Scaring Up Some Good Reads

With Halloween right around the corner, what better time to branch out from the usual mystery and find something with a little more "bite?"

If you like your mysteries with a touch of the paranormal, here are a few books that will have you running to lock the doors. Beware: don't read with the lights out!

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For some authors like Lillian Stewart Carl , http://www.lillianstewartcarl.com , writing about the supernatural seemed, well, natural. "Being a Celt myself, I've always had a spooky streak -- and am much too sensitive to atmosphere for my own good," says Carl, author of the Jean Fairbairn/Alasdair Cameron series. "Many's the time when visiting an old castle or stately home in England or Scotland I've felt the hairs on the back of my neck twitch."

Most of Carl's books in the series, THE SECRET PORTRAIT, THE MURDER HOLDE, THE BURNING GLASS, the latest, THE CHARM STONE (on Kindle Oct. 1) and the upcoming, THE BLUE HACKLE (out December in hardcover), all have a Scottish-English connection, and usually ghostly elements.

The Charm Stone instead takes a different approach, dealing with a charm stone supposedly stolen by an accused witch 300 years ago in Colonial Williamsburg. The book is also inspired by fact, says Carl, "since the last governor of Colonial Virginia, Lord Dunmore, was a Scot, it seemed only fair to set the fourth book of the series in Colonial Williamsburg, where history lives and breathes. The actual charm stone of the story is set into a mysterious chest similar to one owned by a Williamsburg archaeologist, a chest whose origins he's never been able to explain."

The overabundance of vampires is what inspired author Cynthia Gael (a pseudonym for authors K.G. McAbee and Cynthia D. Witherspoon), http://www.cynthiagael.com , to give witches their due in BALEFIRE AND MOONSTONE, Book One of The Balefire Chronicles, available as an eBook via Smashwords.

"We were having lunch one day—Mexican , mmm —and complaining about the plethora of vampires," says Gael. "Why not a book on witches, combining mystery, suspense, danger, love and possibly burritos? So we began the Balefire Chronicles , the ongoing story of the heir to a multi-national company that traps and steals the power of witches—and the girl he loves, a powerful fire witch."

The book centers on Tommy Hopkins, who becomes the new Witchfinder General at 19, a line that stretches back to the original WG, Matthew Hopkins. Hopkins is head of WFG Ltd.which provides clean, non-polluting power-power secretly drained from witches, whom he doesn't believe in. Then he falls for a poor, friendless girl – an ancient fire witch – whom he must believe in to save, or follow destiny and turn against.

Picking the topic seemed a natural choice for this first-time writing collaboration, say the authors, since they've both had their own "spooky" moments in real life. "Cindy had a charming old lady who played with her when she was a child—an old lady no one else could see, but who had lived in her house about 50 years earlier," Gael says. "K.G. lives in a log cabin built circa 1817—just like Cynthia Gael, in fact—and often sees a woman in a long blue dress walk past the window. How can we not write paranormal?"

 

Ghosts, of course, are the staple of Halloween and horror books, and are becoming more popular in mysteries. In the eBook, INVISIBLE FORCE (Champagne Books) by Carol Costa , http://www.carolcostaauthor.com/index_files/Page411.htm , the ghost of Janet D-Angelo returns to the house where she was murdered, intent on finding her killer and solving the mystery surrounding the tragic disappearance, and miraculous reappearance, of her teenage daughter. While Janet's presence sometimes erupts into frightening displays of her unearthly power, she knows that she must channel her energy to untangle the web of greed and deception that led to her murder. 

For Costa, also an award-winning playwright, writing the story presented a new challenge. "The story is told in first person from the ghost's POV and that was a challenge since all information had to come through her," she says.

Personally, some of her own experiences also played a role in her writing. "Right after I started writing professionally I began to have psychic dreams," she says. "The fact that I would know something was going to happen in advance spooked me. It prompted me to research and study all types of paranormal activity. "

 

Archaeologist protagonist Faye Longchamp is more scientific-minded, looking for the why in face of the unusual circumstances she often finds herself in, but she may be opening up a little more to the supernatural this time in STRANGERS (Poisoned Pen Press), the latest in the six-book series due out in October by author Mary Anna Evans ( http://www.maryannaevans.com ).

