I am surprised with an uncouth fear:
A chilling sweat o'er-runs my trembling joints...
-William Shakespeare, Titus Andronicus

These terrifying, bone-chilling tales are guaranteed to make you leave the lights on all night! So, get in your bed (the only safe place), pull up your covers, and be prepared to let these authors scare the socks off of you! Several books are highlighted, but be sure to check out all the author has written.

The annotations are courtesy of Book Index with Reviews.

The Hour Before Dark ~ Douglas Clegg
While trying to sort out the problems within their dysfunctional family, the Raglan siblings must now face the brutal murder of their father, Gordie, and return to the childhood home that they desperately wish to forget, where an unimaginable evil waits in the shadows to destroy them.

Haunted ~ Heather Graham
When she is hired by Matt Stone to examine the bizarre happenings at his historic Virginia estate, paranormal investigator Darcy Tremayne discovers that Melody House is filled with great evil, plunging her into a powerful battle between the living and the dead.

The Haunting of Hill House ~ Shirley Jackson
An anthropologist conducts an unusual research project in a reputedly haunted house.

The Turn of the Screw ~ Henry James
The classic ghost story about a high-strung governess and the two young children who may–or may not– be plotting with the diabolical Peter Quint.

Wait for What Will Come ~ Barbara Michaels
When Carla Tregallas inherits a manor house on the stark cliffs of Cornwall, she also inherits a disturbing prophecy–on Midsummer's Eve she will become the bride-in-death of a demon lover from the sea.

The Night Class ~ Tom Piccirilli
When he returns to college after winter break, Cal Prentiss is stunned to discover that someone was brutally murdered in his dorm room while he was gone, and as he sets out to find the truth about the horrible crime, he comes face to face with a dark evil.

In the Night Room ~ Peter Straub
Willy Patrick, an award-winning young-adult novelist, finds her life intersecting with that of a stranger, writer Timothy Underhill, when she experiences an eerie experience involving the death of her daughter and Timothy begins to receive bizarre communications from dead people he had known in his youth.

The School ~ T.M. Wright
Working together to transform an abandoned old public school into a bed-and-breakfast, Frank and Allison Hitchcock soon feel the ghosts of the hallways, including the vengeful spirit of a teacher.

Other Authors You'll Enjoy:
• V.C. Andrews • Clive Barker • Ramsey Campbell
• Simon Clark • Tananarive Due • John Farris
• Charles Grant • James Herbert • M.R. James
• Peter James • Stephen King • Dean R. Koontz
• Richard Laymon • Bentley Little • H.P. Lovecraft
• Dennis McFarland • Edgar Allen Poe • Anne Rice
• John Saul • Joe Schreiber • Whitley Strieber
• Chelsea Quinn Yarbro • F. Paul Wilson • Bari Wood

Updated March 15, 2008