Top list: Horror

#1 New York Times Bestseller * A New York Times Notable Book * An NPR Best Book of the Year

Holly Gibney, one of Stephen King’s most compelling and resourceful characters, returns in this chilling “exploration of grief and delusion, just pure undistilled evil” (New York magazine) as she uncovers the truth behind multiple disappearances in a midwestern town.

When Penny Dahl calls the Finders Keepers detective agency, hoping for help locating her missing daughter, Holly Gibney is reluctant to accept the case. Her partner, Pete, has Covid. Her (very complicated) mother has just passed away. And Holly is meant to be on leave. But something in Penny’s desperate voice makes it impossible to turn her down.

Meanwhile, mere blocks from where Bonnie Dahl disappeared live Professors Rodney and Emily Harris. They are the picture of bourgeois respectability: married octogenarians, devoted to each other, and semi-retired lifelong academics. But they are also harboring a shocking, unholy secret in the basement of their well-kept, book-lined home, one that may be related to Bonnie’s disappearance. And it will prove nearly impossible to discover what they are up to…for they are savvy, they are patient, and they are ruthless. Now Holly must summon all of her formidable talents to outthink and outmaneuver these unimaginably depraved and brilliantly disguised adversaries in this chilling and unforgettable masterwork from Stephen King.

I’m a witch with a problem. Okay, make that lots of problems.

Following a slight misunderstanding with magical law enforcement, I wind up expelled from the hidden supernatural community known as the Seattle Haven.

My parole officer dumps me in a tiny beach town with nothing but my collection of worldly possessions and a warning that this is my last shot. I don’t think I’m cut out for the human world, but when stuck between a prison cell and a haunted halfway house, I suppose I’ll take option B.

Things start out better than expected, and I even manage to make a few friends, but when my boss at the local coffee house is found dead in an alley, I get tangled up in the investigation, and might have to blow my cover to prove my friend’s innocence.

Add to that a fussy ghost landlady, warring vampire and shifter roommates, and my rapidly dwindling savings, and I’m beginning to wonder if I might have been better off serving that prison sentence after all.

It’s too late now. I’m in the thick of it and come hex or high water, I’ll get to the bottom of this murder, even if it means permanent banishment from the magical world.

Murder’s a Witch is the first book in the Beechwood Harbor Magic Mysteries series. A series of spunky paranormal cozy mysteries that are perfect for fans of Amanda M. Lee, Kristen Painter, and Angie Fox. Come join the fun in Beechwood Harbor, the seaside town where witches, shifters, ghosts, and vamps all live, work, play—and mostly—get along!

When Abe and Dan, two widowers who have found solace in each other's company and a shared passion for fishing, hear rumors of the Creek, and what might be found there, the remedy to both their losses, they dismiss it as just another fish story. Soon, though, the men find themselves drawn into a tale as deep and old as the Reservoir. It's a tale of dark pacts, of long-buried secrets, and of a mysterious figure known as Der Fisher: the Fisherman.

THE INSTANT NO. 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

‘A wonderful, gritty, explosively violent, and beautifully realised debut’

DAILY MAIL

‘GODKILLER will have you in its grasp from the first pages’

Samantha Shannon, bestselling author of PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE

You are not welcome here, godkiller

Kissen’s family were killed by zealots of a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing gods, and enjoys it. That is until she finds a god she cannot kill: Skedi, a god of white lies, has somehow bound himself to a young noble, and they are both on the run from unknown assassins.

Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, they must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favour.

Pursued by demons, and in the midst of burgeoning civil war, they will all face a reckoning – something is rotting at the heart of their world, and only they can be the ones to stop it.

AN INSTANT SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER

The twisted, unforgettable horror novel from Grady Hendrix, New York Times bestselling author of How to Sell a Haunted House and The Final Girl Support Group.

