by Beth Cronk, Litchfield head librarian
Halloween is almost here, so it’s time for some scary
books. This could mean mysteries, crime
thrillers, ghost stories, vampire novels, or anything spooky or frightening.
Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have a new book out that’s
pretty scary.
Old Bones features a
young archaeologist who is asked to lead a team in search of the supposed “Lost
Camp” of the Donner Party, the notorious pioneers who descended to cannibalism
when trapped in the mountains.
As the
members of the expedition excavate the site, they discover even more shocking
details, and they find their own lives at risk.
Characters Nora Kelly and Corrie Swanson spin off of a previous Preston
and Child book series in this start of a new series.
For some Victorian crime atmosphere (think gas lamps and
fog), you can pick up
Mycroft and Sherlock: The Empty Birdcage by Kareem
Abdul-Jabbar with Anna Waterhouse.
Set
before Sherlock Holmes meets Dr. Watson, this mystery finds Sherlock helping
his brother investigate a serial killer who has killed a distant relative of
Queen Victoria.
This is the third in the
Mycroft series by NBA star Abdul-Jabbar, all of which have gotten good reviews.
Zombies are good Halloween subject matter.
The new novel
Last Ones Left Alive by Sarah
Davis-Goff features a post-apocalyptic Ireland overrun by zombies called the
skrake. A young woman named Orpen has been raised on a small, safe island off
of the coast, living only with her mother and her mother’s partner.
She wishes to go to the mainland and meet
other survivors despite the risk of the skrake, and when disaster strikes her
island, she has no choice but to cross the water and prepare to fight for her
life.
If serial killers are more your thing, look for
The Chestnut Man by Soren Sveistrup, a Danish television and film writer.
It’s Scandinavian noir, along the lines of
Steig Larsson and Jo Nesbo.
A psychopath
is leaving a doll fashioned from chestnuts at the scene of each murder, and a
pair of detectives must put aside their differences to find the murderer.
Netflix is developing the novel into an
original series.
Minnesota mystery author Ellen Hart writes the long-running
Jane Lawless series.
Installment #26 is the
newest book:
Twisted at the Root.
A
widower’s family contacts Jane for help proving he was wrongly accused of
murdering his husband, and Jane finds that her missing brother was involved in
the trial.
Reviewers have praised the
fully-realized characters and the ramped-up creepiness of the plot.
Have you tried an escape room?
The novel
The Escape Room by Megan Goldin
takes the idea to a terrifying level.
Four Wall Street financiers are ordered to participate in a corporate
team-building exercise in an escape room that turns out to be a tense game of
survival.
Kirkus Reviews says, “Cancel all your plans and call in sick; once
you start reading, you’ll be caught in your own escape room.”
Dean Koontz is well-known for creepy books.
His newest novel is
The Night Window, the
last in his Jane Hawk series.
Jane is a
rogue FBI agent with a mission to take down the powerful people trying to
control America through an army of mind-altered people.
Reviewers say this is best book in the
series, carefully plotted and entertaining.
If you like a book that will scare you one way or another,
the Litchfield Library offers plenty of choices. Happy Halloween!
