Creepy winter book inspiration please!

[MummRaaa]

Just finished The Ice Twins and am getting withdrawal symptoms - would love suggestions for similar please. I do love a good thriller/ghost story as the nights draw in. Some of my other favourites:

The Little Stranger
Fingersmith
Gone Girl
The Secret History
Midnight in Peking (okay technically non fiction)
Before I Go To Sleep

Any suggestions much appreciated, thanks!

Yes Little Stranger - really hair tinglingly scary - great ending.

I'm reading through his other books Hygge, they're super creepy. There is a new Merrily out in December.

I've just put The Ice Twins and The Woman in White on my kindle, love this thread!

Third of a way through The Loney. I don't know where it's going yet.....

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill really spooked me. Gave me a sleepless night.

Hated the film, although Daniel Radcliffe played his role well. Just didn't like the way the story had been changed.

Just picked up my copy of Slade House by David Mitchell from the library this morning. Looking forward to settling down with that one once I've finished my current book.

I Let you go
and
Into the Darkest corner

If you like ghost stories, one if the best I've ever read is The Ghost Hunters by Neil Spring.

Yet another vote (if you need it) for dark matter. Really stuck with me. And as a pp also suggested "into the darkest corner". Not a ghost story, but scary all the same

House of Lost Souls by FG Cottam.

It's kind of a ghost and horror story with a bit of period drama thrown in.

FG Cottam is one of my favourites for horror that has a proper, old style feel to it.

I think my favourite is The Waiting Room, but all of them are good.

Anything by John Harwood: The Seance, or The Ghost Writer

Creepy winter reads
Bellham and Black by Diane Setterfield
Rosemary's Baby by Ira Levin
Whispers by Dean Koontz
Strangers by Dean Koontz
The mystery of Udolpho by Anne Radcliff

its not particularly creepy as such but its very emotive still.and is based in the winter time and is called 'the snow child' its actually a beautiful book.

Ooh yes. I loved The Snow Child

so many to add to the list!

I found Bellman & Black began brilliantly but never quite fully delivered on the ominous scale. I loved the Thirteenth Tale though.

I love the Woman in White (and is it Fingersmith that borrows from it rather heavily?). Henry James - The Turn of the Screw. And a little bit of MR James to dip in and out of.

The Book of You, very creepy!

Currently reading Wolf Winter which is great so far.

I'm reading Wolf Winter by Cecilia Ekback - it is set in early 1700s on a rural mountain in Sweden with settlers from the different Scandinavian countries. It is a mix of survival story, supernatural and superstition, and historical detail. A settler is found dead in the woods at the beginning - the settlers say it was a wolf, but the new arrivals suggest murder.

The effect of isolation, cold, superstitions, fables, bringing different settlers and languages together is fascinating. The main characters are insightful, and the added chill of the ghosts and wolves make it a great winter read. I hope other people will give this a go!

It's not dark or sinister, but Out of the Darkness by Katy Hogan goes into the world of mediums and clairvoyants for a gripping, emotional and thought-provoking read. I would say it makes you think about the possibility of life after death, while at the same time focusing on fate, and the importance of female friendship. I thought it was a great book, intriguing rather than chilling, and will recommend it to anyone who will listen! A good one for long winter nights, leaving you with a warm feel-good glow.

Pig Island and come to think of it anything by Mo Hayder

The Final Winter by Iain Rob Wright- excellent horror writer!

Try: No Longer Safe by A J Waines set in snowy Scotland, an excellent psychological thriller

Her Fearful Symmetry by Audrey Niffenegger is good. I preferred it to the Time Traveller's Wife. It is quite eerie.

The White People by Arthur Machen is quite scary. I love it. It is really weird, about a young girl told spooky tales by her Nanny. It then transpires that the 'stories' are perhaps true accounts of a hidden reality accessed through witchcraft. It's very creepy.

Oh and Midwinterblood by Marcus Sedgwick is good.

Another vote for David Mitchell's Slade House. I loved it.

The Unburied by Charles Palliser is awesomely awesome and v. wintery and creepy!