Time for another indie author highlight. I’m one of those readers who loves to pick up nothing but spooky books in October and I’m already chomping at the bit to find some great reads to have lined up and ready to go. Yes, I’m one of those people who love pumpkin everything and spooky movies and books all October long. Okay I love pumpkin everything year round. Looking for good Halloween reads is how I originally stumbled upon Darcy’s horror and I’ve been reading a book of hers every Halloween since. I wanted to highlight some of my favorite Darcy reads (so far). I’m hoping to dive back into her books this upcoming spooky season.
She only went off the trail for a moment…
22-year-old Eileen goes missing while hiking in the remote Ashlough Forest. Five days later, her camera is discovered washed downriver, containing bizarre photos taken after her disappearance.
Chris wants to believe Eileen is still alive. When the police search is abandoned, he and four of his friends create their own search party to scour the mountain range. As they stray further from the hiking trails and the unsettling discoveries mount, they begin to believe they’re not alone in the forest… and that Eileen’s disappearance wasn’t an accident.
By that point, it’s too late to escape.
What I liked about Hunted: was the mystery of the disappearances and the survival aspects of those in the woods searching for their lost friends. The search kept me on the edge of my seat.
“The dead are restless here…”
Remy is a tour guide for Carrow House, a notoriously haunted building. When she’s asked to host seven guests for a week-long stay to research Carrow’s phenomena, she hopes to finally experience some of the sightings that made the house famous.
At first, it’s everything they hoped for. Then a storm moves in, cutting off their contact with the outside world, and things quickly become twisted. Doors open on their own. Seances go disastrously wrong. Red liquid seeps from behind the wallpaper. Their spirit medium wanders through the house during the night, seemingly in a trance.
Then one of the guests dies under strange circumstances, and Remy is forced to consider the possibility that the ghost of the house’s original owner, a twisted serial killer, still walks the halls.
But by then it’s too late to escape.
What I liked about The Carrow Haunt: I’m a sucker for a haunted house story during October. Something about them just feels nostalgic and I crave them every Halloween. This one hit the spot and as someone who has been on ghost tours I loved having the lead be a ghost tour guide.
Daniel is desperate for a fresh start. So when a mysterious figure slides a note under his door offering the position of groundskeeper at an ancient estate, he leaps at the chance, even though it seems too good to be true. Alarm bells start ringing when he arrives at Craven Manor. The abandoned mansion’s front door hangs open, and leaves and cobwebs coat the marble foyer. It’s clear no one has lived here in a long time…but he has nowhere else to go.
Against his better judgment, he moves into the groundskeeper’s cottage tucked away behind the old family crypt. But when a candle flickers to life in the abandoned tower window, Daniel realizes he isn’t alone after all. Craven Manor is hiding a terrible secret…
One that threatens to bury him with it.
What I liked about Craven Manor: I love cats and stories about crumbling manors. There is no better time to read about either than in October.
Darcy has a lot of haunted house stories that I have to crack into, and I’m hoping to pick one (or two) up this October. Anyone have recommendations on their favorite haunted house book by Darcy Coates?