‘A chillingly addictive Southern Gothic tale’

COSMOPOLITAN

‘I did an evil thing to be put in here, and I’m going to have to do an evil thing to get out.’

They call them wayward girls. Loose girls. Girls who grew up too fast. And they’re sent to the Wellwood House in St. Augustine, Florida, where unwed mothers are hidden by their families to have their babies in secret, give them up for adoption, and most important of all, to forget any of it ever happened.

Fifteen-year-old Fern arrives at the home in the sweltering summer of 1970, pregnant, terrified and alone. There, she meets a dozen other girls in the same predicament. Rose, a hippie who insists she’s going to keep her baby and escape to a commune. Zinnia, a budding musician who plans to marry her baby’s father. And Holly, barely fourteen, mute and pregnant by no-one-knows-who.

Every moment of their waking day is strictly controlled by adults who claim they know what’s best for them. Then Fern meets a librarian who gives her an occult book about witchcraft, and power is in the hands of the girls for the first time in their lives. But power can destroy as easily as it creates, and it’s never given freely. There’s always a price to be paid . . . and it’s usually paid in blood.

‘At turns frightening, anxiety-producing, infuriating, beautiful and sad’

NEW YORK TIMES

Praise for Leslie Howard, Hillary Huber and Sara Morsey:

'Leslie Howard, Hillary Huber, and Sara Morsey's gripping narrations bring this story to life . . Their combined performances enhance the narrative's tension, making it an unforgettable experience with vivid storytelling and a stand-out narration' - AudioFile Magazine

Readers love Witchcraft for Wayward Girls . . .

‘Gave me chills’

‘Tackles female rage brilliantly’

‘Disturbing but brilliant’

Witchcraft for Wayward Girls was a No. 5 Sunday Times bestseller the w/e 18th January.

Winner of the 2023 Audie Award for Best Male Narrator

Master storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this #1 New York Times bestselling and spellbinding novel about a young man who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher—for that world or ours.

Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a horrific accident when he was seven, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself—and his dad. When Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from that shed.

Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.

Don’t miss this chilling gothic thriller from the bestselling author . . .

’Cooke has creatively interwoven the darkness of reality with a magical realism that will truly have you gripped’Woman & Home

‘Fascinating and enthralling’ Prima

‘Wonderfully atmospheric and compelling’ Rosamund Lupton

‘A flawless read’ Elizabeth Lee

‘Seething with gothic menace’ Caroline Lea

‘This ghost story is a perfect mix of propulsive plot and shivers-up-the-spine spookiness’ Good Housekeeping

Upon the cliffs of a remote Scottish island, Lòn Haven, stands a lighthouse.

A lighthouse that has weathered more than storms.

Mysterious and terrible events have happened on this island. It started with a witch hunt. Now, centuries later, islanders are vanishing without explanation.

Coincidence? Or curse?

Liv Stay flees to the island with her three daughters, in search of a home. She doesn’t believe in witches, or dark omens, or hauntings. But within months, her daughter Luna will be the only one of them left.

Twenty years later, Luna is drawn back to the place her family vanished. As the last sister left, it’s up to her to find out the truth . . .

But what really happened at the lighthouse all those years ago?

Ben Aaronovitch presents Book 5.5 in the Rivers of London series.

After I was turned into a Naga by a punch gone wrong, I slithered back to my home and kept to myself. After all, everyone's afraid of snakes—even other monsters.

Then, one day, my front door opens, and in walks the most beautiful creature I've ever seen . . . and she has no idea I'm living here with her.

From what I can tell, she's hiding from something, and she has no idea I'm watching her.

But the longer I wait, the more she makes herself comfortable, and before long, I realize I can't keep hiding in the shadows. She should know while she's buying throw pillows, I'm imagining throwing her over my shoulder.

I'm a monster with primal urges I can't control. I don't want to hurt her, but I also don't want to give her up.

Can this human convince her stalker monster that the age gap between them is just a number and it's no reason to swear off their fated love?

