to go back. But her mother demanded it—her health is failing, and she needs a caretaker. It was already hard for Vera to return to the site where her father, a convicted serial killer, committed his crimes. But now she comes back to see that her mother is letting an artist stay out back and mine their home for material, as part of a larger project to allow people to come and see and stay in the infamous Crowder House. As the bloody past bubbles up to haunt Vera, she’s forced to confront her memories of those years long ago, and reveal her own well-hidden secrets about that time.

A darkly gothic, brilliantly unsettling novella retelling Poe’s "The House of Usher," Kingfisher’s book features a retired soldier who comes to visit the house of two old friends after hearing that Madeline might be dying. Shocked at the state of the mansion, Alex is overwhelmed. The lake seems to glow at night, a British woman is wandering the grounds sketching foul-smelling mushrooms, Madeline is sleepwalking, and Roderick seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Can Alex solve this mystery before the house claims them all?

The three Maxwell siblings—genderfluid Ezri and sisters Eve and Emanuelle—don’t want to go back to their childhood home in Dallas. They were the only Black kids in a predominantly white, wealthy gated neighborhood, and it never accepted them—and possibly actively tormented them. The siblings could never get anyone to listen to them about the unusual, frightening things they experienced in that house. Now, their parents are dead, and they are forced to go back and investigate just what’s wrong with that haunted, haunted house.

Mara is the "mess" of the family who never quite gets her shit together. But when her cousin Jeremy offers her a role on a home-renovation show focusing on haunted houses, she sees an opportunity to prove them wrong. As a production assistant, she has a steady job that involves a lot of setting up fog machines and faking creepy ghost-like moments. But just as she’s getting settled in, one of the houses begins to exhibit signs of its own, actual haunting. Is someone just trying to mess with her, or is there an actual ghost at this property?

Jade came to Vietnam solely to appease her father and get him to support her college tuition. But quickly, it seems like things aren’t right. Her father is renovating an old manor that was the site of quite a bit of Vietnamese history, including the cruelties of French colonialism, and she thinks the place is haunted. She has terrifying sleep paralysis, insects are dying, and much more, but her father doesn’t believe her. This fever dream of a read will make you shiver.