Add a little fright to your TBR this October

Put the wood in the fireplace, the kettle on the stove, and the eerie rainy café playlist. It’s no mystery that October is the best time for all of the sweaters, knit blankets, candles, and scary reads. Enjoy these top thrillers and spooky tales from classics to modern spine-chilling storytelling on the Libby app. 

Thursday Night Murder Club by Richard Osman

This book was recently adapted into a Netflix series that stars some top British excellence of acting like Helen Miren, Pierce Brosnan, Ben Kingsley, and Celia Imrie. This book follows four friends in a retirement village who feel they are the last to care about their local cold cases. What was once a fun a weekly meeting amongst friends with a shared interest and hobby, becomes an entirely real investigation for this killer quartet. A local, corrupt developer dies under mysterious circumstances, and they have a strong lead on a possible property scheme. Read this book to watch this ragtag group do their best to come together and be the heroes their community needs.

The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

This classic in Late Victoria Gothic folklore has been studied and discussed for over a century. Published in 1894, this novel has inspired many great story teller such as H.P. Lovecraft and Guillermo Del Toro. In this tale, Dr. Raymond experiments with bringing the pagan god of Pan to life. When the experiment goes awry, the Doctor must face the consequences. This title makes for the perfect thriller for this October filled with famous allegorical figures.

The Soho Murder by Mike Hollow

Set in 1940s, crowds gather at St. Paul’s Cathedral in spite of recent air raids that have devastated an already war-torn London. DI John Jago is on the case of dead antiquarian bookseller, who had acquired a mysteriously rare folio prior to his death, when he discovers there is an underworld in Soho of collectors and dealers. Follow DI John Jago on his next investigation in Hollow’s ninth book of the detective series. 

The Woman in the Cabin by Becca Day

For those who love the recent drop on Netflix with Keira Knightly, The Woman in Cabin 10, comes this popular read-alike. Deep in the Scottish Highlands, lays a remote cabin and the plot for our story. In isolated woods, Mary lives each day knowing her only duty is to please her husband when he gets home. She must have dinner made, a smile with lipstick on her face, and be the perfect wife. She has been okay, not content but neither resistant, with living out her role as doting wife until she has noticed ever so slight disdain from Cal. Then she finds some letters from Cals previous wife that she was unaware of, and she begins to question her whole life here with her husband. Can she escape her own reality?

Lot No. 249 by Arthur Conan Doyle

Another Late Victoria Gothic novel that helped shape the entire genre of spooky, this title is the original telling of the mummy. Abercrombie Smith finds himself curiously drawn to his downstairs neighbor, an Egyptian Scholar, who’s apartment is filled to the brim with antiquities. Smith finds himself in danger when one of these antiquities in particular possess a power beyond belief.

*Title availability varies by library.