Contains mature themes.

From an author “destined to become a titan of the macabre and unsettling” (Erin A. Craig, #1 New York Times bestselling author), a haunting debut—soon to be a Netflix original movie—about two homeowners whose lives are turned upside down when the house’s previous residents unexpectedly visit.

As a young, queer couple who flip houses, Charlie and Eve can’t believe the killer deal they’ve just gotten on an old house in a picturesque neighborhood. As they’re working in the house one day, there’s a knock on the door. A man stands there with his family, claiming to have lived there years before and asking if it would be alright if he showed his kids around. People pleaser to a fault, Eve lets them in.

As soon as the strangers enter their home, inexplicable things start happening, including the family’s youngest child going missing and a ghostly presence materializing in the basement. Even more weird, the family can’t seem to take the hint that their visit should be over. And when Charlie suddenly vanishes, Eve slowly loses her grip on reality. Something is terribly wrong with the house and with the visiting family—or is Eve just imagining things?

This unputdownable and spine-tingling novel “is like quicksand: the further you delve into its pages, the more immobilized you become by a spiral of terror. We Used to Live Here will haunt you even after you have finished it” (Agustina Bazterrica, author of Tender Is the Flesh).

The apprenticeship is over—now the real test has begun.

When word that Yelena is a Soulfinder—able to capture and release souls—spreads like wildfire, she faces mistrust and fear in Sitia. What’s more, she keeps discovering new, unusual sides of her abilities. As the Council debates Yelena’s fate, she receives a disturbing message: a plot is rising against her homeland, led by a murderous sorcerer she has defeated before…

The road to Ixia is fraught with peril, and sets Yelena on a path that will test the limits of her skills. But the hope of reuniting with her beloved spurs her onward. Along the way, she’ll encounter allies, enemies, lovers and would-be assassins, each of questionable loyalty, and be forced to confront an impossible choice as whispers of war emerge.

Yelena will have but one chance to prove herself—and save the lands she holds dear.

The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake is the runaway TikTok must-listen fantasy novel of the year, read by a full cast of narrators. If you loved Ninth House and A Deadly Education, you’ll love this.

Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction.

Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.

When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations. Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places.

Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind’s deepest secrets. Reina Mori is a naturalist who can perceive and understand the flow of life itself. And Callum Nova is an empath, who can manipulate the desires of others. Finally there’s Tristan Caine, whose powers mystify even himself.

Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society’s London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.

The story continues in The Atlas Paradox, the heart-stopping sequel.

‘Great plot, with lots of wonderful twists! I've already pre-ordered the sequel’ – Listener Review

‘Just wow! The use of words... the thought going into every phrase... the writing in itself is just magical. And... the narrators are brilliant too.' – Listener Review

‘An amazing book by a ridiculously talented writer’ – Listener Review

Originally a self-published sensation, this edition has been fully edited and revised. Now includes the short story Sacred Hospitality.

A gorgeous new fantasy horror – a book about stories and fairy tales with family and love at its dark heart…

A gorgeous new fantasy horror – a book about stories and fairy tales with family and love at its dark heart…

Hidden across England and Scotland live six old Book Eater families.

The last of their lines, they exist on the fringes of society and subsist on a diet of stories and legends.

Children are rare and their numbers have dwindled, so when Devon Fairweather’s second child is born a dreaded Mind Eater – a perversion of her own kind, who consumes not stories but the minds and souls of humans – she flees before he can be turned into a weapon for the family… or worse.

Living among humans and finding prey for her son, Devon seeks a cure for his hunger. But time is running out – for her family want her back, and with every soul her son consumes he loses a little more of himself…

This is a story of escape, a mother’s savage devotion and a queer love that will electrify readers looking for something beguiling, thrilling, strange and new.