"I write about a very logical-minded archaeologist who does not believe in such things, but as the story unfolds, she comes to believe that the lady of the house, a murdered starlet and the Native American victims of a Spanish massacre have never really left this Gilded Age mansion," says Evans.

In earlier books, while Faye had unusual experiences that went beyond her understanding like witnessing a voodoo mambo in action in FLOODGATES or seeing a Native American deity during a near-death experience in EFFIGIES, Evans says Faye is still never convinced: "She always believes that there is an explanation. In the new book, STRANGERS, she is eight months pregnant, so her feelings are more raw, and perhaps she's more susceptible to the possibilities of things science can't explain."

She adds, "perhaps that made me more susceptible, too, because as the book progressed, I became more interested in investigating the possibility that the tragedies that took place in the house Faye is studying might have left some ghosts behind. It was more of a natural progression for Faye, and for me, to give some thought to the fact that presuming our physics can explain everything is just a teeny bit arrogant."

Though Evans hasn't had any such experiences herself, she has had several real-feeling dreams in the 20 years since her father's death. "I could feel his arms around me and, though he never speaks, we make eye contact and communicate for just an instant."

Part of one dream she had naturally ended up in one of her books. "One of these dreams was so detailed and lucid that I woke with a single sentence in my head, 'Now I know what heaven is like.' I changed that dream to fit the characters and I used it in my fourth book, FINDINGS."

 

 

I'd be remiss, of course, if I didn't include a few zombies in the reading line-up, but don't be put off by the title of the recently published, HUNGRY FOR YOUR LOVE: An Anthology of Zombie Romance, Lori Perkins, editor ( St. Martin 's Press.)

In this collection of 21 stories, there's humor, horror, uh, romance, and yes, mystery, too, as in the tale "First Love Never Dies" by contributor Jan Kozlowski, http://www.jankozlowski.com . In the story, police detective Ryan Walborn is on the job in his hometown after the zombie apocalypse. While investigating another crime, he and his partner discover that his high school girl friend's father is running an undead sex slave operation and she may be involved.

"The core idea for First Love Never Dies came out of pairing the zombie apocalypse with the human race's seemingly endless capacity for evil, specifically in the form of the Seven Deadly Sins," Kozlowski says. "Focusing on two of my personal favorites, Lust and Greed, brought a zombie brothel to mind, which then led into the character back story of an abusive family situation and from there, to the development of a good guy main character to offset the living and dead evil ones."

Kozlowski, who fell in love with the horror genre after being mesmerized by the single drop of ruby blood on the engraved black cover of Stephen King's Salem's Lot in 1975, mostly wrote journalism and nonfiction pieces, but finally decided to make a change.

"Eventually I got to a point in my life where I could work for money less and pleasure more, so I started writing what I loved," she says. "I think that's where that old biscuit of writing advice gets it wrong. It's not 'write what you know' that will make you successful, it's write what you LOVE."

Interestingly enough, her home office seemed to be haunted by the former owner, a heavy smoker who died of cancer. She and her husband cleaned the house to get rid of the tobacco smell, yet she sometimes still smelled smoke when she worked upstairs. "I couldn't see the smoke, but it seemed to come out of the corner behind my computer, move past me out of the room, go down the hall and then dissipate when it got to the living room," she says. "It got so that my husband (who also smelled the smoke) and I would just say 'Hi, Bob, love the house' whenever we smelled it."

She and her husband smelled the smoke hanging around as they watched events unfold on TV on September 11, 2001 and then never again. "I don't know when he left, but neither my husband nor I have ever smelled him again," she says. "And to tell you the truth, we miss him."

 

* And if you're still in the mood for another ghoulish tale, check out the short horror story, THE KILLER VALENTINE BALL by C.A. Verstraete, ( http://cverstraete.com ). Every girl wants to attend a "killer" Valentine ball, right? But this is one party Jess will never forget...