To ask for your best unsettling/creepy author or book recommendations?

[bumblenbean]

Posting here for traffic (sorry!)

I need some new reading material as a distraction from the current shitty situation. Don’t have much time to trawl through amazon as juggling work and two toddlers, so was hoping the AIBU hive mind could assist!

I like a good creepy psychological thriller / crime fiction etc and am running out of authors to try.

I love Mo Hayder but she hasn’t written anything for a while. Also a fan of Sarah Hilary, Susan Hill, Tana French, Ruth Rendell, Tim Weaver...

There’s a lot out there billed as ‘creepy’ ‘disturbing’ ‘chilling’ etc but unfortunately a lot of it is so badly written / implausible / poorly plotted, so am looking for a new author to get my teeth into.

There was a great series by an author called Gillian White written years ago, though she doesn’t seem to have written anything for years and is a bit obscure; but if anyone knows her work and can recommend anything similar that would be great.

Any ideas welcome! 😁 TIA

The wasp factory. Its just a very unerving book.

I’ve just read CJ Taylor’s first two books, The Chalk Man and The Taking of Annie Thorpe.
Quite creepy and easy to read.

Sorry written by iain banks. About a psychopath teenager.

I read a lot in this genre and I enjoyed The Magpies by Mark Edwards.

Nobody true by james herbert is also really creepy and unsettling.

I loved The Magpies.

Patricia cornwell
Jeffrey deaver

Not really the genre you're asking about but I just read My Absolute Darling and it was freaking amazing. Beautiful, vivid descriptions of the Calfornian coast mixed with some truly disturbing content. I had to put it down a few times and steel myself to keep going. When I finished I immediately skipped back and reread the finale and aftermath, I wasn't ready to let go.

‘Dolores Claiborne’ by Stephen King. Not his typical horror style. Very creepy and intriguing. His masterpiece, in my opinion.

The Silent Companions
The Corset

Both by Laura Purcell - gothic horror but very atmospheric and creepy.

I love Mo Hayder and I have been reading a lot of Mark Edwards recently, very unsettling .

If you like Mo Hayder (I do too!), try Richard Montinari or J A Kerley.

John Connolly is good - crime fiction with supernatural add in - I like the Charlie Parker series of books

Val McDermid
Amy Engel
John Searles

Chelsea Cain sounds up your street.
For creepy try Dark Matter by Michele Parver

This is more ghost story realm, but it's bloody great and I read it in one go. Wakenhyrst by Michelle Paver. Really good

Mark Edwards is very good, Follow You Home was my favourite by him.

Roald Dahl's short stories for adults. Totally screwed up but gripping.

Barbara Erskine does atmospheric pretty well. It’s worth a look to see if she piques your interest. She does supernatural/ghosty messages to the future to solve present day mystery kind of stories.

It’s been a while since I’ve sat down with one Of her books (or any book for that matter) but she’s really engrossing.

FG Cottam
Not all of them but the Colony books, Dark Echo and House of Lost Souls are seriously creepy.

The Loney (can't remember author)

Have you read Dark Matter by Michelle Paver too? Also v good.

I read My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell recently. It's quite creepy

Also, if you haven't read it then Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier is amazing

We need to talk about Kevin by Lionel Shriver

'As far as you can go' by Lesley Glaister is a real psychological thriller. 'Little Egypt' is also very good but less creepy. If you haven't read any of Shirley Jackson's, 'The haunting of Hill House' will rattle your socks good and proper and 'We have always lived in the castle' is also very unnerving. Her short stories are brilliant and often creepy.

Jean Christophe Grangé his imagination is really twisted. The best I've read is Serment des Limbes on the theme of negative near-death experiences. I'm not sure if it's available in English or just French. All I've read of his are really good, but scary.

The Never List by Koethi Zan