Perfect for fans of Neil Gaiman, Susanna Clarke, andLet the Right One In

THE NO. 2 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER ‘I this’ V.E. Schwabdevoured ‘A vampire-themed , with effective thrills that are intensified by social commentary’Handmaid’s TaleGuardian

A man promises to bury his dying friend, but fails to keep his promise. A strange revenge.

Joseph Sheridan Le Faun gave life to the modern ghost story style and inspired the genre's most famous contributor, M. R. James. Gathered together for the first time are Le Fanu's complete ghost stories in 30 extraordinary recordings.

In this classic tale, metaphysical investigator Doctor Martin Hesselius recounts events in the Styrian countryside, in the dark heart of Europe. A lonely young girl longs for the excitement of the town and for congenial company. Fate provides her with a companion in the form of Carmilla, a beautiful and mysterious guest. But their friendship soon becomes a strange obsession whilst the locality is plagued with strange deaths. It is only when a bereaved family friend relates his own history that the malign influence of a vampire is finally revealed.

The recording is accompanied by an eBook essay, reflecting on the story's influences and legacy, written by Le Fanu authority, Jim Rockhill. "

In the vein of The Pisces and The Vegetarian, Chlorine is a debut novel that blurs the line between a literary coming-of-age narrative and a dark unsettling horror tale, told from an adult perspective on the trials and tribulations of growing up in a society that puts pressure on young women and their bodies… a powerful, relevant novel of immigration, sapphic longing, and fierce, defiant becoming.

Ren Yu is a swimmer. Her daily life starts and ends with the pool. Her teammates are her only friends. Her coach is her guiding light. If she swims well enough, she will be scouted, get a scholarship, go to a good school. Her parents will love her. Her coach will be kind to her. She will have a good life.

But these are human concerns. These are the concerns of those confined to land, those with legs. Ren grew up on stories of creatures of the deep, of the oceans and the rivers. Creatures that called sailors to their doom. That dragged them down and drowned them. That feasted on their flesh. The creature that she’s always longed to become: the mermaid.

Ren aches to be in the water. She dreams of the scent of chlorine, the feel of it on her skin. And she will do anything she can to make a life for herself where she can be free. No matter the pain. No matter what anyone else thinks. No matter how much blood she has to spill.

Named as a book to look out for by Guardian, i-D, Autostraddle, Bustle, Good Housekeeping, Stylist and DAZED.

Our Wives Under The Sea is the debut novel from the critically acclaimed author of Salt Slow. It’s a story of falling in love, loss, grief, and what life there is in the deep, deep sea.

Miri thinks she has got her wife back, when Leah finally returns after a deep sea mission that ended in catastrophe. It soon becomes clear, though, that Leah may have come back wrong. Whatever happened in that vessel, whatever it was they were supposed to be studying before they were stranded on the ocean floor, Leah has carried part of it with her, onto dry land and into their home.

To have the woman she loves back should mean a return to normal life, but Miri can feel Leah slipping from her grasp. Memories of what they had before – the jokes they shared, the films they watched, all the small things that made Leah hers – only remind Miri of what she stands to lose. Living in the same space but suddenly separate, Miri comes to realize that the life that they had might be gone.

'Part bruisingly tender love story, part nerve-clanging submarine thriller . . . heart-slicing, cinematic.' - The Times

'A truly monstrous romance' JULIA ARMFIELD, AUTHOR OF OUR WIVES UNDER THE SEA

'An exciting new hybrid horror-romance novel' THE NEW YORK TIMES

'Lesbian pulp meets literary horror' YAEL VAN DER WOUDEN, AUTHOR OF THE SAFEKEEP

‘A heady novel of desire and despair’ – SFX Magazine

A monstrous-yet-sexy queer horror novel guaranteed to keep you up all night...

There is a monster inside of Angelina Sicco. All she wants is to walk her mongrel dog, hold court with her brother in their local dive bar, and bait hot queer women to her sleepy, conservative hometown, Cadenze. The problem is, so does the monster. It wants what Angelina has done, it wants what she’s going to do. It wants to eat her whole life, and every version of every future she might have with it.

