I love spooky season. My youngest was born on Halloween and the joy that holiday now brings our family is all encompassing. Since moving to Florida last year, I have been relying on books to help me get into the seasonal mood. Weather changes I experienced in Michigan don’t happen here in Florida, so I’ve escaped into reading. I need a good amount of thrillers/mystery books to get into spooky season. I also found that I needed book to get me into the Christmas holiday spirit. Like our list of summer beach reads, the mamas in Book Club helped me develop this list!
On this list, I have also included some less intense romantic suspense novels. These still have some underlying mystery or threat happening to the main characters, but they are still romance novels at their core. If you are looking for a way to ease into the mystery/suspense category, I recommend starting with these books and then moving to the ones without the romance storyline. To me, both kinds of books are great and I enjoy reading either!
So grab your coffee, a cozy blanket, a treat and let the spooky reading begin!
Thrillers & Mystery
Ward D by Freida McFadden
Truthfully, you cannot go wrong with any of Freida’s books for a suspenseful, twisty read. I’ve read many of her books – they are all mysterious and spooky. Some people find that her books are easy to pick up on the end game clues throughout, but not everyone can pick up on the subtle clues! I also loved The Inmate, The Housemaid and Never Lie.
Final Girls by Riley Sager
Riley Sager has quickly become a favorite mystery/suspense writer for me. I love the twisted worlds he creates and his novels always keep me guessing until the end. We read Final Girls as a book club book recently, and I think we all had a good time peeling back the layers of this one to get to the truth.
Daisy Darker by Alice Freeney
Another book club book for us this year! I’ve fallen in love with Alice’s work and the way that detail rich storytelling sucks you into the story and invests you in the characters. Daisy Darker has a powerful message about grief woven into the mystery and, to me, that made the book just that much more compelling.
The Hunting Party by Lucy Foley
Book club also loved The Guest List by Lucy Foley last year, it was voted our favorite book club book of the year! The Hunting Party is set on a snowy mountain, and the setting makes it more of a fall/winter read in my opinion. If you love stories that change points of view and alternate between the past (where you don’t know what is about to happen) and the present (where characters are slowly piecing together the mystery), either of these books by Lucy are great choices for you!
The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix
This was my first book by Grady Hendrix and it will not be the last! This book happens around Halloween and the town is under threat from, if you believe what the ladies in book club say, is a vampire. The suspense and setting make it the perfect fall themed book to get you ready for spooky season.
The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides
After Alicia Berenson is convicted of murdering her husband she refuses to speak. She is sent to a psychiatric hospital to be taken care of instead of prison. Theo Faber is a psychotherapist who has always been intrigued by Alicia’s case. So when a job opening presents itself at the hospital Alicia is in, he jumps at the chance. Theo makes a strong case as to why a new approach may just be the key to finally get through to Alicia. As she begins to show progress, secrets are uncovered and nothing is what it seems to be. I love a book told in different time lines and that moment that it all connects.
Romantic Suspense
Tattered Stars by Catherine Cowles
Catherine Cowles has an amazing talent at mixing romance and mystery story lines into one beautiful love story. As with the others on this romantic suspense list, Tattered Stars has a blend of both and the mystery serves to drive the main couple together. Hayes and Everly are such an unexpected couple because of their family histories, so you cannot help but root for them to make it to their happily ever after. This book kicks off the Tattered and Torn series and the following books feature Hayes’ siblings and another beloved town resident – I cannot recommend this series enough.
Indigo Ridge by Devney Perry
I will once again get on my soap box and plead for you to read anything and everything by Devney Perry/Willa Nash. She is an author that has never once let me down and I know her books will pull me out of any book slump. Indigo Ridge was her first book that I ever read and I still think about Griffin and Winn often. Their book kicks off Perry’s Eden’s series that, when completed later this year, will have 6 books featuring the 6 Eden siblings.
Crimson River by Devney Perry
I know, I know… two books from the same series on this list, but I cannot help it! They’re both so good! I think I liked Crimson River marginally more than Indigo Ridge – but that is likely because I knew Lyla from the 4 books that precede hers. Lyla is attacked in the woods and when her attacker lets her go, she makes her way home. Vance Sutter comes to town a couple days later asking questions and looking for the man who attacked her. They team up to hike the woods looking for her attacker together and after all that time together they fall in love. But the threat of the man who attacked Lyla is always at the forefront of their minds and once they begin to get answers, everything changes. Also, the description on the back of the book NEVER fails to give me the goosebumps, so that’s another great sign of a thriller/mystery book in my opinion.
Verity by Colleen Hoover
This book (and Layla, the next on our list) is unlike any other books by Colleen Hoover. If you don’t like her other books, I’d still suggest you give this one a try. This was the first book I read by her and none of her others have quite lived up to this one for me. The female main character, Lowen, is an author and she’s been hired to ghost-write the remaining books in a series written by Verity Crawford. Verity was in a horrible accident that has left her unable to walk or speak. Lowen moves into the Crawford house to go through all of Verity’s notes on the remaining books that need written. But when she starts asking questions and the truth comes out, everything isn’t what it seems and no one is safe.
Layla by Colleen Hoover
This one is another book that we read in book club last year to help get us into the spooky season mood. Layla, like Verity, isn’t your traditional romance novel from Colleen Hoover. These two are quite different from some of her other works like Ugly Love, It Ends with Us and Confess. Layla is the story of a woman named Layla and her boyfriend, Leeds. They’ve had a rough couple of months and so Leeds decides that they need to go back to the place where they met and fell in love in an attempt to get their relationship back on track. But Leeds feels really connected to another guest of the bed and breakfast, Willow, and together they set to figure out what happened between him and Layla.
Thank you to all of the mamas in Book Club who helped me put this list together!