Until it possessed her, the famous monster of Cadenze lived deep in a pit inside the mountain. But on the night when Angelina runs into her brother’s ex, the sternly handsome Jagvi, the creature rises hungry and ready to eat. Its claws comb through her private thoughts, her most intimate and traumatic memories. Only Jagvi's touch repels it, but the monster feasts on all the mess that makes up a life, and Angelina Sicco's has never looked tastier. What will Angelina do to protect her future? And just how much will it cost her?

‘Sophisticated and petrifying, it genre splices so well that it's not a splice any more. I've never read anything like it!’ TAMSYN MUIR, AUTHOR OF THE LOCKED TOMB SERIES

'A frightening and sensual exploration of possession and eroticism' ERIC LAROCCA, AUTHOR OF THINGS HAVE GOTTEN WORSE SINCE WE LAST SPOKE

'Beautiful, greedy and terrifying, this book makes an intimate home for itself right alongside your bones' FREYA MARSKE, AUTHOR OF A MARVELLOUS LIGHT

Winner of the 2025 Audie Award for Short Stories/Collections

Includes an afterword written by Stephen King and read by Sean Patrick Hopkins

NAMED A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW TOP 10 HORROR BOOK OF 2024

WINNER OF THE GOODREADS CHOICE AWARD FOR HORROR

“Stephen King knows You Like It Darker and obliges with sensational new tales” (USA TODAY): From legendary storyteller and master of short fiction Stephen King, an extraordinary collection of stories that are “a master class in tension and full of King’s dark humor” (The New York Times Book Review).

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I,” writes Stephen King in the afterword to this magnificent new collection of twelve stories that delve into the darker part of life—both metaphorical and literal. King has, for half a century, been a master of the form, and these stories, about fate, mortality, luck, and the folds in reality where anything can happen, are as rich and riveting as his novels, both weighty in theme and a huge pleasure to read. King writes to feel “the exhilaration of leaving ordinary day-to-day life behind,” and in You Like It Darker, readers will feel that exhilaration too, again and again.

“Two Talented Bastids” explores the long-hidden secret of how the eponymous gentlemen got their skills. In “Danny Coughlin’s Bad Dream,” a brief and unprecedented psychic flash upends dozens of lives, Danny’s most catastrophically. In “Rattlesnakes,” a sequel to Cujo, a grieving widower travels to Florida for respite and instead receives an unexpected inheritance—with major strings attached. In “The Dreamers,” a taciturn Vietnam vet answers a job ad and learns that there are some corners of the universe best left unexplored. “The Answer Man” asks if prescience is good luck or bad and reminds us that a life marked by unbearable tragedy can still be meaningful.

“King’s skills as a storyteller remain undimmed” (The Minnesota Star Tribune) and his ability to surprise, amaze, and bring us both terror and solace is unsurpassed. “The titular darkness promised is as riveting and all-consuming as ever” (New York magazine). You like it darker? You got it.

ORKNEY ISLANDS, 1797 – Agnes Tulloch feels a little cheated. This windswept place is not the island paradise her husband promised it to be when they wed. Now with four young children, she struggles to provide for her family while her husband grows increasingly distant.

When a stranger comes ashore to rent an abandoned cottage, Agnes and the other islanders are abuzz with curiosity. Who is this wealthy foreigner and why on earth would he come to Eynhallow? Her curiosity is soon replaced with vexation when her husband hires her out as cook and washerwoman, leaving Agnes with no say in the matter. Agnes begrudgingly befriends this aristocrat-in-exile; a mercurial scientist who toils night and day on some secret pursuit. Despite herself, she's drawn to his dark, brooding charm. And who is this Byronic stranger sweeping Agnes off her feet? His name is Frankenstein and he's come to this remote isle to fulfill a monstrous obligation.